ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief analysis of the gendering of the labour market of four Asian countries where there has been relatively little research about the extent of gender similarities, differences and inequalities. The South Asian countries are Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the Southeast Asian countries are Thailand and Vietnam. The education of women has been rising in all four countries, but whether measured by literacy levels or by the numbers of women graduating from secondary education institutions, progress in education is much further advanced in Southeast Asia than in South Asia. The education data is patchier here, as the focus of many organisations involved in development statistics is currently on primary education. In Southeast Asia, women's participation both in education and in employment has been more broad-based in development goals, and in many ways the patterns appear similar between the two countries.
