Women in Thailand were traditionally equal in nearly all ways to men - and in many cases still are. Why did that start to change?
Women in Thailand, and throughout mainland Southeast Asia to a lesser extent, have enjoyed much more freedom than women in most other parts of the world. Their freedom is measured in such mundane items as ability to wear clothes which are comfortable for a tropical climate and not be swaddled up like a mummy, to work outside the house in commercial activities like street vending or market work, and to go where they will, unchaperoned by men. Early European and Chinese travellers to the area were shocked by the freedom which the people, especially the women, were able to enjoy. Of course, ‘Thai’ itself means ‘freedom’ and ‘Thailand’ is, therefore, the ‘Land of the Free.’ Important Thai historians point to a long tradition of lack of interference from temporal rulers for villages in Thailand, who governed their own affairs with the help of a council of elders at the village level. Just about the only time that villagers, according to this interpretation, came into contact with officials and representatives of the kings and princes was when they came calling to try to enforce corvée (forced) labour each year. When this happened, it was apparently quite common for the entire village to melt into the surrounding jungle and hide, until the officials become bored and frustrated and decide to leave them alone.
While Thailand remained an agricultural society (as for a large proportion it remains today), then equality among all subsistence farmers meant that attempts to discriminate against women made little sense: both sexes had important roles to play in ensuring there was enough food for the family for the whole year and caring for children and the elderly, while still creating a surplus which can be used for donation to the monks in order to make merit in advance of reincarnation. However, when economic development started in earnest, which has occurred since the 1950s, the differences between the genders has become more apparent. There have always been differences in language: women end sentences with the polite particle ‘ka,’ while men use ‘kap,’ and people refer to themselves with gender-specific words. However, there was no prima facie reason to treat one gender as superior to another. That changed when people began to be clustered into different kinds of jobs depending on their gender and those jobs were differently rewarded. Generally, the work men paid more than the work women did. This happens in most parts of the world, of course.
