Bargaining with Patriarchy: In her article Deniz Kandiyoti discusses the ways in which women strategize within concrete

constrains. According to her patriarchy is an overused term, which has a monolithic conception of male domination. This conception hides rather than reveal the inner life process of women. In order to overcome this problem she proposes the term patriarchal constraints, which exists in all societies and it varies owing to its ties with class, caste and ethnicity. These bargains exert powerful pressure on womens life and also shape gender conceptions. They also shape the forms of resistance that women would put forth. In order to elucidate more on the concept of patriarchal constraints, Kandiyoti looks into societies of Sub Saharan Africa, Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. Firstly while discussing the sub-Saharan case she states that here the issue of land ownership and gender issue are inextricably linked. Here in some countries like Gambia women have their own plot of land and men had to pay their wives wages to have access to their labour. However the new projects implemented by the Government only favored men as credit for farming was provided only to the men. Thus, in many places women resisted such projects through collective actions. Thus, Kandiyoti argues that many studies have pointed out that in many places womens autonomous status were corroded with the advent of colonialism. Here in the case of Gambia the new projects laid emphasis on male headed corporate family and thus undermined the position of women vis--vis the maternal elements in the society. Secondly, she discusses the case of women within the Classic patriarchy. Here the core of the system lies in patrilocally extended households, with the sole authority resting on the hands of the eldest male member. The elementary aspects of this system are i) girls are given away in marriage at a very young age, ii) total break with her own kin group, iii) payment of dowry. Here the bride enters her husbands household as a disposed individual. The system appropriates both womens labour and progeny. It also works in close association institutions like caste and class. Thus, unlike in sub-Saharan Africa women in classic patriarchy try to adhere to the rules and adopt interpersonal strategies that maximize their security. Thirdly according to Kandiyoti, the classic patriarchy could be changed with the changes in the material domain of life. The material domain changes bring about large scale changes in the life of the society and thus corrode classic patriarchy. The breakdown of classic patriarchy results in the emancipation of younger men from their fathers and subsequently leading to the emancipation of women from the control of mother-in-laws. However, according to her women often resist change because they see the old order slipping away from them without any positive alternative. Looking at this phenomenon she asserts that women resist change not because it is a false consciousness but because such changes threatens the partial interest of women. Thus in many instance women react in a conservative fashion, as it does not provide for a secure and positive alternative. However, despite all odds many feminists have raised strong movements against the patriarchal structures, and in many ways women have adopted alternative strategies like, i) they have chosen either to get out and fight for equality or ii) to stay home and attempt to bind men more tightly to them. Looking at all these issues Kandiyoti suggest that womens strategies can provide clear insights on the nature of patriarchal system in different cultures. It also throws light on the how men and women, resist, accommodate, and adapt to each other and to resources, rights and responsibility. For her womens strategies are influenced and shaped by patriarchal bargains which define, limit and inflect

womens options. It shapes womens unconscious aspects and their subjectivity. Therefore, she argues that in order to understand womens resistance we have to understand the nature of patriarchal bargains rather than mere patriarchy. So for her new strategies of resistance do not emerge from the old structures, but has to be created anew through political and personal struggles. Cartographies of Struggle Abena P. A Busia. In her review of the book Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism edited by Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russ and Lourdes Torces Bloomington, Busia states that the book is a collection of essays which deals exclusively with colonization and resistance with cross-cutting themes of International Womens movement. It also deals with struggles of women in third world against transnational corporations and economic and political hegemony. She discusses the essay by Mohanty who tries to locate the third world within history and politics. She tries to question the comfort zone from where we all think about social issues, and provide a way to question our own locations as scholars and researchers. In the same vein Busia also discusses the essay by Barbara Smith The Truth that Never Hurts, where she probes into the whole discourse surrounding lesbianism. Busia also discusses the essay by Jacqui Alexander Redrafting Morality where she talks about 1986 Sexual Offences Bill of Trinidad and Tobago. She discusses the contents of the bill and details the layers of langue of the bill and the debates that followed. She shows how the bill was debated in the public arena. According to her the bill reflected hierarchies and power, thus at last the new law passed did not carry the provisions enshrined in the bill. It unprotected the very people it deemed to protect. Busia also discusses the essay by Ray Chow Violence in the Other Country: China as crisis, Spectacle and Women where she questions the subject position of women vis--vis herself as a Western European Women. After discussing all these essays Busia concludes her essay by stating that the book engages us as readers and it constantly shifts grounds by questioning the very idea of other, being other as otherly others. It thus makes us recognize complicities, claim different subjectivities.