Annotation
MAK Grace C.L. (1996), Women, Education and Development in Asia: Cross-
National Perspectives, Garland Publishing, New York and London.
This book is part of a series within the Garland Reference Library, of Social Science
known as 'Reference Books in International Education'. It has a very simple structure.
Following the editor's Preface there are three parts: East Asia, South-East Asia and
South Asia, after which comes an extensive bibliography, list of contributors and index.
Its main value lies in being the most recent presentation on this theme in respect of the
countries included, and in its straightforward and informative style and format.
The countries included are: The People's Republic of China, Japan, South Korea,
Taiwan: Republic of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka. As there is very little regional comment, we have decided to include most of the
annotations of these chapters under the individual country headings below. We may
note, however, a number of interesting omissions which inevitably diminish the
capacity of the book to reflect its full title, notably: the whole of South-West Asia and
the former Soviet Central Asia, Pakistan, Mongolia, the entire region of India-China,
Thailand and The Phillipines. There are a number of others too, of course.
In the brief preface, the author relates the volume to the international development
experience of the last two decades, and especially to the issue of linkage between
investment in education and economic development. She links this with Asia's
development experience, asking three main questions: 'How do its development
strategies affect educational policies and woman's status? In a continent largely
patriarchal, how have women responded to the increase in educational opportunities?
And how do education and development needs combine to affect women's chances in
their subsequent lives? Although the bulk of the book comprises ten case studies, four
interrelated aspects of schooling are supposed to be addressed throughout: the
development experience and its effect on women's status; the types of opportunity now
available to women and their differential take up; has educational opportunity enhanced
women's capacity to operate in, and influence, the public sphere? the impact of
education and economic participation on women's domestic status. Grace Mak
concludes in respect of the ten contributions that: "The variation among us precisely
reflects the different social contexts in which we, grew up and the ideological and
material conditions in which we live today", but for all concerned: "The struggle must
continue at both the macro-social and daily life levels".
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