ABSTRACT
The outcome of the public debate on the role of Bengali women in the closing decades of the nineteenth, and for at least the next four decades of the twentieth century, was essentially conservative. While the public debate tended to be dominated by the assumption of an inherent inequality between the sexes which rendered women unfit for the world of employment, there were women and men who challenged this. The chapter deals with how contemporary women view some aspects of their situation both as members of families and as wage workers, how their paid work is accommodated within the family and what employment means to them. It considers employed women’s involvement in existing labour organizations and to what extent these are felt to recognize or cater to employed women’s priorities. Employment has been accommodated by most families and the opinions of some have been disregarded by the women themselves.
