Women in Modern Burma

198 Pages·2013·15.227 MB·English

by  Tharaphi Than

A landmark, gendered history from below that takes on and refutes the easy
clichés about the women in Burma. An eye-opening, rich, nearly comprehensive,
documented, and critical account of women in literature, war, politics, sex work,
education and health. Tharaphi Than’s achievement here will be the point of
departure for all subsequent studies of women in Burma.
James C. Scott (aka Shwe Yoe), Sterling Professor of Political Science and
Anthropology, Yale University, USA
This page intentionally left blank
Women in Modern Burma
This book challenges the popular notion that Burmese women are powerful and
are granted equal rights to men by society. Throughout history Burmese women
have been represented as powerful and as having equal status to men by western
travellers and scholars alike. The national history about women also follows this
conjecture. This book explains why actually very few powerful Burmese women
exist, and how these few women help construct the notion of the high status
of Burmese women, thereby inevitably silencing the majority of ‘unequal’ and
disempowered women. One of the underlying questions throughout this book is
why a few powerful women feel compelled to defend the notion that women hold
privileged positions in Burmese society. Combining historical archives with
statistical data published by UN agencies, this book highlights the reality of
women’s status in modern Burma. Case studies include why the first Burmese
women’s army was disbanded a few months after its establishment; how women
writers assessed the conditions of Burmese women and represented their con-
temporaries in their works; the current state of prostitution; how modern-day
sex workers are trying to find their voice; and how women fared vis-à-vis men in
education.
Tharaphi Than is Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages
and Literatures, Northern Illinois University.
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia
1 The Police in Occupation Japan 9 Japanese Industrialisation
Control, corruption and resistance Historical and cultural
to reform perspectives
Christopher Aldous Ian Inkster
2 Chinese Workers 10 War and Nationalism in China
A new history 1925–1945
Jackie Sheehan Hans J. van de Ven
3 The Aftermath of Partition 11 Hong Kong in Transition
in South Asia One country, two systems
Tai Yong Tan and Edited by Robert Ash,
Gyanesh Kudaisya Peter Ferdinand, Brian Hook
and Robin Porter
4 The Australia–Japan Political
Alignment
12 Japan’s Postwar Economic
1952 to the present
Recovery and Anglo-Japanese
Alan Rix
Relations, 1948–1962
5 Japan and Singapore in the Noriko Yokoi
World Economy
13 Japanese Army Stragglers and
Japan’s economic advance into
Memories of the War in Japan,
Singapore, 1870–1965
1950–1975
Shimizu Hiroshi and
Beatrice Trefalt
Hirakawa Hitoshi
14 Ending the Vietnam War
6 The Triads as Business
The Vietnamese communists’
Yiu Kong Chu
perspective
7 Contemporary Taiwanese Ang Cheng Guan
Cultural Nationalism
15 The Development of the
A-chin Hsiau
Japanese Nursing Profession
8 Religion and Nationalism in India Adopting and adapting Western
The case of the Punjab influences
Harnik Deol Aya Takahashi
16 Women’s Suffrage in Asia 27 Women, Work and the Japanese
Gender nationalism and democracy Economic Miracle
Louise Edwards and Mina Roces The case of the cotton textile
industry, 1945–1975
17 The Anglo-Japanese Alliance,
Helen Macnaughtan
1902–1922
Phillips Payson O’Brien 28 A Colonial Economy in
Crisis
18 The United States and
Burma’s rice cultivators
Cambodia, 1870–1969
and the world depression
From curiosity to confrontation
of the 1930s
Kenton Clymer
Ian Brown
19 Capitalist Restructuring and
the Pacific Rim 29 A Vietnamese Royal Exile
in Japan
Ravi Arvind Palat
Prince Cuong De (1882–1951)
20 The United States and
Tran My-Van
Cambodia, 1969–2000
A troubled relationship 30 Corruption and Good
Kenton Clymer Governance in Asia
Nicholas Tarling
21 British Business in Post-Colonial
Malaysia, 1957–70 31 US–China Cold War
‘Neo-colonialism’ or Collaboration, 1971–1989
‘disengagement’? S. Mahmud Ali
Nicholas J. White
32 Rural Economic Development
22 The Rise and Decline of in Japan
Thai Absolutism From the nineteenth century to
Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead the Pacific War
Penelope Francks
23 Russian Views of Japan,
1792–1913 33 Colonial Armies in
An anthology of travel writing Southeast Asia
David N. Wells Edited by Karl Hack and
24 The Internment of Western Tobias Rettig
Civilians under the Japanese,
34 Intra Asian Trade and the
1941–1945
World Market
A patchwork of internment
A. J. H. Latham and
Bernice Archer
Heita Kawakatsu
25 The British Empire and Tibet
35 Japanese–German Relations,
1900–1922
1895–1945
Wendy Palace
War, diplomacy and public
26 Nationalism in Southeast Asia opinion
If the people are with us Edited by Christian W. Spang
Nicholas Tarling and Rolf-Harald Wippich
36 Britain’s Imperial Cornerstone 46 Rethinking Gandhi and
in China Nonviolent Relationality
The Chinese maritime customs Global perspectives
service, 1854–1949 Edited by Debjani Ganguly and
Donna Brunero John Docker
37 Colonial Cambodia’s 47 The Quest for Gentility
‘Bad Frenchmen’ in China
The rise of French rule and Negotiations beyond gender
the life of Thomas Caraman, and class
1840–1887 Edited by Daria Berg and
Gregor Muller Chloë Starr
38 Japanese–American 48 Forgotten Captives in Japanese
Civilian Prisoner Exchanges Occupied Asia
and Detention Camps, Edited by Kevin Blackburn
1941–45 and Karl Hack
Bruce Elleman
49 Japanese Diplomacy in the
39 Regionalism in Southeast Asia 1950s
Nicholas Tarling From isolation to integration
Edited by Iokibe Makoto,
40 Changing Visions of East
Caroline Rose, Tomaru Junko
Asia, 1943–93
and John Weste
Transformations and
continuities 50 The Limits of British
R. B. Smith, edited by Colonial Control in
Chad J. Mitcham South Asia
Spaces of disorder in the
41 Christian Heretics in Late Indian Ocean region
Imperial China Edited by Ashwini Tambe and
Christian inculturation and state Harald Fischer-Tiné
control, 1720–1850
51 On The Borders of State
Lars P. Laamann
Power
42 Beijing – A Concise History Frontiers in the greater Mekong
Stephen G. Haw sub-region
Edited by Martin Gainsborough
43 The Impact of the Russo-
Japanese War 52 Pre-Communist Indochina
Edited by Rotem Kowner R. B. Smith, edited by
Beryl Williams
44 Business–Government
Relations in Prewar Japan 53 Communist Indochina
Peter von Staden R. B. Smith, edited by
Beryl Williams
45 India’s Princely States
People, princes and colonialism 54 Port Cities in Asia and Europe
Edited by Waltraud Ernst and Edited by Arndt Graf and
Biswamoy Pati Chua Beng Huat
55 Moscow and the Emergence of 64 Atrocity and American Military
Communist Power in China, Justice in Southeast Asia
1925–30 Trial by army
The Nanchang Rising and the Louise Barnett
birth of the Red Army
65 The Japanese Occupation of
Bruce A. Elleman
Borneo, 1941–1945
56 Colonialism, Violence and Ooi Keat Gin
Muslims in Southeast Asia
66 National Pasts in Europe and
The Maria Hertogh controversy
East Asia
and its aftermath
P. W. Preston
Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied
57 Japanese and Hong Kong 67 Modern China’s Ethnic
Film Industries Frontiers
Understanding the origins A journey to the West
Hsiao-ting Lin
of East Asian film networks
Kinnia Shuk-ting
68 New Perspectives on the
58 Provincial Life and the Military History and Historiography
in Imperial Japan of Southeast Asia
The phantom samurai Continuing explorations
Stewart Lone Michael Aung-Thwin and
Kenneth R. Hall
59 Southeast Asia and the
Vietnam War 69 Food Culture in Colonial Asia
Ang Cheng Guan A taste of empire
Cecilia Leong-Salobir
60 Southeast Asia and the
Great Powers 70 China’s Political Economy in
Nicholas Tarling Modern Times
Changes and economic
61 The Cold War and National
consequences, 1800–2000
Assertion in Southeast Asia
Kent Deng
Britain, the United States and
Burma, 1948–1962 71 Science, Public Health and the
Matthew Foley State in Modern Asia
Edited by Liping Bu, Darwin
62 The International History of
Stapleton and Ka-che Yip
East Asia, 1900–1968
Trade, ideology and the quest 72 Russo-Japanese Relations,
for order 1905–1917
Edited by Antony Best From enemies to allies
Peter Berton
63 Journalism and Politics in
Indonesia 73 Reforming Public Health in
A critical biography of Mochtar Occupied Japan, 1945–52
Lubis (1922–2004) as editor Alien prescriptions?
and author Christopher Aldous and
David T. Hill Akihito Suzuki
74 Trans-Colonial Modernities in 81 Martial Arts and the Body
South Asia Politic in Meiji Japan
Edited by Michael S. Dodson and Denis Gainty
Brian A. Hatcher
82 Gambling, the State and
75 The Evolution of the Japanese Society in Thailand,
Developmental State c.1800–1945
Institutions locked in by ideas James A. Warren
Hironori Sasada
83 Post-War Borneo, 1945–1950
76 Status and Security in Southeast Nationalism, empire and
Asian States state-building
Nicholas Tarling Ooi Keat Gin
77 Lee Kuan Yew’s Strategic 84 China and the First Vietnam
Thought War, 1947–54
Ang Cheng Guan Laura M. Calkins
85 The Jesuit Missions to China
78 Government, Imperialism and
and Peru, 1570–1610
Nationalism in China
Ana Carolina Hosne
The Maritime Customs Service
and its Chinese staff 86 Macau – Cultural Interaction
Chihyun Chang and Literary Representation
Edited by Katrine K. Wong and
79 China and Japan in the Russian
George Wei
Imagination, 1685–1922
To the ends of the Orient 87 Macau – The Formation of a
Susanna Soojung Lim Global City
Edited by George Wei
80 Chinese Complaint Systems
Natural resistance 88 Women in Modern Burma
Qiang Fang Tharaphi Than
Women in Modern Burma
Tharaphi Than