ABSTRACT
Women's problems in new towns are partly due to their being marginalized by and subordinated in the employment system and partly due to their isolation in the home. This chapter starts with a brief discussion of how the ideology of work serves to reinforce women's subordination in the working sphere. It concerns here is how women are affected by conflicting ideologies. The chapter looks at women's experience at work both outside and within Tuen Mun to show how women's marginal position in work is exacerbated by moving to new towns. We have seen how the patriarchal ideology marginalizes women in work by defining women's housework as unproductive and confining women's role to the 'private sphere'. However, it would be wrong to say that women are happy to accept this 'publicprivate' division of social roles. Concerning paid jobs, it is not surprising to see that most women are quite ambivalent since they are under the influence of very conflicting ideologies.
