Women, Poverty and Ideology in Asia

This book addresses itself to the relationship between the ideological and material which has long occupied a primary place in Marxist scholarship and is seen to be of central importance to feminist analysis. This book looks at some aspects of the debate in the context of Asia. In particular, it examines the role that ideology can play both as a disabling and an enabling factor in the lives of women seeking to earn a livliehood for themselves and their families under conditions of poverty. The case studies relate to a mixed set of Asian countries, with an associated diversity of cultural and economic conditions. Haleh Afshar is also editor of "Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil", "Women and Ideology" and "Women, State and Ideology". Bina Agarwal is editor of "Structures of Patriarchy: State, Community and Household in Modernising Asia" and author of "Mechanisation in Indian Agriculture" and "Cold Hearths and Barren Slopes: The Woodfuel Crisis in the Third World".