The future of Asia is female

In light of the World Economic Forum on ASEAN that is currently taking place in Hanoi, many newspaper articles seem to focus on economic issues. One such article that I found to be particularly interesting is “The future of Asia is Female”, published in The Phnom Penh Post on the 11^th of September.

Whilst it starts out praising Asian economic growth, it also warns that this trend might slow down in the near future. The solution, according to the author, is increased investment into women. The measures suggested to achieve this are nothing revolutionary -  they include increasing the visibility of women in leadership positions so as to provide role models for future generations, making STEM field jobs more attractive to women, quotas for executive position et cetera.

What peaked my interest, however, was not the content of the article per se, but the fact that every statement concerning female empowerment was linked to the furtherance of economic goals. Bearing in mind the readings for earlier this week, this reminded me of the Indonesian steel company that instrumentalised Islam for its neoliberal agenda. Whilst reading this article, it thus occurred to me that feminism, or at the very least the proclamation of female empowerment, can be hijacked in much the same way, leaving aside all social, political, power-hierarchical factors and focusing solely on the economic benefit.

Towards the end of the article, it seemed as if this message might be nuanced: “We don’t just want girls to get good jobs”. But, awaiting the introduction of another non-business related dimension, I was soon disappointed to read the second half of the sentence: “we want them to be the ones creating new jobs.”. It is about jobs, then, clearly, all the way.

Source: The Phnom Penh Post: https://www.phnompenhpost.com/opinion/future-asia-female 11 September 2018