Working the Night Shift: Women in India’s Call Center Industry Paperback – Illustrated, March 25, 2010

Will be back

Well written account of challenges and opportunities for women working in call centers that delivers a depressing dose of reality. I grew up in India and have not lived then for over a decade. Reading this book reminded me again of why I left and how hard it is to change traditional attitudes towards women in India. The tragedy is that modern tools are now used to enforce and reinforce regressive patriarchal traditions.

A feminist theorist working somewhere between geography and anthropology, Patel explores how gender roles change in response to the economic opportunities brought about by globalization. The book seizes our attention by exposing a series of unexpected transformations in workplace roles created by the expansion of call centers in India: First, there is the "temporal imperialism" resulting from the simple fact that to make use of their relatively cheap labor, call centers servicing North America must do their work during the North American day; second, there is the fact that what are low-wage day shift call center jobs in the U.S. become high-wage night shift jobs in India("high-wage" relatively to Indian pay scales,of course); third, since the call center workers must speak "good" English, the employees must be relatively well-educated--meaning that these young workers almost always come from the middle class; fourth, these middle class workers, if they are women, are exactly the women who traditionally are not supposed to go out by themselves at night, much less work at night--the night, even more so than the public streets, "belongs" to males, and only poor, disreputable women "belong" to the night!I have used this book as an ethnography in an International Baccalaureate course this past year, and I know my students have found it engaging and easy to relate to a whole range of issues in social and cultural change caused by globalization.

Thanks for sharing with me your book. Besides the fact that you were able to present your academic research in a well-written document that was easy to read, I found it profound, challenging, moving, and humanly inspiring. I sensed deep reflection that touched your inner-depth that allowed you to see call center employment as a place with the "potential to reshape individuals perceptions about themselves and of the community that surrounds them."Your book opened my curiosity to, hopefully, keep a deep conversation somehow in the near future.

Reena Patel's book gives great insight into an industry and culture that, despite its rising popularity, has an air of mystery about it. Through her words and research, I learned a great deal about the world of call centers and found interesting that much of India's population still retains an ultra-conservative approach to women in society. The struggles that women have in a world that relies on their ability to duck conventional norms could not be accurately portrayed without the thoughtful analysis by Patel. I would highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to learn more about the call center industry and a women's purgatorial place in society and that industry.

Ms. Reena Patel's book is compelling. It is eye-opening, not only into the world of the call center industry, it's impact on India's cultural perception of women and the complex struggles they face, but opens the door to the untold realities of the effects of our global economy on a personal level. Kudos to Ms. Patel for making the reality of the call center industry in India and women's sacrifices our reality as well.

This book grants a very good insight and analysis of the call centre industry in India and how global division of labour effects the lives of people, particularly women, in often unexpected and paradox ways. Patel shows in her book that against popular belief education and higher income does not automatically empower women or improve their status in a given society. Invisible powers like strong patriarchal structures make it very difficult for women to break free from strongly entrenched gender roles. This book gives an fascinating account about the experiences of various women and how they deal with these challenges. Having myself worked in this industry in Mumbai I can fully relate to what Patel is writing about and can only but recommend this book!