URBAN WORKING WOMEN 133 The early impact of western capitalism on Indian society had some progressive features in the form, for instance, of movements against sati and child marriage. But modern capitalism can only show us the image of woman pushed back to the hearth, brought into public life only to be degraded as a commercial object. Modern imperialism strangles the life of our economy, so that the oldest forms of subjugation of women also thrive at the same time. 1 Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Moscow 1968, p 158. 2 Wally Secombe, "Housework under Capitalism", New Left Review 83, January-February 1974. B 8 D R Gadgil, Women in the Working Force in India, 1963. 4 Towards Equality, a Government of India report on the Status of Women in India, December 1974. 6 Census of India, 1971, Poona District Census Handbook.