Introduction

The book offers one of the first detailed studies of South Asian women, it provides new empirical data on the issues apparent in South Asian women''s lives by giving voice to a group of women who would otherwise remain silent.

Methodology and Focus

It is based upon an ethnographic study of a small South Asian community in an inner city. The book offers a new and compelling account of South Asian women, as well as focussing on the ways in which gender and race interact in women’s lives.

Theoretical Contributions

The book offers an important theoretical contribution to the area of feminist theory. The concept of patriarchy is contested and reworked and applied to the study of South Asian women and their cultural experiences.

Practices and Influences

In this sense, practices such as arranged marriages, dowries, domestic labour and domestic finance are analyzed as different influences of patriarchy inside the household, as well as education and the labour market as influences of patriarchy outside the household.