The capability of the individual matters. Not the gender. As a woman you need to have the confidence that your gender cannot hold you back. Meena Ganesh, former CEO of TESCO Hindustan Service Centre How does an item girl tackle sexual harassment at her work place? Why does a highly paid woman software engineer pay a dowry? Breast pumps and BlackBerry phones ... do they go together? When a woman focuses on her career, does she lose out as a wife and a mother? Is there a female model of achievement as distinct from a male one? These and other similar questions are explored in Unbound: Indian Women @ Work through a series of interviews conducted by the author with women from all walks of life and from different parts of the country. Icons like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Ltd, and Meena Ganesh, former CEO of TESCO Hindustan Service Centre, rub shoulders with Rachel the hair designer and Sumathi the call-centre employee who comes from a family of domestic helps. Women engineers discuss insidious gender discrimination and working mothers speak of the difficulties of balancing motherhood and work. The stories in this book are of real women who spoke out candidly about their concerns their families, their love lives and marriages, their victories and defeats. Together they provide a valuable guide to the brave new world of today s women professionals.