Sellers and Servants: Working Women in Lima, Peru

(Hardback)

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In this major study of poor working women in a third world urban market, the authors expode several assumptions held by agencies working in developing countries. By talking with poor women about their life histories, they found, for example, that there is neither individual nor intergenerational mobility; that poor women are the children of poor parents and that their own children can hardly even hope to move up to a factory job, let alone a white-collar job. They also find that this group of marginal poor women is increasing and not, as current wisdom would have, being absorbed into the modern sector of the economy.

Reviews

The role of women in Third World economies is now coming under intense scrutiny. This detailed survey of migrant women in Lima is a fine example of such new research. Well written, based on extensive survey data, and including excellent photographs, the book details the role of migrant women in the servant and street-seller class. Bunster and Chaney's claim--that migration for these women does not bring mobility or lowered fertility--is controversial.... The story of these desperately poor but proud women is told with sympathy and understanding. This is a work as useful to undergraduates as it is to advanced students.-Choice
"The role of women in Third World economies is now coming under intense scrutiny. This detailed survey of migrant women in Lima is a fine example of such new research. Well written, based on extensive survey data, and including excellent photographs, the book details the role of migrant women in the servant and street-seller class. Bunster and Chaney's claim--that migration for these women does not bring mobility or lowered fertility--is controversial.... The story of these desperately poor but proud women is told with sympathy and understanding. This is a work as useful to undergraduates as it is to advanced students."-Choice

Author Bio

nster /f Ximena ney /f Elsa /i M.