11 - The Winding Path to Gender Equality in Myanmar

Summary

Myanmar's transition to democracy has created a critical juncture with both threats to gender equality and opportunities to enhance it. In many ways the enduring legacies of military rule have impacted the scope of what changes are possible, and what can be imagined as possible, in advancing gender equality in the contemporary era. There is a common misperception that gender equality exists in Myanmar (Ikeya 2005; Ma et al. 2018). However, the reality for women and girls shows that gender inequalities persist in many forms. This includes in women's access to jobs, land, and credit (Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population 2017), political representation (Zin Mar Aung 2015; Maber 2016), participation in the peace process (Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process 2016; Williams 2018) and in popular perceptions and beliefs about women's roles and their abilities (The Asia Foundation 2014; Thein 2015). Women and girls also experience high levels of violence (Faxon et al. 2015; MoHS and ICF 2017). Gender inequalities intersect with other factors (Khin Mar Mar Kyi 2012) such as age (Faxon 2017; Agatha Ma 2018), ethnicity (Agatha Ma and Kusakabe 2015), religion (Thein 2015), class (Frydenlund 2019) and disability (Maber and Aung 2019; Khum 2019) to create a complex and varied picture of inequalities in different states and regions.

The National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women 2013–2022 (NSPAW) is the first-ever gender strategy of the Government of Myanmar. The NSPAW drafting process was initiated by the former military government after being advanced by women's networks and CSOs following Cyclone Nargis in 2008. The Women's Protection Technical Working Group, which was set up as a response to Cyclone Nargis, played a key role through its advocacy to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement (MSWRR). While the initial planning concentrated on women's empowerment in emergency situations, this evolved into a strategy structured around the twelve priority areas outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA).