Karen is one of the ethnic groups that live mainly in Southeast Asia. They are diverse in ethnicity and linguistics within the Karen communities as there are many sub-groups with different customs, languages, and religions with about 500,000 Karen people in Thailand. Gender roles are practiced in every community, in Karen communities as well. Karen men have masculine character performance and male roles as leader of the family and breadwinner while Karen women’s roles are kinship, childcare, recreation, sex, housekeeper, and provider. Karen women tend to express themselves at community and household levels rather than outside the community spaces. However, the changes in the world context over time have resulted in the shifting of gender roles and gender orders where the line between women’s roles and men’s roles become blurred, and yet, this can be considered as “changing in gender regime.” This research aims to study the changes in gender regime of Karen women in Mae Ramat District, Tak Province. Karen women who settle in Thailand’s border area can possibly distribute the new knowledge of gender study and ethnicity in the border area that perhaps present the different practices and thoughts of Karen women who settle in other areas. Gender regime is the fundamental concept to analyze the overall changes of Karen women in the area. The research employs a qualitative research approach, in which the key informants are 15 Karen women in their 20–60 s.

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Changing Gender Regime in Karen Community: A Case Study of Karen Women in Mae Ramat District, Tak Province, Thailand

  • Chonnipa Amornwat,
  • Yuki Miyake

摘要

Karen is one of the ethnic groups that live mainly in Southeast Asia. They are diverse in ethnicity and linguistics within the Karen communities as there are many sub-groups with different customs, languages, and religions with about 500,000 Karen people in Thailand. Gender roles are practiced in every community, in Karen communities as well. Karen men have masculine character performance and male roles as leader of the family and breadwinner while Karen women’s roles are kinship, childcare, recreation, sex, housekeeper, and provider. Karen women tend to express themselves at community and household levels rather than outside the community spaces. However, the changes in the world context over time have resulted in the shifting of gender roles and gender orders where the line between women’s roles and men’s roles become blurred, and yet, this can be considered as “changing in gender regime.” This research aims to study the changes in gender regime of Karen women in Mae Ramat District, Tak Province. Karen women who settle in Thailand’s border area can possibly distribute the new knowledge of gender study and ethnicity in the border area that perhaps present the different practices and thoughts of Karen women who settle in other areas. Gender regime is the fundamental concept to analyze the overall changes of Karen women in the area. The research employs a qualitative research approach, in which the key informants are 15 Karen women in their 20–60 s.