Gender Relations in Forest Societies in Asia: Patriarchy at Odds

This important volume views gender relations as a crucial factor in the management of land and forests, and maintains that the continuing invisibility of women in these areas only compounds poverty, shortages, and the increased workloads of forest-based women.

Based on fieldwork conducted in several forest societies in China, Thailand, India and Malaysia, the contributors explore the changes in gender relations within indigenous communities, from matrilineal and/or gender egalitarian systems to ones where male domination is the norm. They assess changes in gender relations in forest-based societies in four situations:

- where there has been an imposition of colonial and state rule over forest communities

- where historical and contemporary revolts of forest-dwellers have taken place to reestablish community control over forests

- where states have responded to these autonomy movements by resorting to devolution

- where women’s inclusion in local forest management is increasingly becoming a policy norm