This chapter is divided into two parts. The first examines the institutional factors, consisting of International Conventions, the Constitutions, political parties, national development plans. These institutional mechanisms could gradually expand Thai women’s empowerment. The second presents the socio-cultural factors such as family background, socioeconomic status and education. These factors mostly influence the increase of women’s political participation in Thailand. Conversely, societal values and attitudes, economic development and religion impact negatively on the number of women’s political participation in Thailand.
Institutional Factor
Obligations to International Conventions
Presently, Thailand has signed many United Nations Conventions including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These international agreements in relation to gender equality issues were also considered:
a) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international agreement initiated by the United Nations due to the demand of women’s organizations worldwide. The CEDAW was adopted in the 34th Session of the General Assembly in 1979. CEDAW is responsible for providing guidelines and frameworks for the state parties to develop women’s rights in each country. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it guarantees women’s equality from birth until death, including equal rights in securing children’s nationality, education, employment, legal action, family and marriage, work, as well as politics.
Currently, there are a total of 189 CEDAW state parties (2017).
Thailand has ratified CEDAW since 1985 and the CEDAW became effective in Thailand on September 8, 1986. According to CEDAW regulations, it requires its member states to establish a national mechanism, as well as to develop laws and regulations to adapt to CEDAW.
Consequently, the Office of the National Commission on Women’s Affairs (NCWA) was established by the Prime Minister’s Office Regulation to formulate policies and create programs for the development coordination and promotion of women10. Since 1985, Thailand has developed laws and regulations and succeeded in withdrawing most of the reservations11 (Office of Women’s Affairs and Family Development.2009:17-18).
b) Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA)
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) was the agreed conclusion at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. BPFA was also signed by 189 state parties. The Platform for Action is a global master plan which recommends state parties to formulate gender mainstreaming strategies. The countries agree to implement and promote gender equality as a core value and all policies, programs, plans and regulations and to remove all obstacles to women’s equal participation in every dimension of their lives, in both public and private spheres (Ibid.2009:18-19).
Thailand has benefitted from the progress made by BPFA in government policies, laws and measures that do not discriminate against women. By following BPFA, the 1997 and 2007 Constitutions included several articles that guaranteed gender equality and protection from
10 Prior to the establishment of NCWA, the National Committee on Women Development, established by a Council of Ministers Resolution in 1983, was formerly responsible for this role. The Committee was a non-permanent machinery because it would be abolished whenever the Council of Ministers was reshuffled.
11 Thailand reservations on CEDAW are as follows:
Article 7 : Equality in politics and holding governmental positions
Article 9 : paragraph2: Acquirement of the nationality of Thai women’s children Article10: Equality in education
Article11 paragraph (b): Right and opportunity for equal pay for equal work Article 15 paragraph 3: Contracting
Article 16: Equality in family and marriage
Article 29: Arbitration power of the International Court of Justice on a dispute Thailand withdrew five reservations as follows:
Article 11 and Article 15 by the Cabinet Resolution on 30 October, 1990 Article 9 the Cabinet Council Resolution on 8 September, 1992
Article 7 and Article 10 the Cabinet Council Resolution on 28 November, 1995
Presently, the Article 16(Equality in family and marriage) later withdrawn on 18 July, 2012 and one reservations
violence, particularly Article 30 of the Thai Constitution, B.E. 2550 (2007) , emphasized the protection of human rights, the principle of gender equality, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.
c) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were formulated from the Millennium Development Declaration which was adopted by 189 nations during the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 at New York, USA. This declaration was expected to be achieved by 2015, including the 8 goals12, 18 targets, and 48 indicators. One of the eight MDGs, especially Goal 3, was set to promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
Thailand has adopted the MDGs as guidelines of the national framework for development. The MDGs were also utilized as a framework for the Women’s Development Plan in the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2002-2006), including strategies to develop women’s potential and increase women’s participation in decision-making and the promotion of gender equality and social security (United Nations.1998).
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand
With the revolution in 1932, the concept of gender equality first appeared in the initial Constitution of Siam and has this developed over time, as reflected in subsequent Constitutions which contained gender equality-related provisions up to different levels. Specifically, the 1932 Constitution 13 guaranteed women’s rights in running for election at the national level.
Furthermore, subordinate laws and regulations, as well as the state function/mechanism on women’s development and promotion of gender equality have gradually transformed.
12 The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) had the 8 major goals: 1) Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty, 2) Achieve Universal Primary Education, 3) Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, 4) Reduce Child Mortality, 5) Improve Maternal Health, 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, 7) Ensure Environmental Sustainability, and 8) Develop a Global Partnership for Development.
13 Women in Siam have enjoyed the voting right in local administration since 1897 even before the democratic transformation. However, the right to run for election in the local level was not guaranteed until the Local Administrative Act of 1897 was revised in 1982.
This concept was expanded by the 1974 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand14 to include other aspects of women’s rights. For example, Section 28 stated that “women and men have equal rights”. Rights and restrictions of liberties which were against the spirit of the Constitution were prohibited. Section 236 provided a 2-year period forgovernment agencies to revise discriminatory provisions as well as passing new laws to promote gender equality.
The 1997 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand15 was drafted through the people’s participation process and was promulgated on October 11, 1997. This was the first Constitution that included equal human dignity of women and men without gender bias and discrimination.
Several sections also prohibited gender discrimination. Meanwhile, measures identified the obstacles and ensured that women had equal rights and liberties.
This Constitution included clauses regarding the new trends and concerned the protection of women’s rights. A vital clause of Article 30 identified and guaranteed women’s constitutional rights and stated, “men and women are equal before the law.” This clause referred to the equal rights protection between women and men and was a positive measure to promote the advancement of women in various aspects. Moreover, the Commission on Human Rights monitored the role for any violations of women’s human rights.
Similarly, Article 80 stated that all persons were equal before the law and entitled to equal protection and promotion under the law. This was a significant clause in the new constitution to protect against discrimination or unfair practices on the basis of difference in origin, race, language, sex, age, physical or health condition, personal status, economic or religious belief, education or political view (ADB.2002: 231).
The 2007 Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 16 guaranteed equality for women and men, similar to the 1997 Constitution and was composed of several sections regarding women’s roles and promoting gender equality in Thai society. Section 30 stated that “all people were equal
14 King Prajadhipok’s Institute, The Government Complex Commemorating. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2517 (1974), available: http://wiki.kpi.ac.th/images/8/8a/รัฐธรรมนูญแห่งราชอาณาจักรไทย_พุทธศักราช_2517.PDF, accessed on April 6, 2017. (Thai version)
15 The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2540 (1997). available:
http://www.oic.go.th/content_eng/relate_law/kingdom.pdf, accessed on April 6, 2017.
16 The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2550 (2007), available:
before the law” and were authorized without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.
Both men and women should enjoy equal rights and liberty.
Moreover, Section 97 of this Constitution referred to the rights of women to participate in political decision-making at all levels, and stated that the party list of candidates for the members of the House of Representatives must contain “the proper proportion of women and men”. This demonstrated that society had begun to recognize equality in a representative system, and thus a good start for balancing political power between women and men. In addition to Section 114, it specified that the Senators Selection Committee must select suitable persons from those nominated by several sectors in the Thai society. Selection was based on a particular regard for knowledge, expertise or experience beneficial to the performance of duties of senators as well as “sexual opportunities and equality” (Rungthipanon, Oranich.2013).
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 256017 (2017) was officially promulgated on April 6, 2017. This Constitution was composed of several sections which promoted gender equality and protected human rights in Thai society. The vital clause of Section 27 stated that “All persons are equal before the law” and shall enjoy equal protection under the law. Both men and women shall enjoy equal rights.
Furthermore, this Constitution also identified the rights of women to participate in political activities at both national and local levels. For example, Section 90 stated that any political party which nominates candidates for an election on a constituency basis shall be entitled to nominate party list candidates. A political party shall engage members of the party, with regard given to candidates from “equitably various regions and gender equality”.
National Mechanisms and Acts a) National Mechanisms
The Office of Women’s Affairs and Family Development (OWAFD) under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security was formed in 2002. This has become the national machinery in charge of formulating policies and plans, coordinating work on women’s
17 The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2560 (2017), available:
http://www.constitutionnet.org/files/thailand-draft-constitution_englishtranslation_june_2016.pdf, accessed on April 6, 2017.
development, protection and promotion of women’s rights and gender equality. The head office is based in Bangkok, but activities have spread through networks of local administrative organizations, NGOs, and civil society groups (APEC.2016).
Simultaneously, the Chief Gender Equality Officer (CGEO) and Gender Focal Point (GFP) are other institutional mechanisms which support gender equality in Thailand. The CGEO aims to promote gender equality in the Thai Civil Service System, create networks of gender equality in the government sector, and provide a team of trained gender trainers/advocates in promoting gender equality and development issues in government service. Meanwhile, GFP is a master plan to integrate and implement the promotion of gender equality in all national policies and plans (Thailand’s Gender Information Center. 2017).
b) Other Acts
The Family Name Act18
Despite the Constitution’s provision for gender equality, some laws and regulations are still discriminatory, particularly those related to family institutions. For the past two decades, there has been escalating pressure on the part of women’s rights, NGOs, and women MPs to remove discriminatory legal restraints and constraints. In 2003, The Family Name Act was a successful example of legislation which required women to change their family names upon marriage. This Act stated that a woman who registers a marriage license has an immediate legal right to choose freely between both her family’s surname or her husband’s surname, including selecting the prefix of her own name (nangsao: Miss) or (nang: Mrs). This was the first time in Thai society that a married woman had the right to make her own decisions (William J. Klausner.
2004: 74-75).
Gender Equality Act B.E. 2558 (2015)
Recently, the Thai Parliament passed the Gender Equality Act B.E. 255819 (2015) which was promulgated on September 9, 2015. This Act identified that an individual could be male, female or “a person who has a sexual expression different from that person's original sex
18 Only recently has the law been amended to provide women with the option to reassume their maiden names if divorced or if their husbands are deceased.
19Gender Equality Act B.E. 2558(2015), available:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/21/thailand-gender-equality-(LGBT or Transgender)”. The Gender Equality Act also provided for the establishment of three organizations to protect and promote gender equality as 1) the Committee on the Promotion of Gender Equality, which is responsible for promoting gender equality and receiving petitions on sexual discrimination, 2) the Committee for Ruling on Gender Discrimination Cases, which considers and rules on complaints related to discrimination, issues and remedies for those who are discriminated against, and 3) the Fund for the Promotion of Gender Equality (Human Right Watch.2017).
Roles of Political Parties
From the past until now, political parties are an important role in the Thai national-level political system. Party membership is mandatory for candidates running for the House of Representatives, and political parties decide which individuals will have the opportunity to become their candidates at the national level.
Due to gender equality, political parties in Thailand have now developed coherent strategies on gender issues in campaigns and policies on the promotion of women’s representation.
Moreover, women’s organizations and NGOs have encouraged many Thai political parties to increase women candidates and representatives both at national and local level. During every election period, the Gender Development Research Institute organizes ‘Political Party Platforms’
which give people the opportunities to question political leaders on their party agenda and their plans to improve the status of women (UNDP.2006: 29).
Currently, there are two renowned political parties in Thailand as the Democrat Party and the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party. The Democrat Party is one of the oldest parties in Asia which is relatively institutionalized and has an organization of active party branches with established internal procedures. Conversely, the TRT is the first political party in Thailand which was represented by more than half of the members of the House of Representatives in the 2005 general election (Bjarnegard, E. 2013: 47,130).
Table 3.1: Comparison of political party executives by sex between the TRT and the representatives. Specifically, Khunying Kalaya Soponpanich20 and Dr. Pussadee Tamthai21 become instrumental in their party’s increased openness to women, pushing for changes in the party structure.
Nowadays, the Democrat Party has established a quota of at least two women in the 11 members of the Executive Committee of each branch to help women access the decision-making level of the party. At the local branches, women members are also expected to work with women’s groups in their areas and encourage them to participate more actively in the political process, whether as campaigners or candidates (Iwanaga,K.2008: 47).
The Thai Rak Thai Party was formed in 1997. The TRT started a fundamentally new stage in party development. The party conducted successful women in politics’ training across all regions for potential women candidates. Prior to the 2001 elections, the party started to establish a woman’s wing. As a result, there were 38 elected women MPs and five from the party list. During the general election in 2005, the party increased its number of women MPs from 5 or 2.0 percent to 43 or 10.6 percent (UNDP.2006: 29).
20 Khunying Kalaya Soponpanich is the politician of the Democrat Party, the Vice-Chairperson of the Democrat Party in the duty of Northeastern, Member of Advisor Committee in the Democrat Party, and the former Ministry of Science and Technology in 2008.
21 Dr. Pusadee Tamthai is the politician of the Democrat Party, the Vice Chairperson of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Member of Parliament by the Party-list of the Democrat Party, and the Director of Women and
In 2011, the TRT was renamed as the Pheu Thai Party which was maintained under the power of Thaksin, who nominated Yingluck Shinawatra (his younger sister) as the 28th Prime Minister of Thailand. Similarly, Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan is one of the influential women in the party. She began her political career in the Palang Dharma Party and joined Thaksin Shinawatra in founding the Thai Rak Thai Party. She also served as Minister of Public Health from 2002 to 2005 and continued to hold the position of Minister of Agriculture and Cooperative of Thailand in the Thai Rak Thai Government until the September 2006 coup. Her current responsibility is chairman of Thai Pueng Thai Foundation (Fleschenberg, A.2008).
Women’s Development Plans in National Economic and Social Development
Thailand has implemented women’s development plans for 30 years since the First Women’s Development Plan which was the Long-Term Women’s Development Master Plan (1979-2001), issued by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) in 1979 when there was no national women’s development agency22. Thailand has formulated two National Women’s Development Plans as the 20-year Long-Term Women’s Development Plan and the 5-year Women’s Development Plan to conform to the National Economic and Social Development Plans23.
The First24 and Second25 National Economic Development (1961-1971) concentrated on economic development. During the Second Plan, female workforces in productive sectors were higher than males. There were 99.90 percent of female workforces, while male workforces were 99.65 percent. Despite the high rate of female workforce participation, these plans did not mention the female workforce in productive sectors and there were no specific policies to promote the female status and political participation.
22 During that time there was only the National Committee on Women Development which was appointed by the Council of Ministers Resolution. So it was non-permanent in its nature.
23 Hereafter will be referred to as the National Development Plan.
24 The First Economic Development Plans (PhaseI: 1961-1966), available:
http://www.nesdb.go.th/nesdb_en/ewt_dl_link.php?nid=3776, accessed on April 10, 2017.
The First Economic Development Plans (PhaseII: 1964-1966), available:
http://www.nesdb.go.th/nesdb_en/ewt_dl_link.php?nid=4154, accessed on April 10, 2017.
25 The Second Economic Development Plans (1967-1971), available:
http://www.nesdb.go.th/nesdb_en/ewt_dl_link.php?nid=3777, accessed on April 10, 2017.
The Third National Development Plan26 (1972-1976) was renamed the National Economic and Social Development Plan which covered the social sector, and economic activities to improve the economic situation and provide benefits in the long-term. The social development of this plan was also designed to improve the quality of life of the Thai people.
Furthermore, the United Nations Women’s Decade occurred during the Third Plan period with the announcement of the International Women’s Year (1975), the Women’s Decade for Equality, Development and Peace (1975-1985), and international laws on the elimination of discrimination against women (1976). All of these international laws promoted positive changes in the role and status of Thai women. In the general election under the 1974 Constitution, only three women were elected Members of House of Representatives, whereas eight women were appointed to the Senate (Office of Women’s Affairs and Family development.2009: 22-23).
The Fourth National Development Plan27 (1979-1982) emphasized on the acceleration of economic recovery during the first two years of the Plan. In addition, social development was also an essential part of this plan as well as education, public health, and the development of social delivery systems, particularly in rural areas. This plan was a great leap forward for women’s development. The 20-year Long-Term Women’s Development Plan served as a foundation for
The Fourth National Development Plan27 (1979-1982) emphasized on the acceleration of economic recovery during the first two years of the Plan. In addition, social development was also an essential part of this plan as well as education, public health, and the development of social delivery systems, particularly in rural areas. This plan was a great leap forward for women’s development. The 20-year Long-Term Women’s Development Plan served as a foundation for