Abstract
In Thailand, the patriarchal system of governance is widely prevalent and accepted. Even though the role of women has been increasingly accepted in the political system, female politicians still face some difficulties. This article aims to explain how female participation could be improved and promoted in the political system by the introduction of a female quota system which would be in the form of a mandate in the constitution requiring a set of an equal number of women in the candidate list of each political party in order to get the same opportunity as men. Eventually, the gender equality issue should be concerned in terms of political participation, and the legality of the female quota system should be suggested. Perhaps, the unfair way will seemingly be a possible way in gender fairness creation in Thai politics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The data is as of January 2019 from the National Statistical Office of Thailand.
- 2.
Members of the Senate or the upper house were mostly appointed throughout the history of Thailand. Therefore, it is not taken into analysis in this study.
- 3.
The critical mass refers to the critical proportion in numbers that is large enough to make a substantial change in policies. The minimum number is settled, based on political theories, on 30%, see Dahlerup (2006a).
- 4.
Thailand has changed its political system from absolute monarchy to constitutional democracy in 1932.
- 5.
In 1950, numbers of students enrolled in the university was only 25,000 students, see Ockey (1999).
- 6.
Siam was changed its name to Thailand in 1939.
- 7.
The world population in 2019 was 7.7 billion people, including 3.82 billion of females and 3.89 billion of males. For more information, see United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019: Volume II: Demographic Profiles.
- 8.
See Title I, Chapter 2, Article 9 of “The Constitution of the Republic of Rwanda,” Government of Rwanda. http://www.cjcr.gov.rw/eng/constitution_eng.doc.
- 9.
The 2017 constitution of Thailand, Paragraph 3 of Section 90 stated that “In the preparation of a list of candidates under paragraph two, the members of the political party shall be allowed to participate in the deliberations, and regard shall be had to the candidates for election from different regions and equality between men and women”.
- 10.
Imelda Marcos was a former first lady of former President of the Philippine, Ferdinand Marcos, from 1965 to 1986 and a former Fillipno politician. During the 21-year period of Ferdinand Marcos’ presidency, she was criticized for luxurious and extravagant life. Then, she was charged of corruption crime, dealing illegal money to bank account of Swiss-based NGOs while serving in her husband's government in the 1970s and 1980s (estimated up to 10,000 million US dollars) before her family were expelled from the Fillipno people in 1986 and fled to stay in Honolulu, Hawaii in the United States for many years.
- 11.
Park Geun-hye, a former first-female president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, was accused of abuse of power, coercion, bribery, and leaking government secrets in 2017. In addition, she colluded with her close friend, Choi Soon-sil, demanding bribes from various companies—a total of 77.4 billion won (US$68 million)—in exchange for political benefits.
- 12.
The UNDP defines The Gender Inequality Index (GII) as a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievement between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment, and the labour market.
- 13.
According to the report in 2019 by the Credit Suisse Research Institute (CSRI), Thailand ranks second globally for women represented in senior management, with the highest percentage of female chief financial officers and the third-highest rate of female chief executives.
- 14.
The 2017 constitution of Thailand, Paragraph 3 of Section 90.
- 15.
The English version of North Korean constitution is based on an official translation provided to the public by Naenara. http://www.naenara.com.kp/main/index/en/politics?arg_val=leader3.
References
Bacchi, C., & Eveline, J. (2003). Mainstreaming and neoliberalism: A contested relationship. Policy and Society, 22(2), 98–118.
Bangkok Post. (2019, October 30). Thailand No.2 by women serving as senior execs. Bangkok Post. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1782814/thailand-no-2-by-women-serving-as-senior-execs.
BBC Monitoring. (2020, January 13). United Arab Emirates country profile. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703998.
Becker, M. (1999). Patriarchy and inequality: Towards a substantive feminism. University of Chicago Legal Forum, Article 3, 21–88.
Besley, T. J., Folke, O., Persson, T., & Rickne, J. (2013). Gender quotas and the crisis of the mediocre man: Theory and evidence from Sweden (Working paper).
Bowie, K. (2010). Women’s suffrage in Thailand: A Southeast Asian historiographical challenge. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 52(4), 708–741.
Clavero, S., & Galligan, Y. (2005). A job in politics is not for women: Analysing barriers to women's political representation in CEE. Sociologický Časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 41(6), 979–1004.
Dahlerup, D. (2006a). The story of the theory of critical mass. Politics & Gender, 2(4), 511–522.
Dahlerup, D. (2006b). Women, quotas and politics. Routledge.
Dollar, D., Fisman, R., & Gatti, R. (2001). Are women really the “fairer” sex? Corruption and women in government. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 46(4), 423–429.
Duanghathai Buranajaroenkij. (2017). Political feminism and the women’s movement in Thailand: Actors, debates and strategies. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Thailand Office.
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba. (2019, July 12). Elections in Cuba: What’s the point in voting? https://www.fhrcuba.org/2019/07/elections-in-cuba-whats-the-point-in-voting/.
Franceschet, S., Krook, M. L., & Tan, N. (Eds.). (2018). The Palgrave handbook of women’s political rights. Palgrave Macmillan.
Goetz, A. M. (2007). Political cleaners: Women as the new anti-corruption force? Development and Change, 38(1), 87–105.
Hogg, C. L. (2009). Women’s political representation in post-conflict Rwanda: A politics of inclusion or exclusion? Journal of International Women's Studies, 11(3), 34–55.
Hughes, M. M. (2009). Armed conflict, international linkages, and women's parliamentary representation in developing nations. Social Problems, 56(1), 174–204.
Human Rights Watch. (2020, September 11). Justice as a weapon: Political persecution in Bolivia. https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/09/11/justice-weapon/political-persecution-bolivia.
Inter-Parliamentary Unit (IPU). (2013). Atlas of electoral gender quotas. Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Inter-Parliamentary Unit (IPU). (2020). Percentage of women in national parliaments. Inter-Parliamentary Union. Retrieved May 10, 2020, from https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking?month=5&year=2020.
IPU Parline. (n.d.). Bolivia (Plurinational state of)—Chamber of deputies. Retrieved June 7, 2020, from https://data.ipu.org/content/bolivia-plurinational-state?chamber_id=13344.
King Prajadhipok's Institute. (2008). Satri kap kanmueang: Khwampenching phuenthi thang kanmueang lae kan khapkhluean [Women and politics: Reality, political space and the driving]. Thammada Press.
Kodelja, Z. (2016). Equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. CEPS Journal, 6(2), 9–24.
LeFranc, A., Pistolesi, N., & Trannoy, A. (2009). Equality of opportunity and luck: Definitions and testable conditions, with an application to income in France. Journal of Public Economics, 93(11–12), 1189–1207.
Luciak, I. A. (2005). Party and state in Cuba: Gender equality in political decision making. Politics & Gender, 1(2), 241–263.
Maguire, S. (2018). Barriers to women entering parliament and local government (IPR Report), University of Bath. Retrieved from https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/barriers-towomen-entering-parliament-and-local-government/attachments/barriers-to-women.pdf.
McDonagh, E. (2009). The motherless state: Women's political leadership and American democracy. University of Chicago Press.
McElroy, G., & Marsh, M. (2010). Candidate gender and voter choice: Analysis from a multimember preferential voting system. Political Research Quarterly, 63(4), 822–833.
Ockey, J. (1999). Constructing the Thai middle class. In M. Pinches (Ed.), Culture and privilege in capitalist Asia (pp. 230–250). Routledge.
Paasilinna, S. (2016). Women’s reserved seats in Bangladesh: A systemic analysis of meaningful representation. Arlington, VA: International Foundation for Electoral Systems.
Pineo, R. (2016). Progress in Bolivia: Declining the United States influence and the victories of evo morales. Journal of Developing Societies, 32, 421–453.
Powley, E. (2006). Rwanda: The impact of women legislators on policy outcomes affecting children and families. UNICEF “The State of the World’s Children” Background Paper.
Schwindt-Bayer, L. A. (2009). Making quotas work: The effect of gender quota laws on the election of women. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 34, 5–28.
Spender, P. (2015). Gender quotas on boards—Is it time for Australia to lean in? Deakin Law Review, 20(1), 95–122.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2019). World Population Prospects 2019: Volume II: Demographic Profiles. https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Volume-II-Demographic-Profiles.pdf.
United Nations Development Programme. (UNDP). (2019). Human development report 2019. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2019.pdf.
UN Women. (2013, August 13). Revisiting Rwanda five years after record-breaking parliamentary elections. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/8/feature-rwanda-women-in-parliament.
Wängnerud, L. (2012). Why women are less corrupt than men. Good government: The relevance of political science (pp. 230–250). Edward Elgar.
Warner, G. (2016, July 29). It's the no. 1 country for women in politics—But not in daily life. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/07/29/487360094/invisibilia-no-one-thought-this-all-womans-debate-team-could-crush-it.
World Bank. (n.d.). Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%)—Rwanda. The World Bank. Retrieved June 1, 2020, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS?locations=RW.
World Bank. (2019). Women, business and the law 2019: A decade of reform. World Bank Group.
Wylie, L., & Shoker, S. (2019). Cuba: Women’s complicated political participation and representation. In S. Franceschet, M. Krook, & N. Tan (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of women’s political rights. (pp. 405–419). Palgrave Macmillan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chinudomsub, P., Chantra, T. (2022). Unfairness to Fairness: The (Im)Possible Ways to Promote Gender Equality in Thai Politics. In: Yamahata, C. (eds) Social Transformations in India, Myanmar, and Thailand: Volume II. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7110-4_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7110-4_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-7109-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-7110-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)