Evaluering
Paralegal Training for Rural Women and Feminist Research Training in Thailand 2006-2008 Final Evaluation Report of Project
Thailand has experienced rapid economic growth and social-economic change over recent decades, the 1997 banking and financial crisis notwithstanding. Employment opportunities have grown fastest in the urban industrial and tourism centers, drawing both men and women into the cities, both for licit and illicit activities. The resultant out-migration from chronically poor villages has resulted in some remittance income for poor rural households, but rural incomes otherwise remain stagnant. Greater opportunities also draw migrants to Thailand from its neighbors in the region. Thailand has strengthened legal protections offered to its citizens, including the passage and promulgation into law of the Child Protection Act of 2003 and other legislation affecting women. Implementation of constitutional and other legal and statutory protections sometimes falls short, as social change lags legal changes, and legal knowledge and legal literacy remain low, particularly in rural areas. While the number and percentage of women in decision-making and political roles has increased, males still dominate at virtually all levels, providing often unacknowledged resistance to changes which would benefit women-and there by society. Societal norms change more slowly than the law, and domestic abuse, for example, is underreported because of widespread toleration, if not acceptance, in families and communities. As noted in the project proposal, research on Domestic Violence and Women's Health found that nearly half of Thai women (41% in the capital and 47% in other provinces) had experienced either physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. About one-third of women who had serious injuries requiring hospital care never sought medical treatment.