98 SOCIAL SCIENTIST and work are running themes in this volume, mediated as they are by caste, religion and culture. This volume is a departure from the marriage and kinship oriented studies of the past on family, and the material basis of women's oppression. The emphasis is pn different kinds of family structures providing differing degrees of space and authority to women, while denying that the family arrangement is natural or biological in a timeless way; that sexual division and its consequent male/female spheres is ahistorical and that for women the domestic sphere is a haven rather than the seat of oppression. Krishnaraj points to the mix of subsistence production and market production as a process related to the reproduction of social production which is based on the reproduction of human beings. The growth of the informal sector is evidence of this even as third world countries industrialise. This takes place within structural/cultural parameters. Socialisation therefore becomes an explanatory concept of subordination within the household. The myth of the nuclear family as a child of industrial capitalism is also refuted, as a dysfunctional consequence of the impact of change on the female support structure. Krishnaraj takes a correct position on development, where the sexual division of labour channelises men into commodity production and women into subsistence, thereby widening the gap. 'Women tend to select themselves out' and the resultant situation is one of simultaneous cooperation and conflict. She sees in this situation a profound ambivalence and one wishes her analysis had led to more positive conclusions for the Asian woman and the household. What seems to hold back a full-throated cry for empowerment is analysis of landowning and landless women in Kerala, where even access to property and earnings do not guarantee autonomy. Chanana's introduction to the gender dimension of health is a plea to the policy maker to be sensitised to the social and economic dimension of women, not as individuals but as members of the household. The discussion begins with whdt she calls the 'survival paradox' where women have to bear children (as more hands) and childcare is given at the cost of the mother. Factors like unequal benefits from increased income are reflected in the varying rate of female mortality. The four papers in this section do not tackle Banerji's approach or the overall dynamics of the problem, they present only issues concerning women's health and nutrition in relation to state policies and programmes in India and Bangladesh. Chatterji discusses accessibility of health care in rural areas, and nutritional deficiencies of women due both to tradition and illiteracy. These have an impact on family health as well. Therefore the policy maker is called upon to change the target orientation to the household where women hold the key to health and nutrition. This would overcome the imposition of women's seclusion. Islam graphically illustrates this view for Bangladesh. Further care must be underlined with competence which calls for an integrated approach to