Before the advent of Europeans and Christianity, Confucianism and cholera, women in Southeast Asia until the late 16th century were equal to men, and many times even above them in traditional societies. Believe it or not, this is history. It is hard to believe when the region of Southeast Asia is plagued with social and developmental problems, as well as being the hotspot where the most international human trafficking and sex slaves are found in the world. Amidst these and religious conflict or political turmoil and corruption, Southeast Asians can look back at history and hold their heads up high even by pointing to current events in comparison to the west.
How many leaders in the west have been women in the past 20 years, besides New Zealand's Helen Clark and the United Kingdom's Margaret Thatcher as each country's former prime ministers? Not too many, compared to Corey Aquino of the Philippines and today's Gloria Arroyo, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma/Myanmar, and Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, amongst many names. When people talk of how these societies are backwards and women are unequal, amidst sex slaves and religious extremism forcing women to cover themselves, they really miss the bigger picture. It is a paradox to understanding this when women can find themselves at the bottom of the social hierarchy yet be at the top of the political chain of command, but this is nothing strange to the people who live in these societies.
Even historically, women have traditionally held much higher importance in Southeast Asian societies than men, for they controlled trade in the marketplace since men were out sailing, were leaders many times since rulers simply had to prove that the Gods favored them, preferred over men as palace guards in some old sultanates since they were seen as more trustworthy and less likely to seize power in a coup d'etat, diplomatic relations since men were seen as too brash to be rational when trying to make peace, and most importantly were their religious leaders according to traditional animist and shamanistic beliefs, related to their sensitivity to life for bearing children parallel to their sensitivity to the spiritual world. And amazingly, they controlled the househould as well, even drawing the attention of Chinese traveler Zhou DaGuan who observed that "men should expect their women to seek company in their bedchambers from others if they were to abandon their women for more than ten days, for women had their needs and men had their responsibility to meet these needs..."
All of this changed when Christianity came with Europeans to much of Southeast Asia (namely the Philippines and Eastern Indonesia, plus pockets of Vietnam), and China with Confucianism to most of Vietnam. With their traditional beliefs being forsaken and de-sanctified by Spanish missionaries who would urinate and defecate on Philippine idols telling them that their gods were dead, people watched the status quo reverse, with men becoming priests and women becoming nothing but child-bearers. In Vietnam, women became housewives as well, for Confucianism and its social relations dictated women had to submit to men, namely their husbands. By the end of the 16th century, women were not in the best position they could be in.
Fast forward to the twentieth century with all the developmental problems and armed ethnic and religious conflicts. Fighting wars over centuries-old conflicts seems to imply that these folks in Southeast Asia seem to be the kids you just can't keep your eyes off of for more than a minute before they jump at each other's throats. Far from it.
Brad Pitt once said that war was "old men talking and young men fighting", but when you look at the iron ladies of Southeast Asia, they call the shots and they haven't called off their soldiers, leaving more men to die. Goodbye loyal customers in the Southeast Asian sex trade? Nah, we have western sex tourists coming in and out for their fix. Plus, they make more money off of westerners since they charge them more than they charge locals. Women are back in the marketplace as well, since it's harder for a western tourist to bargain with a pretty young girl who pretends that she doesn't understand his English as she proceeds to rip him off before a kid on the streets steals his thinner wallet. Finally, before he goes home, a nice Filipina Catholic nun can send him off to a confession booth so not only what happens in Southeast Asia stay in Southeast Asia, but he can be forgiven by a legitimate organization as well, making it that much easier to forget.
Okay, all of these are facetious comments, but the end result is, you can't categorize where women in Southeast Asia stand in the social ladder in modern times that easily, considering their political roles today and historical roles in the past. But what can be said about women in Southeast Asia today is that they have by far some of the biggest tolerance and strength of will to endure centuries of the ever-shifting status quo. If you think Asian women are submissive, stay away from Southeast Asia.
