Women Volunteers in India and the U.S.: Between Activism and Complicity

By Amanda L. Stephens

This book examines how women are entrenched in patriarchal structures in ways that push them to perpetuate their own and other women's subordination, even if they may be fighting for equality at the same time. The author looks at the Indian context, where caste systems add a socioeconomic layer to the system of subordination and, through case studies, explores how women maneuver the limitations placed upon them by these structures in ways that push them to reiterate these structures and stereotypes. Between 2017-2018, the author conducted interviews with 20 urban, well-off Indian women volunteers-privileged women trying to eliminate women's inequality-in the profoundly patriarchal state of Rajasthan, India, in addition to ethnographic observations of their work. The author compares her findings with literature and three interviews with comparable women in the American context to explore transnational similarities and differences. What emerges is a nuanced pictures of the ways in which (some) women continue to be invested in patriarchal systems, though not necessarily by choice. The author concludes that recognition of women's complicity and empathy for their entanglements are crucial to truly effecting change.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1666964611
• ISBN13: 9781666964615
• Release Date: June 2027
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"