Gender Politics in the Asia Pacific Region: Agencies and Activisms (International Studies of Women Andplace)

245 Pages·2002·0.83 MB·English

by  Brenda Yeoh

Gender Politics in the
Asia-Pacific Region
Amidst the unevenness and unpredictability of change in the Asia-Pacific region,
women’s lives are being transformed. This volume takes up the challenge of
exploring the ways in which women are active players, collaborators, partici-
pants, leaders and resistors in the politics of change in the region.
The contributors argue that ‘gender’ matters and continues to make a differ-
ence in the midst of change, even as it is intertwined with questions of tradition,
generation, ethnicity and nationalism. Drawing on current dialogue among femi-
nism, cultural politics and geography, the book focuses on women’s agencies and
activisms, insisting on women’s strategic conduct in constructing their own
multiple identities and navigation of their life paths.
The editors focus attention on the politics of gender as a mobilising centre for
identities, and the ways in which individualised identity politics may be linked to
larger collective emancipatory projects based on shared interests, practical needs
or common threats. Collectively, the chapters illustrate the complexity of
women’s strategies, the diversity of sites for action, and the flexibility of their
alliances as they carve out niches for themselves in what are still largely patriar-
chal worlds.
This book will be of vital interest to scholars in a range of subjects, including
gender studies, human geography, women’s studies, Asian studies, sociology and
anthropology.
Brenda S.A. Yeoh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore. Her research foci include the politics of space
in colonial and post-colonial cities, and gender, migration and transnational
communities.
Peggy Teois an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, National
University of Singapore. She has research interests in tourism and social geron-
tological issues.
Shirlena Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore. Her research interests focus mainly on gender
issues (with specific interest in transnational labour migration in the Asia-Pacific)
as well as urban conservation and heritage.
Routledge International Studies of Women and
Place
Series editors: Janet Henshall Momsen and Janice Monk
1 Gender, Migration and Domestic 3 Geographies of Women’s Health
Service Place, Diversity and Difference
Edited by Janet Henshall Momsen Edited by Isabel Dyck, Nancy Davis Lewis and Sara
McLafferty
2 Gender Politics in the Asia-Pacific
Region 4 Gender, Migration and the Dual
Edited by Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo and Shirlena Career Household
Huang Irene Hardill
Also available from Routledge:
Full Circles Women of the European Union
Geographies ofWomen over the Life Course The Politics of Work and Daily Life
Edited by Cindi Katz and Janet Monk Edited by Janice Monk and Maria Dolors Garcia-
Raomon
‘Viva’
Women and Popular Protest in Latin America Who Will Mind the Baby?
Edited by Sarah A. Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood Geographies of Childcare and Working
Mothers
Different Places, Different Voices Edited by Kim England
Gender and Development in Africa, Asia and
Latin America Feminist Political Ecology
Edited by Janet Momsen and Vivian Kinnaird Global Issues and Local Experience
Edited by Dianne Rocheleau, Esther Wangari and
Servicing the Middle Classes Barbara Thomas-Slayter
Class, Gender and Waged Domestic Labour in
Contemporary Britain Women Divided
Nicky Gregson and Michelle Lowe Gender, Religion and Politics in Northern
Ireland
Women’s Voices from the Rainforest Rosemary Sales
Janet Gabriel Townsend
Women’s Lifeworlds
Gender, Work and Space Women’s Narratives on Shaping their Realities
Susan Hanson and Geraldine Pratt Edited by Edith Sizoo
Women and the Israeli Occupation Gender, Planning and Human Rights
Edited by Tamar Mayer Edited by Tovi Fenster
Feminism / Postmodernism / Gender, Ethnicity and Place
Development Women and Identity in Guyana
Edited by Marianne H. Marchand and Jane L. Parpart Linda Peake and D. Alissa Trotz
Gender Politics in the
Asia-Pacific Region
Edited by Brenda S.A. Yeoh,
Peggy Teo and Shirlena Huang
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2002 Selection and editorial material Brenda S.A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo and
Shirlena Huang; individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-99417-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–20660–X (Print Edition)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors viii
Preface xi
1 Introduction: women’s agencies and activisms in the
Asia-Pacific region 1
BRENDA S.A. YEOH, PEGGY TEO AND SHIRLENA HUANG
2 Nine months: women’s agency and the pregnant body in
Singapore 17
LILY PHUA AND BRENDA S.A. YEOH
3 Body politics in Bangladesh 41
TATJANA HAQUE
4 The politics of resistance: working-class women in rural
Taiwan 61
RITA S. GALLIN
5 Negotiating land and livelihood: agency and identities in
Indonesia’s transmigration programme 79
REBECCA ELMHIRST
6 Gendered surveillance and sexual violence in Filipina
pre-migration experiences to Japan 99
NOBUE SUZUKI
vi Contents
7 Resisting history: Indonesian labour activism in the 1990s
and the ‘Marsinah’ case 120
G.G. WEIX
8 Contradictory identities and political choices: ‘Women in
Agriculture’ in Australia 137
RUTH PANELLI
9 The complexities of women’s agency in Fiji 156
JACQUELINE LECKIE
10 ‘Asia’ in everyday life: dealing with difference in
contemporary Japan 181
VERA MACKIE
11 Sites of transnational activism: Filipino non-government
organisations in Hong Kong 205
LISA LAW
Index 223
Illustrations
Tables
4.1 Population of Hsin Hsing village by gender and age, 1989–90 64
4.2 Enterprises operated by Hsin Hsing villagers, 1989–90 66
4.3 Primary occupation of married Hsin Hsing villagers by
gender, 1989–90 67
8.1 Mobilisation strategies employed by the Women in Agriculture
movement, 1993–4 142
9.1 Selected women’s groups in Fiji 162
Figure
2.1 Texts in a Singapore family life poster advertisement used in 1988 22
Contributors
Rebecca Elmhirst is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University
of Brighton, UK. Her research is focused on gender, migration and ethnic
relations, particularly in Southern Sumatra, Indonesia. Her most recent work
is concerned with resource politics in transmigration resettlement areas, and
with labour politics among female migrant workers in Indonesia.
Rita S. Gallin is Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Michigan
State University, USA. Her research interests include women and change in
Taiwan and global transformation. She has published extensively on her
longitudinal field research in rural Taiwan and is the founding editor of the
Working Papers on Women and International Development(Michigan State University)
and the Women and International Development Annual(Westview Press).
Tatjana Haque completed her PhD in Geography at University College
London, UK. She is interested in applied research in South Asia (particularly
Bangladesh) with focus on women’s participation in local governance, training
in non-traditional skills, empowerment and political leadership. She has
recently been appointed Country Representative and Programme Manager
for Christian Aid’s field office in Bangladesh, and has authored various publi-
cations on gender identities in Bangladesh.
Shirlena Huang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography,
National University of Singapore. Her research interests focus mainly on
gender issues (with specific interest in transnational labour migration in the
Asia-Pacific) as well as urban conservation and heritage. Her publications
include articles in International Migration Review, Women’s Studies International
Forum, Urban Studiesand Geoforum.
Lisa Lawis Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, National University
of Singapore. She is a social and cultural geographer interested in issues of
migration and identity. Her research interests include the Filipino diaspora in
the Asian region, particularly the cultural politics of activism around issues of
labour migration to Asia’s tiger economies. Lisa is interested in issues of
gender, place, migration and identity, and how they become entwined with
Filipino women’s experiences abroad.
Contributors ix
Jacqueline Leckie is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of
Otago, New Zealand. She has published on gender, ethnicity, migration and
work in the South Pacific, particularly Fiji. This includes two books, To Labour
with the State (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1997) and the co-edited
Labour in the South Pacific (Townsville: James Cook University of North
Queensland, 1990). Currently she is writing a history of the construction and
management of ‘madness’ in Fiji.
Vera Mackie is Foundation Professor of Japanese Studies at Curtin University
of Technology in Western Australia. Major publications include Creating
Socialist Women in Japan: Gender, Labour and Activism, 1900–1937 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997); Human Rights and Gender Politics: Asia-Pacific
Perspectives (London: Routledge, 2000, co-edited with Anne Marie Hilsdon,
Martha Macintyre and Maila Stivens); Relationships: Japan and Australia,
1870s–1950s (Melbourne: History Department Monograph Series, 2001, co-
edited with Paul Jones); and articles in such journals as Australian Feminist
Studies, East Asian History, Hecate, International Feminist Journal of Politics,
Intersections, Japanese Studies, New Left Review and Women’s Studies International
Forum.
Ruth Panelli is Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of
Otago, New Zealand. She is a social geographer specialising in critical and
discursive studies of rural society. These interests have led to investigations of
gender, youth, health, alternative agriculture and community change in
Australian and New Zealand contexts.
Lily Phua completed her Master’s degree in Geography at the National
University of Singapore. Her work has focused mainly on the gendering of
space, drawing material from the conduct of everyday life in Singapore.
Nobue Suzuki is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Hawai’i, M‰noa. She is completing her dissertation, entitled
‘Battlefields of affection: gender, global desires and the politics of intimacy in
Filipina–Japanese transnational marriages’. She has published several papers
in journals such as Women’s Studies International Forum and U.S.–Japan Women’s
Journal English Supplement, and with James E. Roberson is co-editing a book
entitled Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman
Doxa.
Peggy Teois an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, National
University of Singapore. She has research interests in tourism and social
gerontological issues. Her works include Interconnected Worlds: Tourism in
Southeast Asia(Oxford: Pergamon, 2001, co-edited with T.C. Chang and K.C.
Ho) and several journal articles on social gerontological issues, some
pertaining to women, in Aging and Society, Journal of Aging Studies, Urban Studies,
Geographical Review, International Journal of Population Geography, Journal of Cross-
Cultural Gerontologyand Woman’s Studies International Forum.