ABSTRACT
The ongoing discussion on inclusive social policy repeatedly brings equity issues for women to the fore and India is no exception. Very often naively conceptualised notions about women’s access to education and income generation are seen as translating into overall empowerment for them, including their status in the family. This is done without much attention to evidence in literature pointing otherwise (Cornwell and Chou 1986; Hull 1979; Sharma 1980) at the expense of women’s contested location in the family vis-à-vis their male counterparts. Research shows how gender relations are undergoing transformation in favour of women in public spheres and still maintain zealous resistance to any change in private domains (Raju 2005c).
