Political feminism and the women's movement in Thailand

Duanghathai Buranajaroenkij

In recent years, challenges caused by social and political unrest and conflicts over natural resources and the environment have had an impact on the lives and livelihoods of Thai women. These challenges have disproportionately affected women and created new forms of pressure and difficulties in achieving gender equality, especially for those women who do not have decision-making power or access to resources and political policy-making. To rise and meet these challenges, women and women’s organizations need to take concerted actions to protect their rights.

Cover of FES publication: Political feminism and the women's movement in Thailand

Commissioned with these issues in mind, this paper proposes four areas through which gender issues can be strategically politicized and based on feminist principles and approaches: 1) Public communication through social media to deconstruct gender mystification; 2) Educational programms to uncover intersectional strife (e.g., involving gender, national origin and class) in care work from a feminist perspective; 3) Application of gender diversity as an analytical framework for sustainable national economic and social development policy-making; 4) Creation of spaces for women’s political participation and for legitimizing women’s political participation outside the formal political system to ensure women’s right to self-determination as dignified members of society.

This study, available in English and Thai, is part of a series published under Political Feminism in Asia, a regional project coordinated by the FES Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia.

Buranajaroenkij, Duanghathai