Women's movement in asia

Symbol of women's movement

Overview

In the nineteenth and twentieth century, women’s movements in Asia played important roles in the revolutionary movements and the national liberations of their respective nations. Movements entail resolute action by a group of individuals sharing an aim and vision and acting together to bring necessary changes for the realization of the aim. Description of Women’s movements in Asian countries ultimately provides a clue to the capability of activism and agency in Asian women and their role in the attainment of peace and justice. Analysis of women’s socio-political participation in Asian countries reveals that women’s movements in these nations play a critical role in the achievement of human justice and rights. Some of these movements have been in existence for long and have significantly contributed to women’s rights in the country that they exist. In most instances, women’s movements in Asia fight similar courses some of which include equal labor rights, gender-based violence and equal education and health rights. However, women’s movements in Asia also face a lot of challenge due to the traditions and political systems of some Asian countries.

File:"The Asia Foundation's staff (and authors of this piece) participate in its first International Women's Day "Women in Peace" walk in Kabul. "

What is women's movement?

"See Also" [Women's movement]

The feminist movement are also known as the women's movement, it is a series of campaign to fight for the social discrimination of women. The feminist argues that women should be equally treated in all aspects, education, employment and social justification. The range of movements that feminist act were in order to achieve the same goal, that is the equal rights for women. Women's movements have campaigned and continue to fight for women's rights, and they also worked to protect women and girls from sexual harassment, and domestic violence.

South Asia

In Sri Lanka, women took part in the cultural revival of the late 1880-1910 period. They educated themselves and started to acquire professions. In the 1920’s, the Women’s Franchise Union spearheaded the petition for female voting rights that was achieved in 1931. In the following years, several organizations, as well as the Women's Political Union and the All-Ceylon Conference on Women, advocated for equal rights and justice for women. Additionally, women also actively participated in trade unions in the 1920’s and the 1930’s. They took part in the anti-imperialist struggle and advocated for their basic social and economic rights with a leftist party of the period. The Eksath Kantha Peramuna, established in 1948 was the first independent socialist women’s group to be formed, and Lefties Parties women led it . By 1975, women had made significant strides in attaining political rights, employment, literacy, health, life expectancy and education. After the freedom of Bangladesh, women organizations in the nation were cognizant of the awful violation of human rights in the course of the war and its subsequent effects. However, the nascent women’s movement failed to work toward mobilizing support for the female rape victims because of the hesitance toward challenging the strong patriarchal traditions of the society. The Women for women, a group of young Bangladeshi women was the first women movement to examine the positions of women in Bangladesh. By doing this, they availed a basis for various women’s movements to advocate for stringent development policies on women.

In India

Women's movements aim at defining, creating and defending equal economic, social and political rights for the women of India. Women’s movements pursue the rights of women within the Indian society. Similar to other women’s movements in the world, India's women’s movements strive for gender equality, equal work wages, equal health and education access, and equal rights for political activities. These movements have equally campaigned against issues specific to cultures within the patriarchal society of India. Such issues include laws on inheritance and the widow immolation practice commonly recognized as Sati. Despite the several signs of progress achieved by women’s movements in India, modern day Indian women still face various discrimination issues. The culture of patriarchal that is dominant in India has made the rights to own land and access to education difficult. In the previous decades, there has been the emergence of a worrying trend of abortion that are selective to sex. The women’s movements in India view these trends as injustices that should be discouraged.

In Nepal

There is a struggle against British imperialism that began with the Nalapani battle in 1814. Women marched alongside men in the civil rights movements in 1948 in Nepal. They equally participated in the 1951 democratic revolution that ousted one hundred and four years of Rana autocracy. Just like many women in other parts of the world, Nepali women took part in the struggle for liberation. The women strongly supported Marxism and popularized the idea that women’s liberation was contingent on the liberation of the working masses. Consequently, women’s movements in Nepal developed together with the political movement and were not a distinct women struggle.

ANWA

"See Also" All Nepal Women Association(ANWA) [1]

The Nepal Women’s Association was created in 1948 with the aim of raising awareness among women for the need of fighting for their rights and support the struggle against the anti-Rana. However, the organization split following variations in responding to the proposals of the governments. Later, the All Nepal Women Association (ANWA) was created in 1950, and it started joint struggles with students, labor and peasants organizations. It is an association of Nepali women who envisage a powerful mass movement to uplift the status of women and empower and liberate them in society. The ANWA organizes women in all sectors and classes and encourage them to fight against the injustice, discrimination and inequality. Also it increases women's participation in politics by providing enough training and capability building for women. What they demands for government are equal payment for equal work for women and prohibit any types of medias such as advertisements and films which are degrading women. However, during less Panchayat system thirty-year rule spanning 1960-1990, women movements and political activities were banned. However, the Left Democratic forces proceeded with their struggle against the oppressive political regime.

SouthEast Asia

Women’s movements have attained diversity and strength by opposing the martial law, work segregation based on gender in the export industry, sexual violence issues, and subordination of issues facing women. Further, these groups have advocated for the closure of the United States military bases in the Philippines and campaigned for the reproductive rights of women. Before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1565, Filipino women were already in the front position of the society. Women enjoyed a position in the Filipino society. The first women’s movement, Feminista Filipina was established in 1905 with the aims of proposing prison reforms particularly on behalf of minors and women, visiting factories and shops that employ women and men with the view of recommending reforms to labor and work for reforms in the education sector.

East Asia

Japan and China

women’s movement started in the later periods of the nineteenth century and early periods of the twentieth century. It is believed that the movements emerged due to the Western way of life that had reached Japan after the 1868 Meiji Restoration. However, other people opine that Japanese woman’s movements significantly drew from both native and imported way of thinking. Umar ribu, a women’s liberation movement started in 1970 due to campaigns against Vietnam War. The movement was similar to women’s movement in the United States and other parts of the world. It criticized the domination of modern Japan by males and urged a transformation of the economic, political and cultural systems. The movement also emphasized sex liberation. Women"s movements started in the twentieth century in line with the Cultural Revolution of China. Women movements in China are closely related to socialism and issues of class. Women movements in China campaigned against the communist government’s treatment of women’s liberation as an issue that would be achieved later.

South Korea

"See Also" Feminism in South Korea

There are two types of women's movement in South Korea which are called "radical" or "reformist". Reformist female movements concentrate on changing women’s roles in society. Most of these groups are affiliated with the Council of Korean Women’s Organizations (CKWO). The most popular organization is the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). On the other hand, radical female movements in South Korea focus on broad human rights issues. The Women’s Society for Democracy is one of the women's radical organization in South Korea which was confounded in 1987 and it believes that human rights issues take precedence over issues of sexual equality.