Rural Development Programmes, Women’s Participation and Organizations in Malaysia

Abstract

The process of rural development in Malaysia has, especially since the 1970s, been state-led, if not sponsored. This chapter focuses on the responses of smallholder peasants, with an emphasis on rural women, towards the kinds of changes occurring in the countryside. These responses — in the form of participation in state-sponsored rural organizations political parties and informal village activities based on specific socio-economic needs — have been varied. Differential participation among the peasantry in such organizations was both class and gender based and has been influenced to a certain extent by the nature of rural changes imposed on the peasantry.