Tharaphi Than. Women in Modern Burma. London and New York: Routledge, 2014, 182pp.

Abstract

Women in Modern Burma Tharaphi Than London and New York: Routledge, 2014, 182pp.The 2015 election in Myanmar was a pivotal moment in history due to landslide victory of National League for Democracy, led by world-renowned politician Daw Aung San Su Kyi. The presence of an outstanding female leader appears to be a testament of popular narrative that Burmese are powerful agents granted equal rights and status in society. In Women in Modern Burma, Tharaphi Than challenges this notion and reassesses social, economic, and political position of in Burma throughout twentieth century.The introduction offers an overview that includes official narrative and popular image of Burmese along with a brief political and cultural outline of twentieth-century Burma. Than shows how national framework of historical writing has defended privileged positions of Burmese women, who have been portrayed as powerful agents enjoying high status and equal rights to men. Contrary to this narrative, book attempts to challenge concept of liberated Burmese women by showing that Burmese experience little freedom in reality. It accomplishes this by exploring world of female soldiers, politicians, writers, and prostitutes and by referencing women's writings, personal interviews, newspapers, and magazine articles (p. 4). Next, Myanmar's political and cultural situation in twentieth century is briefly outlined as follows: transition to independence (1945-48), Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) (194652), Pyidawtha or Happy Land Years (1952-56), Burma Socialist Program Party (1962-88), and post-1988 period with a post-independence media landscape.Chapter 2 focuses on how female journalists, editors, and writers struggled to achieve their positions in print media. After first English-language newspaper in Burma was published in 1910, print media, especially newspapers, flourished in country and regarded as nonlethal weapons with which to challenge British colonial rule. Thus, young, educated Burmese nationalists viewed journalists and teachers as most attractive professions that could build a full engagement with national politics. Educated Burmese elite men often moved easily within print media industry, politics, and business arena, while such mobility was not available to women. Daw Phwa Shin became first female editor and publisher of newspaper Tharawaddy. However, she used her husband's name as publisher and editor, because she feared that readers would think Tharawaddy was inferior if it was known to be run by a woman. Even Independent Daw San, who demonstrated that a woman was indeed capable of managing a newspaper, wrote under a male pseudonym for fear of being blamed for not embracing modesty. However, independence caused a seismic shift in discourse of Burmese literature and female writers. Women writers played a significant role in shaping national themes and goals for post-independence literature, particularly for preservation of Burmese culture and contributions to nation building and national identity formation.Chapter 3 takes up subject of women's education. On subject of female education in colonial period, Chie Ikeya (2011) has already argued that British education system was crucial to success of Burmese middle-class and that modern education triggered most radical transformation in history of female education and professionalism. On other hand, Than insists that while British education system might have triggered a transformation, the transformation may simply have been a matter of learning in an institution and that Burmese were not empowered to make their independent way in world, with few exceptions (p. 49). Certainly, statistical data obtained by local NGOs, United Nations Population Fund, and government show that either highly educated or highly illiterate (p. …