Review quote
‘An important contribution to the field and its breadth of case studies will ensure that it wins attention from a wide audience of scholars working on Asia. I should anticipate that scholars not specializing in gender would also find the papers useful’ (external reviewer).

Contents
This volume brings together an impressive array of internationally recognized scholars from around the world to examine the many facets of gender politics in Asia. Its central concern is how women in various gendered contexts in Asia position themselves in the (re)production of gender relations, and how they manoeuver in order to preserve or alter these. The volume covers fields as varied as the use of dress as a political weapon, the practice of healing as an indirect challenge to the dominant gender and political orders, and religious ordination as a struggle for equity in Buddhism. The agents of change and continuity described and analysed here include urban housewives, female politicians and NGO activists, Buddhist nuns and folk healers. Some challenge gender discriminatory practices and patriarchal cultures in their society while others aim to win social acceptance and to manoeuvre within the dominant gender ideology and structures. Upper-level tertiary students would find this volume useful as a secondary text in gender and women’s studies, religious studies, political studies, sociology and anthropology. It will be required reading in any course on Women in Asia.

About the authors
Wil Burghoorn is a senior lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology as well as a researcher at the Centre for Asian Studies, Göteborg University, Sweden. Her research is on gender and development in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Kazuki Iwanaga is a senior lecturer in political science at Halmstad University, Sweden. He is currently editing and co-editing two books on women and politics in Asia and Thailand. Cecilia Milwertz is a senior researcher at NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies in Copenhagen. She is currently engaged in research on non-governmental organizing to address gender equality issues in China. Qi Wang is an independent scholar. She received a PhD degree in Political Science from the University of Aarhus in 1997. Her research is on women’s political participation, political recruitment of women, and the gendered nature of politics in China.