Economic Development Has Improved Lives of Asian Women, but Cultural Traditions Can Limit Its Effects

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This article summarizes findings from a report comparing changes in womens living conditions since the 1960s in East Asia Southeast Asia and South Asia. The authors concluded that women in 15 Asian countries have improved their educational status employment status longevity and marital power over the past 30 years. Womens living conditions improved the greatest in East and Southeast Asia where economic development was greater. Cultural practices sometimes had a greater influence on womens status than economic or political conditions. In Southeast Asia cultural practices led to greater gender equality whereas in East and South Asia son preference and patriarchal systems remain strong. Female illiteracy varied widely among Asian countries. At least 66% of all women in South Asia with the exception of Sri Lanka were illiterate. Female illiteracy in East Asia was so low that many countries no longer collected data on this variable. The gender gap in primary and secondary education was disappearing in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In South Asia female enrollment in primary schooling was still low with the exception of Sri Lanka. Since 1970 the proportion of women engaged in unpaid family work declined. The female-to-male ratio of the percentage of the population employed as wage laborers varied greatly within and among regions. An index of dissimilarity was constructed for measuring how much shifting in employment groups would be required in order to achieve gender equality. The index of dissimilarity was highest in Pakistan and Bangladesh and lowest in Hong Kong. The greatest decrease in dissimilarity occurred in Southeast Asia. It is posited that economic development may close the gender gap in class of work distributions but increase occupational segregation by gender which would result in wage inequities. Marriage age increased in all regions. Life expectancy for women increased the most in more advanced regions. In all countries with the exception of the Philippines women report a preference for sons.