Swethaa S Ballakrishnen - Accidental Feminism
b"In the 20th episode, I speak to Swetha S Ballakrishnen, Assistant Professor of Law, UC Irvine on their recent book\\xa0Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility among India's Professional Elite published by Princeton University Press in January 2021. The book explores the\\xa0unintentional production of seemingly feminist outcomes in India, focusing on elite law firms that offer an oasis for women in a largely hostile, predominantly male industry. Using interviews, Accidental Feminism unpacks how several structural conditions - gender socialization and essentialism, family structures and care networks and firm and regulatory histories have interacted to provide certain incidental benefits to women lawyers at elite law firms in India. The conversation begins by probing how Ballakrishnen found this subject and issue to cover as a sociologist. Next, we zero in on the core argument and why it was important to uncover these structural conditions to make sense of the driving puzzle before moving to cover each condition - effects of India's liberalization on the changing legal landscape, rise of elite institutions that train India's lawyers, impact of gendered frameworks, various organizational pressures that compel law firms to prioritize merit and family/social care networks that support women as they focus on their professional lives. The conversation ends by tackling some larger questions including whether feminism can be ever 'accidental' and if these elite women lawyers could withstand and overcome India's majoritarian turn.\\nNotes\\nAccidental Feminism - Princeton University Press"