Women and Politics in Thailand

This edited volume, including contributions from some of the leading scholars in the field, addresses the challenges, obstacles and opportunities for increased women’s political representation in Thailand.

Will Thai politics be different with an increase in the number of women politicians? What are the possibilities for Thai women to take proactive initiatives that aim to transform Thai politics into being more gender aware and equal? In seeking to address these and related issues, the analysis brings together a complex interplay of factors, such as traditional Thai views of gender and politics; the national and local political context of the new Thai constitution of 1997; and recent experiences of selected women politicians in the legislative and executive branches of Thai government.

Preface
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Notes on the Contributors
1. Introduction: Women’s Political Representation from an International Perspective (Kazuki Iwanaga)
2. Women in Politics and Women and Politics:A Socio-Cultural Analysis of the Thai Context (Juree Vichit-Vadakan)
3. NGO Advocacy for Women in Politics in Thailand (Suteera Vichitranonda and Maytinee Bhongsvej)
4. Prohibited Spaces: Barriers and Strategies in Women’s NGO Work in Isaan, North-East Thailand (Cambria G. Hamburg)
5. A Glimpse of Women Leaders in Thai Local Politics (Juree Vichit-Vadakan)
6. Women as Parliamentarians (Kazuki Iwanaga)
7. Women’s Equal Rights and Participation in the Thai Bureaucracy (Supin Kachacupt)
8. Political Participation of Thai Middle-Class Women (Tongchai Wongchaisuwan and Amporn W. Tamronglak)
9. My Story as a Woman in Thai Politics (Supatra Masdit)
Index

Excerpt:

Iwanaga-1_extract.pdf

Women and Politics in Thailand grants the reader a multifaceted insight into the subject. The status quo of women’s involvement in political decision-making and political activities is documented in detail along with the cultural and institutional obstacles to gender equality. The contributions differ considerably, ranging as they do from research articles and policy papers to biographical accounts, but are empirically well-founded. More evidence to back assumptions up would be desirable in some instances, especially when women are implicitly depicted as being the “better politicians” whose political styles and desire to serve the common good yield better results than the work of their male counterparts. There is a danger of producing new stereotypes here. Nevertheless, Kazuki Iwanaga and his colleagues have identified an important aspect of Thai political development that had previously received little scholarly attention. Their own volume helps to fill this gap. It will certainly stimulate further research in this area.

Reviewed by Lydia Seibel, Institute of Ethnology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 1/2010

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Women and Politics in Thailand

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