Studying Women and Gender in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Historians of Southeast Asia have begun to consider the history of women and gender relatively recently, even though the complementary relationship between men and women has long been cited as a regional characteristic. In the last twenty years or so the field has witnessed some important advances, most notably in the study of the twentieth century but also in the preceding periods as well. Generalizations advanced in the past are now being refined through a number of new case studies. The second half of this essay, surveying recent publications primarily in English, focuses on pre-twentieth century history, identifying the areas where research has been most productive and suggesting lines of inquiry that might be profitable in the future.

Age as a Category of Gender Analysis: Servant Girls, Modern Girls, and Gender in Southeast Asia

“…. (Yeoh, Teo, and Huang 2002, 2-3) 21 A thorough review is beyond the scope of this article, but some recent and excellent contributions include Andaya (2006), Ikeya (2011), Loos (2006, and Peletz (2009). In other words, gender may not consistently be the most central organizing rubric to study the ways in which gender intersects with political projects.…”

“…It is also the case that the age of a female subject deeply inflects her lived experience, the way in which society and the state regard her sexuality, the norms to which she is subjected, and the range of choices and behaviors available to her. Andaya (2006) has been attentive to the fluidity and liminality of age-bound identity, drawing attention to the life cycles of female experience in early modern Southeast Asia from youth to old age, including the way in which a woman's gender-the social construction of how she relates to men, other women, and society-develops with age. A striking observation she makes is that with the onset of middle age and the end of menstruation-"a basic indicator of femaleness"-a woman became "a woman who is not woman."…”

“…A thorough review is beyond the scope of this article, but some recent and excellent contributions includeAndaya (2006),Ikeya (2011),Loos (2006), andPeletz (2009).…”

The Concept of Sompek (Wander) of the Buginese Society in Folklore

“…This article describes the success of Buginese migrants who work together and has a role in the Malay government in the late 17th to early 18th centuries. The role of women of Buginese descent in Malay literature in the 19th century [5]. The destination of migration is an imporatnt thing because it can be changing the social status within in the community [6].…”

Migration and Gender Politics in Southeast Asia

“…As a region that has experienced major socio-political and economic transitions in recent decades, Southeast Asia provides a rich and variegated terrain to explore the gendered lives and experiences of men and women in a globalizing world of increased migrations and mobilities. Relations of equality and complementarity between Southeast Asian men and women have long been thought to be a regional characteristic (Andaya 2007) but much has changed in recent times. Deeper incorporation of the region into the global world order provides a mobile context shaping the gendered experiences and micropolitics that men and women sustain in reproducing and resisting socio-cultural change and economic development.…”