Writing the Women’s Movement: A Reader

This collection seeks to provide a synoptic representation of women’s studies in India as it has developed since the late nineteen-seventies and early eighties. Following the women’s movement, there has been a virtual information explosion in this field, which has expanded enormously within the academic framework of the social sciences as well as the spheres of policy-making and advocacy.

Writing the Women’s Movement: A Reader aims at consolidating some of this knowledge, and the research and policy perspectives offered, into a curriculum not only for the teaching of women’s studies, but also as an introductory text for the interested reader. It represents the work of several women’s studies scholars such as Vina Mazumdar, Lotika Sarkar, Shohoni Ghosh, Zoya Hasan, Ratna Sudarshan, Ratna Kapur and others. The themes covered include the women’s movement in India, the legal framework, women in politics, educational intervention, women’s encounters with violence, women in the family, women’s sexuality and women’s work.

MALA KHULLAR is a freelance consultant and has worked with the Asian Centre for Women’s Studies, EWHA Women’s University, Seoul; the Aga Khan Foundation, New Delhi; Bernard Van Leer Foundation, the Hague; and the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi.