The uses of education: young women negotiating migration, employment, and romance in Gujarat, India.
This paper draws on a three-year ethnography anchored at a premier pharmacy college in Gujarat to explore the uses of education for academically high-achieving young women, specifically, those who had migrated to attend college. Since migration for education had been reluctantly permitted by familie...
| Published in: | Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 317 - 336 |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Essay |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Apr2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=184036078&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 184036078 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 14649373 B8U jtl: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies issn: 14649373 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2025 vid: 26 iid: 2 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 184036078 10.1080/14649373.2024.2426381 ppf: 317 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 536KB tig: atl: The uses of education: young women negotiating migration, employment, and romance in Gujarat, India. aug: au: Mathew, Leya affil: School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, India su: Education Young women Emigration & immigration Marriage Gujarat (India) sug: subj: Gujarat (India) Education Young women Emigration & immigration Marriage keyword: education Gender labor marriage migration ab: This paper draws on a three-year ethnography anchored at a premier pharmacy college in Gujarat to explore the uses of education for academically high-achieving young women, specifically, those who had migrated to attend college. Since migration for education had been reluctantly permitted by families, the completion of education interrupted women's mobility. Exploitative labor markets and familial control over marriage further attenuated mobility. Differentiated movements followed. Indigenous and rural women continued migration for work. Urban women returned home to work. Very rich women in college romance not sanctioned by the family pursued international migration. But across the differences, there were two similarities. First, women relied on education to transform experiences of stuckedness. Those who pursued employment sought jobs they could frame as a "learning opportunity." Those pursuing love strategized family resources for international migration by cloaking it under education. For academically high-achieving women, reframing employment and romance as educational pursuits legitimized aspiration. Second, the idealized direction of aspiration was entrepreneurial conjugality, not just for romantically committed women. In keeping with the trading histories of the region, Gujarati women hoped to start a family-owned pharmacy after marriage. Community histories both directed women's aspirations and were used by them as strategic resources, but subjectivities attached to education and conjugality gave meaning to im/mobility. I suggest that situating im/mobility in regional histories and personal meaning making can move migration research beyond its transnational mobility bias and feminizing imperatives. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Essay src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|