This book aims to look beyond the media rhetoric and provide a systematic analysis of women's everyday experiences of, and responses to gender discrimination in the Indian banking sector. The book shows that in the final analysis, gender inequality is the outcome of several cross-cutting factors, including local discourses on femininity, organisational structures, gendered organisational practices and institutional factors such as government laws.

Supriti Bezbaruah is an independent researcher based in Singapore. She has a PhD in Geography from Queen Mary, University of London; a BA (Hons) degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford; and an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She has previously worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in India, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the United Kingdom and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. Her research interests are centred on gender and development issues, with a particular focus on South Asia.

1. Introduction: Illusion of Equality 2. Gender at Work: Theorizing gender inequality in the workplace 3. Women's Employment in the Banking Sector: An overview 4. Encouraging Equality or Denying Discrimination? Gendered patterns of work and employment in the banking sector in India 5. The Importance of Being Respectable: The impact of local cultural norms on patterns of gender equality 6. Explaining Gender Inequalities in the Indian Banking Sector: The role of institutional factors 7. Challenging or Coping? Women's reponses to gender inequalities in the Indian banking sector 8. Conclusion