"Examining how gender enables the globalization of markets and how emerging forms of service labor are changing women’s social status in China, this book reveals the forms of social inequality produced by shifts in the economy. No longer working for the common good as defined by the socialist state, service workers are catering to the individual desires of consumers. This economic transition ultimately affords a unique opportunity to investigate the possibilities and current limits for better working conditions for the young women who are enabling the development of capitalism in China."

Winner of the 2013 Distinguished Book Award, sponsored by the ASA Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender

Stanford University Press, 232 pages