ABSTRACT
This chapter draws upon fieldwork done in Indian Punjab between 2006 and 2008. The focus of the fieldwork is on two educational institutions. The first is a public school which takes children from kindergarten to grade twelve. The second is a women's college which enrols approximately 1,500 women between the ages of 18 and 21. While academic and popular discourse tend to view son preference in Punjab as a 'woman's issue', little has been written about how women's views about son preference relate to and impact upon how it circulates within contemporary society. Far from being absent or silent, women and girls have a lot to say about their lives and gendered worlds, having many tools of expression and voice at their disposal in doing so. The contested nature of women's education shows how it operates as both a means of access to the public space as well as an opportunity to receive training and potential professional opportunities.
