Women and Men

Women and Men: Moving towards a Partnership of Equals in Development June 2004   Download report (794Kb pdf)

Preface

Gender inequality has become a global concern. Experiences have clearly shown that success of development programs, to a great extent, is based on how well different roles, needs, expectations of women and men are addressed.

The United Nations, the World Bank and many other development agencies have well recognized that gender equality is a core development issue – a development objective in its own right. Recent World Bank research has provided evidence that greater gender equality “strengthens countries’ ability to grow, to reduce poverty and to govern effectively. Promoting gender equality is thus an important part of a development strategy that seeks to enable all people – women and men alike – to escape poverty and improve their standard of living.” (World Bank, 2000)

The past few decades have seen a greater awareness in Thai society of the need for gender equality. This is reflected in the Constitution and in some of the government policies and practices. For women, progress has been achieved in many areas, such as education and health. However, sex discrimination can still be found in families, communities and in society as a whole. Deeprooted patriarchal values and attitudes still persist and definitely more gender awarenessraising effort is needed.

This booklet is part of a series of a World Bank Thailand initiative to“listen to people’s stories” to broaden our understanding of gender issues.

On behalf of the Gender and Development Research Institute, we would like to thank Karen Emmons for her great contribution in interviewing the selected leading women and men whose “stories” formed the backbone of this document. Our deep gratitude goes to all these interviewers who gave us opportunities to learn from their insights and experiences. We also highly appreciate the effort of Maytinee Bhongsvej who has complied all the “stories” and gender issues, thereby elucidating the scenario of gender equality in Thailand.

We would also like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the World Bank for their insightful recognition of the significance of heightening gender awareness, paving the way towards gender equality in the Thai society. The financial support that has been generously given has made both the production of this report and its distribution possible.

Suteera Vichitranonda, Ph.D.
President
Gender and Development Research
Institute Foundation
June 2004