In this major study of poor working women in a third world urban market, the authors expode several assumptions held by agencies working in developing countries. By talking with poor women about their life histories, they found, for example, that there is neither individual nor intergenerational mobility; that poor women are the children of poor parents and that their own children can hardly even hope to move up to a factory job, let alone a white-collar job. They also find that this group of marginal poor women is increasing and not, as current wisdom would have, being absorbed into the modern sector of the economy.

Sellers and Servants is a welcome addition to research on a neglected subject, that of poverty-stricken Peruvian women whose alternatives for subsistence are few and cruel: to be a servant or to peddle goods in the markets and streets of Lima. Contemporary Sociology A tour de force . . . Bunster and Chaney set out `to tap an inner world of feelings, values, and significance' among poor migrant women in Lima. . . . Using an innovative `talking pictures' interview technique, the authors delve into the lives of these `poorest of the poor' revealing simultaneously their suffering and their strength. Women's Review of Books Ximena Bunster directs her own research center on women in Santiago, Chile. Elsa Chaney teaches and works in the field of comparative politics, centered around women in development concerns in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa.