Globalisation, Information Technology and Asian Indian Women in US

The experiences recounted in this essay of Asian Indian women on an H-1B or H 4 visa highlight the deepening contradiction between economic restructuring and the emancipatory potential it offers women in the labour market. The women respondents in this study are either confined to the domestic sphere in conformance to ideals of 'Hindu' motherhood or suffer from the assumption of the labour market that an ideal worker has no family - an assumption that makes their software programmer husbands in contrast rise to dizzying heights in their profession. What emerges in turn is the perpetuation of masculinity myths and gender stereotypes in guiding behavioural and thought patterns even in a hi-tech sector as the software industry.