“Spoiled Sons” and “Sincere Daughters”: Schooling, Security, and Empowerment in Rural West Bengal, India

Dia Da Costa

Global Development Studies
Queen’s University

• I am very grateful to the editorial and review team at Signs, who gave this article such a careful read and responded with so many excellent suggestions. Many thanks to Craig Jeffrey and Rebecca Klenk for their critical insights into the argument presented here and for help with reorganizing this essay. This paper was presented at the South Asia Speaker Series at Syracuse University on February 7, 2006, and I thank in particular Ann Gold and Prema Kurien for their invitation and lively response. I thank Alex Da Costa and Karuna Morarji, who have read many versions of this article and helped me clarify the argument. My deepest gratitude to my friends at Jana Sanskriti, who made it all possible through their thoughts, energy, generosity, and insightful critiques aimed at keeping me honest. This research was conducted with research grants from the Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.