This ambitious book provides a theoretical interpretation of the rapidly changing economic conditions in contemporary Asia and their consequences for women. It is based on field research and data on the labouring conditions of women workers and peasant women in India, Bangladesh and Japan, combined with a broad comparative study of currents in international feminism.

The author first locates present-day feminist debates in the context of the intellectual controversies on labour which accompanied the growth of social and women workers' movements in 19th century and early 20th century Europe. He then highlights the labour conditions in the readymade garments industry - a key sector in many Asian economies - and provides a wide-ranging overview of the processes of agrarian modernization and their impact on rural women. Finally, he offers an original interpretation of Japanisation, and uses both Marxist and feminist concepts to explain why the state has promoted the employment of middle-aged women as part-time wage labourers.

Peter Custers re-asserts the relevance of Marxist concepts for understanding processes of socio-economic change, but arguers forcefully that these concepts need to be enlarged to include the perspectives of feminist theoreticians. In this process, he assesses the theoretical relevance of several currents in international feminism, including ecofeminism, the German feminist school and socialist feminism. This important book will interest all those involved in women's studies, social movements, economics, sociology and social and economic theory.