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Accidental feminism : gender parity and selective mobility among India's professional elite / Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen.

By: Ballakrishnen, Swethaa S, 1982- [author.]Material type: TextTextPublication details: Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2021. Edition: Simultaneous cloth and paperbackDescription: 267 p. ; 24 cmISBN: 9780691213606; 9780691182537Subject(s): Lawyers -- IndiaLOC classification: KNS53.3 | B355 2021Summary: "In India, elite law firms are a surprising oasis for women within a hostile, predominantly male industry. Only about 10% of all lawyers in the country are female, but women in the biggest and most prestigious law firms are significantly represented both at entry level and in more senior levels of partnership. What is more, many women in these firms reportedly do not feel gender discrimination within their subjective environments. In this book, Swethaa Ballakrishnen argues that this unexpected gender parity is not a result of any direct efforts by the firms, but rather a result of structural changes that level the playing field for women Swethaa Ballakrishnen spent four years collecting information from 130 professionals about this unexpected parity. She explores how the emergence of the Indian elite law firm has been uniquely shaped by the novelty of the work and organizational structure, and ultimately shows how traditional international assumptions of gender and the ideal worker have been transformed. This equality distinguishes elite law firm interactions from those found in other elite professional space. The book also highlights the ways in which this unprecedented success for Indian middle-class women in the workforce depends on two existing inequalities in the grander Indian system: a caste-dependent labor force that supplied affordable housework support and childcare, as well as a penultimate generation of close female family members. Ballakrishnen argues that these conditions converge to create gender parity in ways that more targeted endeavours have failed to achieve. Accidental Feminism finds that gender egalitarian outcomes can be created and supported without intention, and that these forms of unintended equality are often strengthened by other inequalities and mechanisms of stratification"-- Provided by publisher.
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"In India, elite law firms are a surprising oasis for women within a hostile, predominantly male industry. Only about 10% of all lawyers in the country are female, but women in the biggest and most prestigious law firms are significantly represented both at entry level and in more senior levels of partnership. What is more, many women in these firms reportedly do not feel gender discrimination within their subjective environments. In this book, Swethaa Ballakrishnen argues that this unexpected gender parity is not a result of any direct efforts by the firms, but rather a result of structural changes that level the playing field for women Swethaa Ballakrishnen spent four years collecting information from 130 professionals about this unexpected parity. She explores how the emergence of the Indian elite law firm has been uniquely shaped by the novelty of the work and organizational structure, and ultimately shows how traditional international assumptions of gender and the ideal worker have been transformed. This equality distinguishes elite law firm interactions from those found in other elite professional space. The book also highlights the ways in which this unprecedented success for Indian middle-class women in the workforce depends on two existing inequalities in the grander Indian system: a caste-dependent labor force that supplied affordable housework support and childcare, as well as a penultimate generation of close female family members. Ballakrishnen argues that these conditions converge to create gender parity in ways that more targeted endeavours have failed to achieve. Accidental Feminism finds that gender egalitarian outcomes can be created and supported without intention, and that these forms of unintended equality are often strengthened by other inequalities and mechanisms of stratification"-- Provided by publisher.

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