India, Oct. 11 -- 1How are middle-class women at the forefront of mediating a new class politics? In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion about an emerging "new middle class" in India. But even as patterns of consumption change, as reflected in new lifestyles in urban India, most who supposedly belong to the new middle class are still struggling for secure lives. In this context, women are symbolically significant. They are desired in public spaces to signal global modernity, but at the same time, there are constraints around when, where, with whom, and in what activities it is acceptable for them to occupy these spaces. The question of a new middle class is not simply a question of class - it is entangled with gender, caste, age and so on. I turned towards young women workers in Delhi to understand not just how they participate in, but also how they speak back to, the politics of class formation. 2Is that how you came to research the lives of young women working in cafes, shopping malls and call centres? At first glance, as workers in spaces that have emerged in post-liberalisation India, young lower-middle class women evidence the success of India's economic restructuring. While their parents were factory, domestic and construction workers, they have acquired higher levels of education, fluency in English and basic computer skills, to secure "professional" work. I spent a year hanging out with young women workers. In that year, several quit their jobs, became unemployed, returned to education and skills training, switched industries. There were several reasons for quitting: friction with managers (mostly men), sexual harassment, not being given time off, lack of opportunities for progression, and combinations of these. Although there is this idea of equal opportunities and fair treatment, conflicts at work suggest a reproduction of gender, class and caste inequalities. The women's fragmented work trajectories meant they were only working in "jobs", not building "careers". 3What policy changes could make these workplaces more equitable? We have to think, as feminists have long argued, about mechanisms to value the huge amount of unpaid work women do. We have to recognise that without it, economies would not function. Women's fragmented work trajectories in the private service sector indicate the need for improved legislation (on minimum wage, working hours, leave, etc), as well as progress-ion opportunities that incentivise longer-term commitment. Such measures would be a start-ing point....