"This book is the outcome of a field study carried out by the author in Comilla during 1979 and 80. Ms. Kirsten Westergaard empirically studied the situation of rural women in reference to two particular villages in Bangladesh. Patterns and nature of their functions, their low-profile in household decision-making, the agonies of the dowry system, restriction on their exposure to strangers, inadequate recognition of their unencashable but essential contributions in the process of production and income, the uninsured status of their security and their general state of backwardness have been painstakingly and sympathetically presented."--Page [i].