3 - No one is Completely Independent: Economic Independence and Acceptance of Dependency Among Educated Women in Rural Northeast Thailand

This presentation explores what independence means for educated women from rural northeast Thailand. Feminism has emphasised women's economic independence. This is because it was important for women's civil rights to have a social life without having to depend on men. However, the pursuit of excessive economic independence keeps those who depend on it in a subordinate position and leads to the undervaluing of care work as an essential part of human life. While women in rural Thailand also have long-term career prospects in urban areas, childcare and eldercare have become new social problems.

Based on interviews with highly educated women from rural northeast Thailand, this presentation will show how their careers are developing. Some educated women work in managerial and professional positions. Many of them work in cities to support their partners and rural families financially, while at the same time relying on them to care for their children and elders, or to secure a place for them to return to in the future. They also recognise their dependence on others as well as their economic independence. They also provide emotional stability and psychological support to each other, building a close relationship of 'dependency' that is not limited to wage labour or care work.

While it is important for rural women to choose economic independence in order to escape poverty, they do not see their dependence on others as negative. We need to consider the meaning of 'career' or 'independence', which includes dependence on others.