Full Description
Women in Asia: Tradition, Modernity and Globalisation surveys the transformation in the status of women since 1970 in a diverse range of nations: Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Burma. Within these 13 national case studies the book presents new arguments about being women, being Asian and being modern in contemporary Asia.
Recent social changes in women's place in society are untangled in recognition that not all change is 'progress' and that not all 'modernity' enhances women's status. The authors suggest that the improvements in women's status within the Asian region vary dramatically according to the manner in which women interact with the particular economic and ideological forces in each nation.
Each contributor has focussed on a particular country in their area of expertise. They present innovative arguments relating to the problem of 'being women' in Asia during a period of dramatic social and political changes. Each national case study explores key social and economic markers of women's status such as employment rates, wage differentials, literacy rates and participation in politics or business. The effects of population control programs, legislation on domestic violence and female infanticide, and women's role in the family and the workforce are also discussed. The book poses questions as to how women have negotiated these shifts and in the process created a 'modern' Asian woman.
Specialists from a variety of disciplines including history, anthropology, sociology, demography, gender studies and psychology grapple with the complexities and ambivalences presented by the multiple faces of the modern Asian woman. Complete with a list of recommended readings and a web-site with links to electronic resources, the book will be of particular interest to undergraduate students of Asian studies and women's studies as well as scholars and postgraduate students interested in comparative women's studies.
Contents
Notes on contributors, List of Tables, Acknowledgements, 1. Contesting gender narratives, 1970-2000, 2. Becoming modern in Malaysia: women at the end of the twentieth century, 3. The status of women in a patriarchal state: the case of Singapore, 4. Women in the People's Republic of China: new challenges to the grand gender narrative, 5. Diversity and the status of women: the Indian experience, 6. Negotiating modernities: Filipino women 1970-2000, 7. Indonesian Women-from Orde Baru to Reformasi, 8. Rhetoric or reality?: contesting definitions of women in Korea, 9. Breaking the patriarchal paradigm: Chinese women in Hong Kong, 10. Being women in Japan 1970-2000, 11. Women in Taiwan: linking economic prosperity and women's progress, 12. Exploring women's status in contemporary Thailand, 13. Militarism, civil war and women's status: a Burma case study, 14. Re-gendering Vietnam: from militant to market socialism, Index, World Wide Web addresses on women in Asia
