Under human development in India, is the persistence of female-male gaps indicative of the low status assigned to women in that cultural setting? Are the various gender ideologies rooted in the different kinship structures leading to a subordinate status of women in India? Does economic development interact with kinship patterns to produce spatial variations in gender relations? Do these structural processes affect women's status differently in different parts of India? In other words, does 'place' play a role in the constitution of gender differences? This book focuses on the interdependence of gender relations, development levels, and social stratification without underestimating the full significance of each in Indian society. This work offers a multidimensional view that argues for conceptualizing status broadly in terms of its economic, social, and political dimensions. The contrasting performance of specific states/districts on each dimension clearly indicates that the dynamic and variable nature of women's status cannot be captured by any one dimension. It is observed that women's status is affected by kinship structures, development levels, and social stratification, which vary over space and time, individually, and in interaction with each other. It is this variation that leads to differences in women's position from one region of India to another.