Based on a survey of women workers in Kolkata’s IT sector, this book argues that growth of the IT sector has created a demand for skilled professionals. This has provided scope for highly educated urban women to create a space of self-expression and enjoy enhanced status and prestige within their families. These women workers carefully plan their career and daily activities, keeping in mind the need to balance diverse and conflicting needs of work and home. This kind of decision-making occurs outside the utilitarian framework and is better framed in terms of Herbert Simon’s ‘satisficing’ approach, which takes into account the bounded rationality of agents. Written in lucid, non-technical language, the book will be an invaluable addition to existing works on gender and labour studies and will be of interest to social scientists undertaking research on gender, labour and the IT sector.  

Zakir Husain is Associate Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. After completing his doctorate in resource management, he has worked on education, health and gender issues. He has published extensively in journals like Ecological Economics, Social Indicators Research, Journal of Cultural Heritage and Economic & Political Weekly.

Mousumi Dutta is Associate Professor of Economics in Presidency University, Kolkata. She has worked and published extensively in areas of topical interest like built heritage, health and gender disparities. Her works have appeared in journals like Tourism Management, Journal of Cultural Heritage and Social Indicators Research.