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4:20 p.m., March 24, 2003--A professor from Keio University, Japan, discussed the implications of modernization and globalization for rural communities of Southeast Asia Thursday evening, March 20, at the third Du Pont Scholars Lecture.
Lynn Thiesmeyer, member of the board of advisers for two World Bank projects in Southeast Asia, spoke in Memorial Hall on “Sustainable Development Across the Gender Divide: Local Knowledge and Community Initiatives in 21st-Century Asia.” As a specialist in discourse, social theory and gender and modernization and an associate professor of the information environment at Keio University’s Shonan-Fujisawa, Thiesmeyer has had the opportunity to work with community projects sponsored by government, nongovernmental, academic and private sector organizations in Thailand and Vietnam.
Her Mekhong Region Development Net/Women and Development Online Information Project has illustrated the modern development of Southeast Asia, including economic, physical and cultural change. She explained that these changes are not always for the better, though.
“Rural people have been both the targets and the producers of modernity,” Thiesmeyer said.
Thiesmeyer described how globalization has meant a loss of resources, subsistence, legal and ethnic identity and the spread of HIV for the majority of rural dwellers. She also explained the gender divide that has resulted among Asian cultures and the implications this has had on economic success.
“Women are dominant in the working sector for exports,” she said, “but women are paid less than men. In Southeast Asia, women have been the main wage earners for hundreds of years, while men are either unemployed or work only seasonal jobs.
“Women’s lower wages result in poverty for the whole family. For women, it may well be that work inside and outside of the household can be life itself. Work is your life and not in a negative sense. Third World women are challenged to rise above the object status.”
Thiesmeyer also spoke on the rise of HIV infection among Southeast Asians, 20-45. She said because individuals in this age group provide the main work force, the spread of the disease has had serious implications, including loss of work and earnings for individuals and their families and debt for the developing nation because of health care expenses.
“Usually the father dies first and the woman is alone and has to work while the entire family stays home, working for women’s wages which are less,” she said. “She often chooses to live with her parents. They can work sometimes if they are middle-aged, but often are not paid a lot because that generation is uneducated.”
Despite economic hardship, Thiesmeyer said government programs have taken many initiatives to reduce the spread of HIV by way of education. She said Thailand has lowered its rate of infection by 75 percent, for example.
“How did they do this?,” Thiesmeyer asked. “They went to all levels of society, including those we think of as invisible. The government went door to door in every village. The media broadcasts information. Public and private schools taught HIV and sex education.”
Thiesmeyer explained the strong sense of community that prevails in the rural areas of Southeast Asia, allowing people to survive in the midst of hardship. By way of example, she told the story of a young 14-year-old girl who was left as an orphan after her parents died of HIV. The girl is currently 22 years old, married and has a successful job.
“Without self-determination and community support, she never could have done this,” Thiesmeyer said.
This semester's Du Pont lecture series is entitled "Passing the Torch: An Interdisciplinary Look at a World Poised for Change." For information on upcoming lectures in the series visit [www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2003/dupontlec030403.html], or call 831-1195.
Article by Amie Voith, AS 2003
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