Swethaa Ballakrishnen, University of California: Accidental Feminism

The Sociology and Social Anthropology Seminar Series, invites you to listen to Swethaa Ballakrishnen, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, who will be visiting us at the Department of Sociology in Lund.

Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India’s Professional Elite

In India, elite law firms offer a surprising oasis for women within a hostile, predominantly male industry. Less than 10 percent of the country’s lawyers are female, but women in the most prestigious firms are significantly represented both at entry and partnership. Elite workspaces are notorious for being unfriendly to new actors, so what allows for aberration in certain workspaces?
 
Drawing from observations and interviews with more than 130 elite professionals, Accidental Feminism examines how a range of underlying mechanisms—gendered socialization and essentialism, family structures and dynamics, and firm and regulatory histories—afford certain professionals egalitarian outcomes that are not available to their local and global peers. Juxtaposing findings on the legal profession with those on elite consulting firms, Swethaa Ballakrishnen reveals that parity arises not from a commitment to create feminist organizations, but from structural factors that incidentally come together to do gender differently. Simultaneously, their research offers notes of caution: while conditional convergence may create equality in ways that more targeted endeavors fail to achieve, “accidental” developments are hard to replicate, and are, in this case, buttressed by embedded inequalities. Ballakrishnen examines whether gender parity produced without institutional sanction should still be considered feminist. In offering new ways to think about equality movements and outcomes, Accidental Feminism forces readers to critically consider the work of intention in progress narratives.
 
About the book Accidental Feminism on press.princeton.edu

About Swethaa Ballakrishnen on swethaa.com

Please note this seminar is on a Tuesday (24/5).

The Seminar Series

The Sociology and Social Anthropology Seminar Series (Allmänna seminariet) invites international and national researchers to present and discuss on-going research. The seminars are usually held on Thursday afternoons at 3.00 pm. Each presenter talks for about half an hour, followed by 30 minutes of discussion.

Find more research seminars in this series this spring at soc.lu.se/en/research.