In each chapter we have examined the multi-faceted consequences of urbanization on a specific group of women, the price paid and the rewards earned. However, three main themes have emerged from our research. The first is that gender is embedded in social transformative processes such as urbanization, but how women and men participate and experience such forces is often uneven across class, ethnicity, age, marital status and location. One thing is clear, it is more difficult for the poor, lowly educated rural migrant women who are mainly the subjects of this book, to negotiate this terrain of change than their better educated middle-class, urban sisters. The second theme is that although new opportunities for women arise, pre-existing gender inequality such as poverty, economic exploitation and discrimination is often exacerbated by rapid social change. The third theme is that elderly village mothers and city daughters who face insurmountable obstacles often must turn to their poverty-stricken families for support. The inadequacy of state intervention to ensure the survival of these fragile families is pivotal to women's experiences of the disempowering aspects of macro-structural changes.

Single women enjoy greater mobility and therefore expanded employment opportunities in the cities than their married sisters who remain in the village. However, in a gender-segmented labour market, women with low education and limited marketable skills find themselves at a disadvantaged position in comparison to their brothers in the same strata. Women earn less, have lower occupational mobility and experience more discrimination. In addition, they suffer greater sexual vulnerability in the urban courtship game. When they marry and have children, new dependencies are created when they have to withdraw from the labour market and become family caretakers. If their marriage or relationship fails, unemployment and low wages translate into poverty for single mothers. It is pertinent to add here that the vulnerability of women in marriages or liaisons in recent times is also a consequence of urbanization and men's greater labour mobility.