This work, with contributions from leading scholars in the field, addresses the challenges, obstacles and opportunities for increased women's political representation in Thailand.
In Thailand, as in most other Asian countries, politics has traditionally been a male preserve. Compared to men, women have not been visible in governance and politics. Although Thailand was among the first Asian countries to grant the right to vote to women, after almost seven and a half decades’ of slow, incremental gains for women in politics, the representation of women remains no more than a blip on a political landscape dominated by men. There is still little analysis on the participation of women in politics at various levels of government in Thailand and research to date is fragmentary. However, interest in this field is growing in light of the development of democracy with the introduction of the new constitution in 1997, as well as changes in civil society. In this paper, the case of Thailand is used to achieve three main objectives. First, the position and advancement of women in the Thai parliament will be analyzed in order to contribute to research on women’s political representation in the developing world. Second, the case of Thailand will be used to test some of the assumptions and theories developed in the advanced industrialized democracies of Europe and North America concerning the impact of women in public office. Third, the major barriers facing the entrance of women into the national parliament in Thailand will be examined to see whether the Thai case is consistent with research findings on women and politics in industrial democracies of the West.
The ability of a small elite of highly educated, upper-class Asian women to obtain the highest political positions in their country is unmatched elsewhere in the world and deserves study. But there is a marked lack of relevant research as well as of comprehensive and user-friendly texts. Aiming to fill the gap is this timely and important study of the various obstacles and opportunities for women's political participation and representation in Asia.
This volume brings together an impressive array of internationally recognized scholars from around the world to examine the many facets of gender politics in Asia. Its central concern is how women in various gendered contexts in Asia position themselves in the (re)production of gender relations, and how they manoeuver in order to preserve or alter these. It covers fields as varied as the use of dress as a political weapon, the practice of healing as an indirect challenge to the dominant gender and political orders, and religious ordination as a struggle for equity in Buddhism.