Despite decades of campaigning, gender equality is still the main agenda of the women's rights movement.
"It will be a long journey to achieve gender equality," said Thicha Na Nakhorn, 64, a women's rights advocate and director of Ban Kanjanapisek, a juvenile detention centre.
Thicha is one of 40 women and organisations that recently won awards from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. The awards ceremony was held last week to recognise the work in developing women's abilities, promoting women's rights, and to mark International Women's Day today.
"Women are essential for a balanced society," said Thicha, adding that as society needs diversity, men and women should have equal rights to make individual decisions, "especially on a national policy level".
Thicha is a former member of the now-defunct National Reform Council and the Constitution Drafting Committee. One of her suggestions, while holding the title, was to have a one-third quota for female politicians in both national and local level positions. She believes that the new structure where women have a certain representation in parliament would help empower them and eventually lead to a balance in society.
"Although I can't make it successful today, the efforts are like a milestone on the road leading to equal rights," she added.
According to the Global Gender Gap Index 2015 of the World Economic Forum, Thailand ranks 60th out of 145 countries, slightly higher than their 61st ranking in 2014. The report measures gender equality between women and men across key areas of health, education, economy and politics. The country had high scores for equal education and health accessibility, but ranked poor on politics.
When compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand ranks fourth for gender equality after the Philippines (7th in the world), Laos (52nd) and Singapore (54th). Thailand is still in a better position compared to Vietnam (83rd), Brunei (88th), Indonesia (92nd), Cambodia (109th) and Malaysia (111st). Myanmar was not included in the report.
According to a 2015 National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) poll on "The Roles Of Thai Women In Politics", 87.82% of the total 1,256 participants agreed that men and women have to be equal (in ratio) in terms of holding national political positions because women have equal abilities as men and also the number of women in the country is higher than men.
However, 10% disagree with equality in politics because they think that women's ability to make decisions is not strong. Almost half (46%) think that men are more suitable for political careers compared to women.
According to Arunee Limmanee, 53, who won the outstanding award for women with disabilities this year, she wants more women to participate in politics, especially women with disabilities.
"There are no disabled women in parliament. Not a single one, so far," she said.
Disabled women, she believes, have always faced double discrimination. "I agree with Thicha that a quota should be allocated for women in parliament. If we need change [to empower disabled women], it should be done at policy level. I'd also like to see a quota for disabled women to play roles in national politics," she said.
Arunee is a former academic lecturer at Mahidol University and is a counsellor on health and for people with mobility impairment. She is also an adviser for the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) and works for projects by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
She is also regarded as a role model for women with disabilities as she has proved to others that having polio since young is not an obstacle for her to work, to have a family and to live a happy life.
"It needs women with disabilities to understand the needs of women with disabilities. In the initial stage, it is also important to have a law to allocate a quota for women with disabilities in parliament or otherwise it would be a rare chance for us to get involved in national policy," she noted.
Sexual harassment in the workplace
In addition to the gender gap in politics, issues of violence and sexual harassment continue to be a bane for women in Thailand and around the world.
Women need courage to fight against sexual harassment at work, said Watcharee Wiriya, 56, who turned her bad experiences into an empowering tool. Watcharee has worked as a bus conductor for more than 35 years at the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA), the main operator of public buses in Bangkok and its vicinities.
"I chose to fight because I must protect myself and my rights," said Watcharee, who received an outstanding award for women's rights protection from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security this year.
About a decade ago, Watcharee was fired from BMTA after she refused to sleep with her boss. "I was very much thinner and younger than this when it happened. At that time there was someone acting like a mamasan to deliver young female employees to the male boss. When I refused to play along, I was mistreated and fired," she said.
She asked the BMTA union for help and sued the employer. The Labour Court ruled in her favour and ordered BMTA to re-employ her with full compensation for two years of unemployment. The male boss finally resigned.
Based on her experience, she initiated field research on sexual harassment together with the BMTA union, and with the assistance of non-government organisations.
They found hundreds of harassment cases, but, unfortunately, most female employees were afraid to lose their jobs and did not report them.
In 2012, a committee to protect women's rights was founded at the BMTA by Watcharee and the union. The committee drafted regulations to prevent and punish those involved in sexual harassment. Two years later BMTA introduced a policy to fight against sexual harassment at work. There is now a working group at each of its eight centres to help protect the rights of female employees.
"BMTA soon became a role model for other organisations to fight against sexual harassment," said Watcharee.
She has visited many countries, including Norway, Indonesia and Malaysia and has delivered lectures and shared her experiences and knowledge to encourage other organisations to solve the issue of sexual harassment.
"We have helped many female workers during the past years. I can say that the issue of sexual harassment is almost gone from BMTA and this makes me proud," she said.
Constitutions and gender equality
The sustainable development of society must be based on equality between women and men, said Deputy Prime Minister Adm Narong Pipatanasai at a forum on "Women And Sustainable Development" last week.
Gender equality featured in Thailand's first constitution in 1932. It was written that women had the right to vote and to stand at national elections, he said, adding that there are also many laws to protect women's rights, against violence or to allow women to choose their preferred title (surname) after getting married.
"This government also supports equal rights. Last year, we passed the Gender Equality Act B.E. 2558 to prevent or eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and alternative genders (including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)," he said.
In addition, several committees to promote equality are being founded at local to national level.
"It doesn't matter how many rules or laws regarding gender equality we have, it means nothing if people do not execute them," he added.
It's true that the gender gap still exists in Thai society, he said, and expressed hope that one day Thailand will not need any law related to gender equality.
"I hope there comes a day when we no longer need to state gender equality in any law because it means that it has become common practice and there is no need for rules or enforcement. Until that day, I hope all women will keep their strength and be strong."
Proposal for women’s rights
The National Women's Assembly has submitted a proposal to Deputy Prime Minister Adm Narong Pipatanasai regarding women's rights for International Women's Day 2016.
The proposal features the following nine requests:
- The government needs to offer a solution for female students to be able to access formal or informal education while pregnant.
- The government should have funds to promote local careers among women.
- The government must protect women's rights and prevent discrimination by having strong punishments in place.
- The government should allocate enough budget to support the work of women's organisations.
- The government must protect the rights of female victims. The Thai Royal Police must have female officers to question female victims.
- The government must support local administrative organisations to campaign against violence to children and women.
- The government should offer solutions to promote the equal rights of women with disabilities, ethnic women and Muslim women.
- The government must increase the opportunities for women to participate in politics and be part of the national decision level.
