Marriage the family and women in India/ by V.V.Prakasa Rao, V. Nandini Rao

Marriage, The Family and Women in India is primarily concerned with the extent and nature of change in arranged marriages, ideal age at marriage, the dowry system, endoga mous and exogamous marriage pre ferences for the family system, fami listic value orientation, employed mothers' role, and life styles of emp ployed and non-employed mothers.

Since Independence of India, legisla tion affecting the dowry system, employment opportunities for women, age at marriage and kinship marriages continues to have profo und influence on various aspects of family life industrialization, modern ization, urbanization, educational and occupational opportunities, mobility patterns and other social forces have challenged the tradi tional conceptions of family life. The study reveals that various dim ensions of family system are neither affected completely nor untouched by the tremendous changes occuringin the society. An ambivalent attitude is also found with respect to the dowry system as expectations are high and practices are still prevalent while the attitude toward the importance of dowry is negative. Data for the study were collected over a period of time from college students as well as employed mothers and their sisters