Swasti Mitter (22 May 1939 – 1 May 2016) was a researcher into gender and development. She held posts as Professor of Gender and Technology at the

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieve ...

, and as a deputy director of the UNU Institute of New Technologies at the

University of Maastricht Maastricht University (abbreviated as UM; nl, Universiteit Maastricht) is a public research university in Maastricht, Netherlands. Founded in 1976, it is the second youngest of the thirteen Dutch universities. In 2021, 22,383 students studied at ...

(Now

UNU-MERIT The ''United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology'' (UNU-MERIT) is a research and training institute of the United Nations University which cooperates closely with Maastricht Universi ...

). Her main area of research involved exploring the ways Information Technologies have influenced employment patterns for women in less developed countries.

Life

Mitter was born in

Baharampur Berhampore (, ) is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. As of 2011 census, Berhampore urban agglomeration had a population of 305,609 and is the seventh largest city in West Bengal (after Kolkata, Asansol, Siliguri, D ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 22 May 1939. Her father, Sasankasekhar Sanyal was a politician and her mother Usha Rani. She was educated at Presidency College and

Krishnath College Murshidabad University is a public state university in Berhampore, Murshidabad, West Bengal. The university was established in 2021 by the West Bengal government under ''The Murshidabad University Act, 2018''. History The institution was establ ...

. Against her parents' wishes she married in 1960 Partha Mitter and they had two children together. They moved to the United Kingdom, where she studied at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. In the early 1970s, she traveled to

Sonarpur Rajpur Sonarpur () is a city and a municipality of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Rajpur and Sonarpur are two separat ...

to research peasant uprisings, publishing a paper on the subject ''Peasant Movements in West Bengal'' in 1977. An academic post in 1974 at

Brighton Polytechnic The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...

led to a professorial position at what had become the University of Brighton in 1993, in gender and technology. Whilst at Brighton, she published two books, ''Common Fate: Common Bond'' in 1986, about the poor working conditions of women in export processing zones, and ''Computer-aded Manufacturing and Women's Employment'' in 1992. From 1994 to 2000, Mitter was deputy director of

INTECH Winchester Science Centre (previously known as INTECH) is a hands-on, interactive, science and technology centre located in Morn Hill, just outside the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England. The centre opened in 2002 after grants from Mille ...

. On 1 May 2016, Mitter died at Churchill Hospital, Oxford due to cancer and pneumonia.

Selected publications

* Mitter, S. (1986). ''Common fate, common bond: Women in the global economy''. London: Pluto.Bučar, M. (1987). Swasti Mitter: Common fate, common bond. Women in global economy: Pluto Press, London, 1986. 177 p. International Monetary System and Developing Countries, 177-178. * Mitter, S., & Rowbotham, S. (1995). ''Women encounter technology: Changing patterns of employment in the Third World''. London: Routledge. * Mitter, S., Pearson, R., Ng, C., &

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

. (1992). ''Global information processing: The emergence of software services and data entry jobs in selected developing countries.'' Geneva: ILO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitter, Swasti 1939 births 2016 deaths Academics of the University of Brighton Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Cambridge Development specialists Academic staff of Maastricht University Indian expatriates in England Krishnath College alumni People from Baharampur Presidency University, Kolkata alumni