The Global Political Economy of the Household in Asia: An Introduction

Abstract

Across Asia, from the 1960s onward, significant changes took place in relation to women’s roles and their position in society. Largely driven by the region’s ongoing incorporation into the global capitalist economy, these changes were manifested in the rise of feminized forms of employment with the shift to export-manufacturing-based industrialization, the feminization of migratory flows, as well as changing social norms and expectations relating to women and gender. The experience of deeply gendered socioeconomic change in Asia is, however, not simply a story about the development of new patterns of work and employment outside of the home. The household, we contend, is fundamental to understanding the region’s economic transformation and ongoing incorporation into the global market economy.