Taking the reader inside the households where Javanese women live and the factories where they labour, Diane Wolf reveals the contradictions, constraints and changes in women’s lives in the Third World. She debunks conventional wisdom about the patriarchal family, while at the same time clearly identifying the complex dynamics of class, gender, agrarian change and industrialization in rural Java. Factory Daughters is distinguished by wide-ranging fieldwork in Java and a combination of narratives, rigorous surveys and quantitative analysis. In bringing us the words of many Javanese women, Wolf is able to vividly portray the ways they negotiate employment, income and marriage decisions through the webs of family obligations. The result is an original, effective contribution that deepens our understanding of industrialization and family life in the Third World.