Pathways to Politics for Women Parliamentarians in Myanmar

The number of women parliamentarians in Myanmar increased during the last decade of democratization before the February 2021 coup d’état yet remained extremely low at about 15% of parliament in the 2020 election. This paper uses the concept of political pathway to explore barriers and opportunities that women parliamentarians experienced along their life course. It does so through in-depth interviews conducted in early 2020 with 20 women and 10 men parliamentarians elected in the 2015 general election. Results suggest that women tend to take distinct pathways from men and face specific opportunities and barriers through supply-driven factors such as parental socialization, experience of national crises, available peer networks, acquired professional experiences, and available family support, and through a main demand-driven factor in party recruitment and politics. This informs recommendations in the conclusion in terms of increasing resources and support available to women and addressing discrimination by political parties.

“Pathways to Politics for Women Parliamentarians in Myanmar” by P. Doneys et al. is published in the Journal of Asian and African Studies and is available online now. This research was performed as part of the first phase of Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar under the project Barriers and pathways to women’s political participation in Myanmar – Gender Equality and Decentralization in Myanmar

Funding

This research was funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, as part of their Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar (K4DM) Initiative, under Grant No. 108744-003.

Biographies

Philippe Doneys is an associate professor in Gender and Development Studies at the Asian Institute of Technology. As a political sociologist with over 20 years of experience of field research in gender and development, his work explores the gender dimensions of power dynamics shaping empowerment interventions, political participation, policy making and democratization in South and Southeast Asia. His research has also explored public policies in Asia as they relate to migration and human trafficking, technology, political ecology, health and gender-based violence.

Kyoko Kusakabe is a professor in Gender and Development Studies at the Asian Institute of Technology. Her research centers around gender, work and migration in Southeast Asia. She also works on gender issues in organizations, cross border investments, and gendered impacts of fisheries management.

Joyee Shairee Chatterjee is an Assistant Professor in Gender and Development Studies at the Asian Institute of Technology. Her research is at the intersections of the fields of communication, gender and development with focus on social and behavior change communication, health & social disparities, and exploring changing gender and cultural norms across varied domains.

Soe Myat Tun is a public health specialist who received a Master of Public Health (Global Health) degree from Thammasat University, Thailand. He has been working as project manager and research manager in various local and international non-governmental organizations in Myanmar for more than ten years. As a Research Manager at the Gender Equality Network (GEN), he oversaw and managed all social research projects conducted by GEN in Myanmar including the project “Pathways to Politics for Women Parliamentarians in Myanmar”, from which this paper is based.

Khin Cho Myint was research coordinator at the Gender Equality Network (GEN). Khin Cho Myint is a medical doctor and a researcher with 6 years of experience in gender and public health research. She has been focusing on women’s empowerment especially in the rural areas where marginalized populations are residing and supporting research planning, implementation, data management and report writing. She received a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Medicine (Magway) and Diploma of Research Studies from Yangon University of Economics.

Franque Grimard is an Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at McGill University. His research fields are Development and Health Economics, where he is interested in the application of quantitative and qualitative methods that can be combined to analyze policy issues such as poverty and social protection, gender empowerment, health, and sustainable development.