Books in the ASAA Women in Asia Series series

Takes an interdisciplinary perspective on the formation of the modern Japanese nation-state. This study traces the idea of women's and men's gendered contributions to the nation and the state through contemporary concepts of citizenship, ethnicity, sexuality, work and everyday life.

This book provides a detailed examination of judicial decision-making in Japanese cases involving sexual violence.

Microcredit has been seen in recent decades as having great potential for aiding development in poor developing countries, with Bangladesh being one of the countries which has pioneered microcredit and implemented it most widely. This book, based on extensive original research, explores how microcredit works in practice, and assesses its effectiveness. It discusses how microcredit, usually channelled through women, is often passed to the men of the family, a practice disapproved of by some, but regarded as acceptable by borrowers who have a communal approach to debt, rather than viewing debt as something held by single individuals. The book demonstrates how the rules around microcredit are often seem as irksome by the borrowers, how lenders often charge high rates of interest and work primarily to preserve their institutions, thereby going against the spirit of the microcredit movement, and how borrowers often end up on a downward spiral, deeper and deeper in debt. Overall, the book argues that although microcredit does much good, it also has many drawbacks.

This book is the first to explore understandings of gender and Islam in pesantren (traditional Islamic boarding schools) and Sufi orders in Indonesia. Pesantren are crucial centres of Muslim learning and culture within Indonesia and this book demonstrates how Muslim women rise to positions of power and authority in this patriarchal domain, challenging and negotiating "normative" Muslim patriarchy while establishing their own Muslim "authenticity." The book explores female leadership, power, feminisms and sexuality to reveal that pesantren and Sufi orders are not only centres of learning, but also social spaces in which the interplay of gender, politics, status, power and piety shape the course of life.

This book explores gender, labour and class in Korea and Japan, both during the twentieth century and today. It shows how sexuality is inscribed in working-class identities, demonstrating that sexual and labor relations have been crucial factors in shaping the cultures of industrialization in both Japan and Korea.

Presenting findings on new domains of employment for women in China's burgeoning market economy of the 1990s and the 21st century, this volume offers insights into changing definitions of "women's work" in contemporary China and questions women's perceived "disadvantage" in the market economy.

Addresses the structural and interpersonal violences to which Asian women are subject, including sexual and domestic violence as well as within the broader community and the state.

With chapters written by Indonesian scholars and based upon extensive fieldwork experience in Indonesia, this is an important and fascinating examination of the meaning of work for women in modern Indonesia.

Addresses the structural and interpersonal violences to which Asian women are subject, including sexual and domestic violence, as well as within the broader community and the state.

Investigates the features and effects of feminism in contemporary Japan, in non-government women's groups, government-run women's centres and the individual activities of feminists. This book argues that the work of individual activists and women's organisations in Japan promotes real change to gender roles and expectations among Japanese women.

Explores the relationship between gender, religion and political action in Indonesia, examining the patterns of gender orders that have prevailed, and demonstrating the different forms of social power this has afforded to women. This book also addresses the relationship between Islam and women in Indonesia.

Examines Islam and women's everyday life, focusing in particular on the highly controversial issue of polygamy. This book discusses the competing interpretations of the Qur'anic verses that are at the centre of Muslim controversies over polygamy. It provides an empirically-based account of women's lived experiences in polygamous marriages.

Examines women in Japan and focuses on their transitions to adulthood, their conceptions of adulthood, and relations with Japanese society. This book considers various aspects of the transition to adulthood including employment, marriage, divorce, childbirth and custody. It shows how the role of young women changed over the course of the 1990s.

Examines gender, state and social power in Indonesia, focusing in particular on state regulation of divorce from 1965 to 2005 and its impact on women. Drawing on a wide selection of primary sources, including court records, legal codes, newspaper reports, fiction, interviews and case studies, this book provides a historical account of this period.

'Sex, love and feminism' are three aspects of the rapidly changing gender relations that shape young people's lives in the Asia Pacific region. This book discusses young people's attitudes to controversial gender issues such as role reversal, sharing housework, abortion rights, same sex sexual relations, nudity and pornography in this region.

Based on in-depth ethnographic work, this book presents a study of Filipinas trafficked to South Korea, focusing on women who entered South Korea as migrant entertainers and subsequently became deployed in exploitative work environments around US military bases there. It contributes to the extension of our knowledge about human trafficking in the Asian region through an exploration of the experiences of more than 100 women who took part in the study. The book challenges many of the accepted understandings about "trafficking victims" and unravels the implications of these narrow understandings for the women themselves. It explores the ways women negotiate trafficking largely outside of the emerging formal anti-trafficking framework, and explains how new community formations and social networks emerge crafted by the women themselves to manage and overcome their vulnerabilities in migration.

This book examines the life of women in the Indonesian province of Aceh, where Islamic law was introduced in 1999. It outlines how women have had to face the formalisation of conservative understandings of sharia law in regulations and new state institutions over the last decade or so, how they have responded to this, forming non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have shaped local discourse on women''s rights, equality and status in Islam, and how these NGOs have strategised, demanded reform, and enabled Acehnese women to take active roles in influencing the processes of democratisation and Islamisation that are shaping the province. The book shows that although the formal introduction of Islamic law in Aceh has placed restrictions on women''s freedom, paradoxically it has not prevented them from engaging in public life. It argues that the democratisation of Indonesia, which allowed Islamisation to occur, continues to act as an important factor shaping Islamisation''s current trajectory; that the introduction of Islamic law has motivated women''s NGOs and other elements of civil society to become more involved in wider discussions about the future of sharia in Aceh; and that Indonesia''s recent decentralisation policy and growing local Islamism have enabled the emergence of different religious and local adat practices, which do not necessarily correspond to overall national trends.

"Explores changing patterns of domestic violence in Asia. Based on extensive original research in the Maldives, it argues that forces of globalisation, consumerism, Islamism and democratisation are changing the nature of domestic relations, with shifting ideas surrounding gender and Islam being particularly significant"--

"Prostitution is strongly embedded in local cultural practices in Cambodia. Based on extensive original research, this book explores the nature of prostitution in Cambodia, providing explanations of why the phenomenon is so widely tolerated"--