Thai Women in Commerce

In recent years Thailand's assiduously cultivated self-image as "The Land of Smiles" has taken a series of knocks. From a Longman dictionary entry which defines Bangkok as "a city where there are a lot of prostitutes", through various television exposés, to a front cover of Time magazine which seemed more designed to exploit than to report, Thai women have felt themselves under media attack by the Western press.

It is unfortunate that these misrepresentations are often countered by elaborate--and frequently inaccurate--counter claims. To be sure, Thailand has no monopoly of the commercial sex trade, but merely pointing this out and then accusing Britain, Japan or the USA of being no better--and possibly worse--is, at best, a negative response.

Perhaps, instead of playing this endless game of charge and counter charge, both Thailand and its womenfolk would be better served by some positive publicity. Truth to tell, Thais and foreigners know full well that the commercial sale of sex exists, and has existed, in all societies from time immemorial. Quite simply, that's why it is known as "the oldest profession".

Having got that out of the way, and having acknowledged that a small percentage of Thais work in the commercial sex industry, it would surely be appropriate to consider what the overwhelming majority of Thai women do for a living, and indeed how they compare in this field with their counterparts in London, Tokyo, Sydney and Singapore. The answer to the first of these questions is "business"; and to the second, "rather well".

Of course, this intelligence will hardly come as a surprise to residents of, or frequent travellers to Southeast Asia--but it must be remembered that the majority of people never visit Thailand, so their knowledge is limited to what they can access through the media.

Accordingly, many people--including, perhaps, not a few Thais--would be surprised to learn that commerce has been a traditionally female domain in Thailand from pre-modern times, and that even in the late 20th century Southeast Asian countries top the comparative statistics for world-wide female participation in trade and marketing.

In these stakes, Thailand leads the entire world with an impressive 56%. This can be compared with other Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines (51%), Burma (47%) and Cambodia (46%), all countries where women have traditionally held a high degree of economic autonomy. At the other end of the scale are the predominantly Islamic countries of the Middle East, where female participation in commerce is often as low as 1-5%. The developed, post-industrial countries of the West come somewhere in between. So far so good--but why should this be? And how long has it been going on?

In any serious attempt to evaluate and understand the position of women in present day Thailand--and, at one further remove, in Southeast Asia as a whole, it is essential to examine the position and role of women in pre-modern times. To do this we should consider the position of women in Southeast Asian society before the comparatively recent veneer of Christian and Islamic values was introduced, and even--in so far as is possible--before the much deeper religio-cultural impact of Buddhism and Hinduism was felt throughout the area.

Based on recent anthropological studies of gender, it seems clear that traditional "home grown" Southeast Asian society associated male nature with warmth, sky, form, control and deliberate creativity, whilst female nature was associated with coolness, earth, substance, spontaneity and natural creativity. Based on these associations, clear boundaries were drawn between "male" work and "female" work whether at home, in the fields, or in the market place. Thus male work included all that pertained to construction and animals--ploughing, clearing the jungle, house building and hunting, whilst female work included planting, harvesting, food preparation and marketing.

Of these latter categories, marketing and commerce tended to be a female role par excellence, and visiting foreigners, whether from China, the Middle East or Europe, rarely failed to be amazed at the predominant role played by Thai women in the market place. To give just a few examples, as early as 1433 the Chinese traveller Ma Huan noted that "it is the Siamese custom that all affairs are managed by their wives". In 1727 the Briton Hamilton noted that "the women of Siam are the only merchants in buying goods, and some of them trade very considerably". In 1896 the American Hallet Holt, on visiting Chiang Mai, noted that business was almost exclusively in the hands of the women. Similarly his contemporary, the Norwegian Carl Bock, commented that in northern Thailand "women do all the selling. The pork stalls alone are kept by men, but they always seem to have more dogs around than customers".

Whilst in other countries of the region traditional female domination of markets and commerce was limited by the introduction of Islam and subsequently by Western colonialism, this was not the case in Thailand which retained its independence throughout the colonial period. As a result, the traditional market-orientated role of women remained largely unchallenged by external values, so that in a census taken directly after World War II (1947), it was found that three times as many Thai women as men were registered as owners or managers of commercial businesses in Bangkok. In the provinces the proportion was probably still higher.

During the intervening years between 1947 and the present day, Thai business women have held on to their predominant position in marketing, whilst in the more elevated world of high finance they have established themselves in a way that puts some of their Western sisters to shame. Today, whether at the stock exchange, in the gold shops and shopping malls of Bangkok, or at markets in cities, towns and villages throughout the Kingdom, the prominent commercial role of women remains unchanged and very obvious.

Thais saddened or depressed by the consistently negative press their country often receives can take heart from this fact. Indeed, far from being mere victims of the domestic, Japanese and European sex industries, when it comes to business Thai women are amongst the most liberated, competent and accomplished players anywhere in the world.

Chutimon Srithep

Originally from Lampang, where she was born into the family of a Thai civil servant, Chutimon was interested in travel and commerce from an early age. After finishing school she started running a guest house in Chiang Mai, later expanding to include a travel agency. During these years she established a profitable relationship with Air France and learned to speak English as well as fluent French.

Having put her affairs on a sound financial basis in Thailand, Chutimon went on to travel to Europe where she learned public relations and hotel management, as well as selling Thai handicrafts in Sweden. It was at this time that she first became interested in antiques. Subsequent travels took her to the United States, where she worked for a time out of Dallas as an exporter of heavy equipment to Mexico.

On returning to her beloved Thailand--few Thais can stay away for long--Chutimon decided to put her experience and investments to work by opening a quality Asian art and antique shop in Chiang Mai. In her own words: "I wanted to sell something new and exotic which people had not seen before... something which was exciting for both Thais and foreign tourists. It is my nature to enjoy meeting people and to engage in commerce. I wanted to sell unusual artefacts of high quality, not cheap but good".

The result was Under The Bo Tree, an elegant antique shop in the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. Specialising in rare antiques and artefacts, the business has prospered considerably, with export markets in Europe, America and Japan.

Ami Mat

Immediately recognisable by her costume as one of Thailand's colourful "Hill Tribe" minorities, Ami Mat is a young Lisu business woman. Just 19 years old, she runs a successful business selling ethnic minority clothing and artefacts to Bangkok Thais and foreign tourists.

Originating centuries ago in the Tibet-Burma border regions, the Lisu are thought to have first entered Thailand via Chiang Rai in the late 19th century. Most Lisu in Thailand, like Ami Mat, are members of the sub-group known as "Flowery Lisu" because of the colourful dress of the women. They are also sometimes known as "Chinese Lisu", both because of their esteem for Chinese culture, and because of their close commercial links with the Yunnanese Chinese of the region.

Like the Yunnanese, with whom they often intermarry, the Lisu are renowned for their commercial drive and business sense. Perhaps more than any other Hill People in Thailand, the Lisu strive for personal success and material advancement, so that their villages are generally the richest and best-maintained in the northern hills. Lisu women are well known for their business acumen and independence, and Ami Mat?s goal is to continue in this proud tradition.

Kusuma Srithong

A native of central Thailand, Kusuma--nicknamed "Gop", or "Frog"--was born into a middle class family, the daughter of an officer in the Thai armed forces. Although interested in design and fashion from her early teens, Kusuma was also drawn to the world of commerce, and determined to cover her options by obtaining professional business qualifications. Accordingly, she registered at Chiang Mai's Payap University to study commerce, whilst at the same time pursuing a modelling career at weekends and during breaks from study.

It was hard work, but it paid off. Kusuma graduated from Payap with a degree in Banking and Finance. She was also voted Top Model of Northern Thailand and won the prestigious Domon modelling competition.

Those who know Kusuma are struck not just by her beauty and natural intelligence, but also by her unpretentious and unassuming nature. Kusuma, no doubt, would be the last to make such a claim, but she is in many ways a model of traditional Thai womanhood--discreet, hard-working, ambitious, and financially astute.

This article was originally published in Asia Magazine.

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