International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March every year. This March, ISEAS Library presents a selection of books by and about women in Southeast Asia and beyond. These include biographies, scholarly research, as well as studies on historical and contemporary issues.
Women in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
The apple and the tree: life as Dr Mahathir’s daughter / Marina Mahathir. Call no: DS597.215 M33A3
“This book hopes to detail how she has navigated her life as the daughter of a charismatic politician and a loving father, even as sometimes she has chafed at being constantly under his shadow. It talks about how she has struggled to find her own identity, to defend her worldview at times and to reconcile them with his at others.” – Publisher.
- Access to Justice: Women’s Experiences in Penang Syariah Courts / by Shariza Kamarudin Call no: HQ1170 S53
- Dreamseekers: Indonesian women as domestic workers in Asia / Dewi Anggraeni. Call no: HD6072.2 A8A58
- Extraordinary Women – Singapore: Breaking the Gender Boundary / by Karen Lee. Call no: HD6054.2 S6L47
- Growing Up Female In Multi-Ethnic Malaysia / Cynthia Joseph. Call no: HQ1750.6 J83
- 广东妈姐: 顺风跨南洋德行传人间 / 李国樑著.
Call no: HD6072.2 S6L45
Breaking barriers: portraits of inspiring Chinese-Indonesian women / Aimee Dawis. Call no: DS632.3 C5D26
As members of a tiny ethnic minority in Indonesia―the world’s largest Islamic nation―Chinese-Indonesian women face hurdles of race and gender that others would find insurmountable. In Breaking Barriers, author Aimee Dawis profiles nine highly accomplished women who have overcome these obstacles and thrived.
- Marriage, Gender and Islam in Indonesia: Women Negotiating Informal Marriage, Divorce and Desire / Maria Platt. Call no: HQ678 P71
- Maid in Singapore: the serious, quirky and sometimes absurd life of a domestic worker / by Crisanta Sampang. Call no: HD6072.2 S6S19
- Rapid-fire Rafidah: being Malaysian first / Rafidah Aziz. Call no: DS595.6 R13R13
- The long road home: journeys of Indonesian migrant workers / Sim Chi Yin. Call no: HD6072.212 S58
- Women in Minangkabau Nagari Government: Gender, Negotiating, and Contesting Power at the Local Level / Jendrius. Call no: HD6054.4 I5W87
Women in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam
Essential Trade: Vietnamese Women in a Changing Marketplace. Call no: HD6072.6 V5L62
Winner of the Association for Asian Studies – Harry J. Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies, 2016.
“[…] a compelling account of postwar southern Vietnam as seen through the eyes of the dynamic women who have navigated forty years of profound change while building their businesses in the stalls of Ben Thanh market.”– Publisher.
- A political biography of Aung San Suu Kyi: a hybrid politician / Michał Lubina. Call no: DS530.68 A85L92
- Cultivating Gender: Meanings of Place and Work in Rural Vietnam / Cecilia Bergstedt. Call no: HD6192.5 B48
- The Female Voice of Myanmar: Khin Myo Chit to Aung San Suu Kyi / Nilanjana Sengupta. Call no: HQ1236.5 B9S57
Lost goddesses: the denial of female power in Cambodian history / Trudy Jacobsen. Call no: HQ1750.3 J17
In a narrative and visual tour de force, Trudy Jacobsen examines the relationship between women and power in Cambodian history. Here, she seeks to describe when and why the status of women changed and what factors contributed to these changes.
- The Saigon sisters: privileged women in the resistance / Patricia D. Norland. Call no: DS553.5 N84
- Waves of upheaval: political transitions and gendered transformations in Myanmar / edited by Jenny Hedström, Elisabeth Olivius. Call no: HQ1236.5 B9W35
- Women, peace and security in Myanmar: between feminism and ethnopolitics / edited by Åshild Kolås. Call no: HQ1236.5 B9W87
Women in Southeast Asia and Asia
Women in Southeast Asian Nationalist Movements: a biographical approach / edited by Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting. Call no: HQ1236.5 A9W871
The authors show women negotiating their own subjectivity and agency at the confluence of colonialism, patriarchal traditions, and modern ideals of national and personal emancipation. They also illustrate the constraints imposed on them by wider social and political structures, and show what it was like to live as a political activist in different times and places. – Publisher.
- China’s left-behind wives: families of migrants from Fujian to Southeast Asia, 1930s-1950s / Huifen Shen, with a Foreword by Wang Gungwu. Call no: HQ684 Z9S54
- Chinese women in Southeast Asia / Joyce Lebra and Joy Paulson. Call no: HQ1731 L45
- Current Perspectives on Asian Women in Leadership: A Cross-cultural Analysis / Yonjoo Cho; Rajashi Ghosh; Judy Y. Sun; Gary N. McLean, editors. Call no: HD6054.4 A8C97
- Dynasties and female political leaders in Asia: gender, power and pedigree / edited by Claudia Derichs and Mark R. Thomson. Call no: HQ1236.5 A8D99
Rethinking Representations of Asian Women: Changes, Continuity, and Everyday Life / edited by Noriko Ijichi, Atsufumi Kato, Ryoko Sakurada. Call no: HQ1726 R43
Based on historic and ethnographic approaches, this volume examines how the ideological images of Asian women are produced, circulated, appropriated, and pluralized. Contributors analyze the interactions between the politicized formation of ideological representations and the everyday practices of women who resist and re-contextualize these images. – Publisher.
- The Southeast Asian Woman Writes Back: Gender, Identity and Nation in the Literatures of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines / Grace V. S. Chin, Kathrina Mohd Daud, Editors. Call no: PN479 S72
- Women in Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Timor, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei / Surajit Kumar Bhagowati Call no: HQ1745.8 B57
- Women warriors in Southeast Asia / edited by Vina A. Lanzona and Frederik Rettig. Call no: UB419 A9W87
Women around the World
Invisible women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men / Caroline Criado Perez. Call no: HQ1237 C92
Invisible Women has won the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, the Books Are My Bag Readers’ Choice Award and the Royal Society Science Book Prize. “Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more.” – Publisher.
- Family, Story, and Identity: Migrant Women Living with Ambivalence / Senem Mallman. Call no: HQ1161 M25
- Gender, politics, and Islam / edited by Therese Saliba, Carolyn Allen, and Judith A. Howard. Call no: HQ1170 G32
- The perspective of women’s entrepreneurship in the age of globalization / edited by Mirjana Radovic. Call no: HD6072.5 P46
- Women and Borders: Refugees, Migrants and Communities / edited by Seema Shekhawat and Emanuela C. Del Re. Call no: HQ1233 W874
- Women, quotas and politics / edited by Drude Dahlerup. Call no: HQ1236 W874
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