Abstract
This chapter applies the ‘satisficing’ framework (described in Chap. 3) to women workers in Kolkata’s IT sector. It examines the economic and sociocultural changes shaping the constraints that define which outcomes are satisfactory, and analyses the behavioural patterns of respondents to show—by analysing responses to questionnaire-based interviews and case studies—how women workers successfully balance multiple, conflicting activities and objectives. Their testimony reveals their agency on different fronts; we argue that this agency indicates progress in gender relations.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Social altruism' refers to the norm that assigns women greater responsibility for the care of dependents (Badgett et al. 2001).
- 2.
Such emergencies arise when sudden visitors come, maidservants’ absentee themselves and so on. In such situations, the introduction of electrical appliances facilitating household work becomes important in involving the husband in household chores. For instance, the husband can wash clothes when the maidservant has absented, or heat food simply by turning some knobs.
- 3.
For instance, this study found that in about 44 % households’ cases there were no elderly persons within the family; only 14 % of the households had two elderly members. The family size is quite small, with 74 % of the families having less than 5 members.
- 4.
Names of all respondents have been changed to protect their identity.
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Husain, Z., Dutta, M. (2014). Agency and Satisficing in Kolkata’s IT Sector. In: Women in Kolkata’s IT Sector. SpringerBriefs in Sociology. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1593-6_5
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