Intersecting Realities: Women in Call Centers in Gurgaon India.

In this paper I examine ways in which gender is framed on discourses on the social and cultural implications of call center growth in India. Based on a field study conducted in call centers in Gurgaon, India in the summer of 2005, the paper draws on interviews with 25 call center agents and examines ways in which women experience this work. I argue that there is a universalizing discourse on empowerment, for women that does not adequately account for dimensions of class, nation, and patriarchy. I propose an intersectional approach to examining gender issues and suggest dimensions of class, caste, age, nation and patriarchy which need to be incorporated in understanding the lived experiences of women experiencing processes of globalization. By 2007 India will have one million call center workers mostly predicted to be women. (Nascomm, 2005, Unesco 2003). Addressing the gap that exists in sociological literature on the surge in call centers in India and their implications I call for more attention to these transnational processes. A gender analysis that incorporates an intersectional approach to understanding women's lived experiences is vital to understanding processes of globalization taking place, today ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]