Peter Custers. Capital Accumulation & Women's Labour in Asian Economics.

Malik, Afia

Peter Custers. Capital Accumulation & Women's Labour in Asian Economics. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1997. 401 pages. Hardbound, Indian Rs 260.00.

Women have played a crucial role in the process of capital accumulation in Asian countries. Highlighting the experience of three Asian countries, India, Bangladesh, and Japan, combined with the readings of the economic evolution in other parts of Asia, this study provides a theoretical interpretation of the rapidly changing economic conditions in Asia and their consequences for women.

The author brings into focus the key issues in the debate on woman labour force that has accompanied successive movements for women's liberation in European countries. The three major topics discussed are: the nature of production relations in the ready-made garments sector, focusing on the garments sectors of the Indian state of West

Bengal and Bangladesh; agricultural modernisation and its socioeconomic and environmental effects on women; the labour management strategies applied by Japanese corporations to achieve maximum control of their work force. The author discusses the original interpretation of 'Japanisation' and uses both marxist and faminist concepts to explain why the state (Japan) has promoted the employment of middle-aged women as part-time wage labourers.

In the concluding chapter, the author confirms the importance of key Marxist concepts and, at the same time, proposes an extension of the Marxist economic theory with concepts proposed by various feminist theoretician--developmental feminism, ecofeminism, the German feminist school, and the socialist feminism. This theoretical book is an interesting contribution in the field of women's studies mainly.

By Afia Malik, Research Economist, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad.