How do you see women? And how do they see themselves? In her role as Head Strategist at the world famous advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, author Rachel Pashley decided to find out. In a global survey orchestrated over five years, over 8,000 women responded, aged seventeen to seventy across 19 countries. The results make fascinating reading. Working with the results, Pashley defines four key 'female tribes: Alphas (focusing on achievement and career); Hedonists (focused on pleasure and self-development); Traditionalists (women whose chief focus is home and children); Altruists (women who focus on community and environment). She also asked about women's values and measures of success. Interestingly, those with more assertive values came from India and Saudi Arabia, while measures of success the world over did not necessarily include marriage or children. As women become more and more empowered, politically and economically, it is clear that their lot is changing across the globe. This book will prove essential reading to all those who seek to better understand women's dreams, ambitions and goals.

Discusses the position of women in the adivasi (tribal) communities of the Jharkhand region in Northeastern India.

Contributed articles.

Despite 58 years experimentation with the policy of protective discrimination and planned development a large majority of the 80.2 million tribal people languish in abject poverty, landlessness, powerlessness, illiteracy and malnutrition. Being caught in the hangover of the strong patriarchic tradition the women of nearly 700 marginalized tribal communities find themselves highly exploited, subjugated and voiceless. The present book, first of its kind on tribes living in northern districts of West Bengal (popularly known as North Bengal), explores the areas of subjugation of tribal life and particularly that of the tribal women and analytically presents the case of tribal women in a tea garden locale in the Dooars region of Jalpaiguri district. The focus of the study has been education, i.e. how the tribes in general and tribal women in particular are doing in the field of education. The field of education is chosen because it is generally considered the most important force of empowerment, enlightenment and social transformation and because it provides us with a field to explore the areas of gender discrimination subsumed in tribal patriarchy. The book has approached the problem of tribal education and the gender question in education against the backdrop of the dialectics of dominant-subordinate relationship between the state and the dominant society on the one hand and the marginalized tribes on the other. The uniqueness of the book lies in its critical approach to the state-sponsored development strategies and its emphasis on a ‘cultural approach’ for a better understanding of the problem and for working out alternative development strategies for improving the educational status of the tribal communities. Sanjay K. Roy, Reader, Department of Sociology, North Bengal University, West Bengal, had his Ph. D. from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, and pursued post-Doctoral research at the University of Sussex (UK) and University of Wollongong (Australia). Dr Roy has edited a volume on Refugees and Human Rights (2001) and contributed a good number of research papers to the leading journals, volumes and to national and international seminars/workshops. His areas of interest include sociological theories, urban poor, refugee studies, political sociology and gender studies. Dr Roy has completed a number of research projects; the latest being Gender Profile of Tribes of North Bengal, which has been carried out for the Centre for Women’s Studies, North Bengal University.

Of late, politics of the 'self' and the 'other' has been the subject of much academic debate in the study of subaltern identities. This debate addresses several questions: What is an identity? How are subaltern identities different from others? How is the 'self' contested with the 'other'? Keeping these questions in mind, caste, tribe, and gender have all arisen from a redrawing of 'otherness' and everyday experiences in society. In this context, this book explores the nature of social subordination and its diverse forms of subordinations in the study of structural hegemony, which exists in different forms in Indian society. The interface between contemporary state and social identities on the one hand, and relationships among the self identities on the other, provide the context within which social hegemony is practiced. Social marginalization, contestation, and discrimination has existed in Indian society since time immemorial, but the rise of self-respect movements and the social network revolution after the 1980s heralded major changes in social identity movements. Questions around gender have also attracted a lot of attention, particularly because of the rise of the feminist movement in the post-independence period. Women have also been involved in collective actions with their own agenda, leadership, ideologies, and organizations. This book is divided into four thematic sections: Politics of Self and Other; Caste and Tribe; Gender; and Other Marginal Identities and Politics. [Subject: Sociology, Politics, South Asian Studies, Gender Studies]

Theda Perdue examines the roles and responsibilities of Cherokee women during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time of intense cultural change. While building on the research of earlier historians, she develops a uniquely complex view of the effects of contact on Native gender relations, arguing that Cherokee conceptions of gender persisted long after contact. Maintaining traditional gender roles actually allowed Cherokee women and men to adapt to new circumstances and adopt new industries and practices.