Seminar | Women’s political pathways in Southeast Asia | Nankyung Choi

Abstract
While Southeast Asian women’s socioeconomic status and formal political rights have improved significantly in recent decades, women remain under-represented in the region’s political institutions, especially at local levels of governance. Although interest in Southeast Asian women’s political representation has increased in recent years, our understanding of women’s experiences in their pursuit of elected office remains limited. Through a critical reading of the literature on women and politics and an examination of experiences in Southeast Asia, this talk will highlight gaps between normative theories and elite-biased empirical studies of women’s political advancement and the conditions, processes and outcomes observed across several Southeast Asian countries. Drawing on original ethnographic research in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the talk will present three major pathways by which women in Southeast Asia have sought election and re-election to political office. In so doing, the talk aims to highlight the significance of understanding women’s varied experiences and suggests an agenda for further research.

Speaker
Nankyung Choi is an affiliated researcher at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies and a lecturer in the Masters’ Program in International Relations. Previously she held an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong.

Registration
Please register if you wish to attend: [email protected]

Photo: Dhian Novitasari.