Southeast Asia: Transition among the Nagas - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 403

mobility have fostered conditions for women to work be-
yond the confines of the village.
Rural and urban changes function in tandem. There
is more to rural life than agriculture, and at any time in
the year different members of different households may
be engaged in rural- or urban-type occupations. Although
better accessibility allows rural dwellers to live and work
in cities, governments are encouraging factories and other
businesses to locate in non-urban settings where a pool of
workers is ready to take up non-farm employment.

men avowed that women should wait to address their
issues until after independence was achieved. Despite
women' s involvement with independence movements as
fighters, strike organizers, spies and couriers, and out-
spoken journalists, they were seen as auxiliary , not equal
partners.
Theoretically , the newly independent states that
emerged in the 15 years following WW II were commit-
ted to gender equality , but this has rarely translated into
reality . The numbers of women in government have in-
creased, but only in the Philippines has female repre-
sentation risen above 10 percent. Moreover, women in
government usually find themselves marginalized in
the shadow of men. Women who have risen to head-of-
state positions as in the Philippines or Indonesia have
done so as the daughters or wives of politically power-
ful men. Notably , they have not been promoters of
women' s issues as this might alienate them from their
male supporters.
Greater female involvement in politics is impeded by
prevailing societal attitudes that consider women as
wives and mothers. Gender stereotypes are reinforced in
school textbooks and are sometimes encouraged by reli-
gious teachings. For example, Buddhists still believe that
rebirth as a woman rather than a man indicates that less
merit was accrued in past lives. Southeast Asian Islam
has been relatively tolerant, but over the past 20 years,
there has been more stress on “correct dress” and “appro-
priate behavior” in public. Although all countries, with
the exceptions of Laos and Cambodia, have signed the
“Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrim-
ination against Women” and have made advances in gen-
der equality , it is difficult to change the preference for
sons, especially in Vietnam with its strong Confucian
heritage.
Fortunately , people do hold to the idea that women
can earn and control their own income. However, they
are paid less than men for the same work and are typi-
cally hired in subservient positions. As Southeast Asian
countries have become export-driven, women are vital in
factory work. Many educated women find skilled em-
ployment abroad as in the case of nurses from the Philip-
pines. With the exception of Cambodia and Laos, the
numbers of women progressing to post-secondary train-
ing is rising. In some countries such as Brunei, Malaysia,
Thailand, and the Philippines, there are more female
graduates than males. Many of these graduates become
involved in female-oriented NGOs.
Despite the region' s economic, political, and cul-
tural diversity , Southeast Asian countries generally fare

WOMEN'S CHANGING ROLES
Southeast Asian women are in a relatively better position
than those in South or East Asia. Part of this is due to his-
torical circumstance. T Traditional kinship was traced
through both maternal and paternal lineages. A daughter
was not a financial burden because of the widespread
practice of paying a bride price. A married couple typi-
cally lived with or near the wife' s parents. Women had
important roles in religious rituals. Finally , their labor
was essential in agriculture and they dominated local
markets. However, the position of women changed over
time.
The rise of centralized states and the spread of im-
ported philosophies and religions—Confucianism, Dao-
ism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity—increasingly
privileged men and subordinated women. Even so, these
influences, most notable among the elite, were always
moderated by local traditions.
The position of women was altered further under
the auspices of colonialism. In some areas, women
were recruited as cheap wage laborers on rubber, tea,
and other plantations and in processing factories. At
the village level, colonial authorities strengthened the
role of males as “head of the household” and re-formed
customary laws that gave women considerable auton-
omy . Even in Siam (Thailand), the only non-colonized
country , legal codification strengthened patrilineality .
These developments encouraged a preference for sons
rather than daughters. Nonetheless, women were still
influential in community life, at times even leading
anti-colonial rebellions. Increasing female literacy , es-
pecially in the Philippines, and exposure to Western
feminism encouraged elite women to confront issues of
gender inequality .
As nationalism increased in the late nineteenth cen-
tury , men concentrated on independence but educated
women focused on such issues as polygamy , divorce, do-
mestic abuse, and the responsibility of fathers. However,