2000 Gender and Development in Thailand

Section A - Thai women at a glance

Information and statistics in this section are from Thailand's Combined Second and Third Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (July 1996) and Statistics on Women and men in Thailand, National Commission on Women's Affairs, May 1999

Health

Women's life expectancy in 1997 is 74.9 years, five years more than males. Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births in 1996 was 16.4%.

Women are falling victim to AIDS at a faster rate than men. From 1984 until 1998 they represented only one quarter of the total number of AIDS patients. Today they constitute one third the total number of AIDS patients.

Education

Generally, women have less education and fewer opportunities for higher education than men. Half of the female population finishes only primary education. In 1994, the percentage of female and male population aged 13 years and over who were illiterate was 62 and 38 respectively.

In vocational education, women are more likely to select subjects related to their traditional roles, e.g. home economics and commerce, while most men choose industrial and agricultural subjects.

At the university level, a similar situation applies. In the field of engineering, female students represent only 15.7 %, compared to 78.8% in humanities, religion and theology.

Despite the fact that the ratio of male to female doctors in 1996 is almost 3:1 (15,572 to 5,535), a quota is in force which restricts women to 50 percent of entrants for medical degrees. In fields such as forestry, veterinary services and animal husbandry, men are given a higher quota than women are.

In 1997, the proportion of females participating in non-formal education was 53 percent compared to 47 percent for males. The disparity is quite large for the short term vocational course (65% are female) and for vocational certificate curriculum (67% female)

Political and social participation

In 1933, Thai women were given equal voting rights with men.

The current Parliament in 1998 has 22 female members, or 5.6 percent of the total.

The proportion of females in local administration levels is very small and has increased slowly in 10 years, from less than 1 percent in 1986 to 2.4 per cent for village heads and 1.9 percent for sub-district heads in 1996.

The number of female senators almost doubled between 1990 and 1996 - from 11 to 21 - but the proportion still remains low at just 8.1 percent of the total.

Women outnumber men among civil servant, but the majority are in the lower ranks.

In 1996, women constituted 60 percent of the bottom three levels (C1-C3), however in the top three levels the figure drops dramatically, 20.77 percent of women in C9, 10.56% in C10 and only 6.45% in C11.

The first woman was appointed to the position of permanent secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister, (the highest non-political post) in 1998.

Economic participation

Out of the 31.3 million people in the labor force in 1995, 13.8 million or 44 percent were women, with 80 percent (11.1 million) of these in rural areas and 20 percent (2.7 million) in urban areas.

In 1995, only one woman in every thousand held an administrative, executive, or managerial position. This has barely changed in the last 20 years.

Family

In the thirty years between 1960 and 1990, the number of divorces increased 12 times; one third of divorces taking place in the Bangkok area. Between 1993 and 1997, the divorce rate increased from 9.6 to 15.7 per cent.

About one quarter (24.3%) of households in 1996 are headed by women.

There has been growing concern about the problem of domestic violence and the recognition that women are subject to domestic violence, including physical, sexual and mental abuse by their husbands. Other problems include husbands' irresponsibility for their families, infidelity and multiple marriage registration.

More elderly women are left alone because women live longer than men do.

Gender-related indices

Since 1990, UNDP has developed several composite indices to measure different aspects of human development. These are published every year in the Human Development Report.

Human Development Index (HDI) measures the overall achievements in a country in three basic areas of human development - how long you live, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. The HDI is measured by life expectancy, educational attainment (adult literacy and combined primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment) and adjusted income.

Being a measure of average achievements, the HDI does not demonstrate differences between men and women. Two other measures have therefore been introduced:

Gender-related Development Index (GDI) measures achievements in the same dimensions and variables as the HDI, but captures inequalities in human development between females and males. The greater the gender disparity in basic human development, the lower a country's GDI compared with its HDI. For every country, the GDI is lower than its HDI, implying that gender inequality still exists in every society.

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) captures gender inequality in key areas of economic and political participation and decision-making. It tracks the percentage of women in parliament, women who are administrators and managers, professional and technical workers, and women's earned income share as a percentage of men's.

Data from UNDP's 1999 Human Development Report as shown in the following three tables, indicate varying degrees of gender equality among countries. For the interest of comparison, the selected countries are from ASEAN group (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines), Thailand's neighbors (Laos People's Democratic Republic, Cambodia, Vietnam), Asian newly industrializing economies (Singapore, Republic of Korea), and advanced economies with high human development ranking (USA, Canada, Sweden).

Table 1 - Selected Countries
Ranked by HDI, GDI AND GEM

Table 2 - Gender Gap in Education
Selected Countries

Table 3 - Gender Gap in Economic and Political Profile
Selected Countries

Dated: 6Jun2000