Gender

This chapter unravels how discourses of gender in Laos are rooted in Lao taxonomy, Laos’s socio-political history, diverse ethnic customs and Theravada Buddhism. In particular, it argues that the prevalence of the phrase bot bat nying-sai for the English term ‘gender’ needs to be understood in relation to Laos’s socio-political history. The chapter outlines some key social-cultural and political changes impacting the interactions between women and men, contributing to discourses of gender. Through empirically grounded vignettes of lived experiences of gender by differently positioned women and men, the chapter shows how the discourse of bot bat nying-sai shapes local people’s lives. At the same time, the vignettes show that in the highly diverse and rapidly changing social landscape of Laos, gender as a lived experience cannot be reduced to bot bat nying-sai alone; it is also affected by multiple other material realities, power relations and discourses.