Work and Status

U Kalpagam Women, Work and Society edited by K Saradamoni; Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, 1985; pp 430.
NEARLY six years ago, the Indian Statistical Institute turned fifty. As part of its Golden Jubilee celebration, an international symposium on 'Women, Work and Society' was conducted in September 1982, The volume under review is the collection of papers and the proceedings of that symposium. For those who are surprised at the statisticians, mathematicians and model-builders of ISI evincing interest in such a theme, it needs to be recorded that the ISI has in recent times played host to a number of international seminars in women's studies. The Asian Regional Conference on 'Women and Household' sponsored by the Indian Association of Women's Studies, the International Sociological Association and the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences was also held at the ISI. It has also extended its hospitality to numerous executive committee meetings of the Indian Association of Women's Studies. A book review is not the occasion to thank an institute, but noting these facts will serve an important purpose.