Paper long abstract:

Based on narratives of women garment workers (both home and factory based) collected from in-depth interviews conducted in Delhi (India), I will explore the quotidian scripts that take shape in women workers lives, and the roles they have to play in these scripts so that they can achieve a semblance of work-family balance (read sanity). I will also highlight the impact of these scripts on their emotional and physical wellbeing as well as their engagment with 'work'. The intent is to engage with the understanding of these scripts as acts that seen as breaches of the boundaries of gendered discipline, moral order and the inside-outside worlds

The paper will also discuss the impact of these balancing strategies on the lives of the women workers. It will be argued that that the highly adaptable and absorptive natures of the spaces where these strategies are played out obscure the redemptive potential of these acts for the women themselves. The overall focus is to engage with the work-family-gender rights debates and engage with issues of power and identities among women garment workers, especially in a developing country context.

Keywords:

Gender, Garment Workers, Wellbeing, Power, Inclusion-Exclusion, Work-Family-gender rights