ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the transnational influences on the evolution of the women’s movement in Thailand. It focuses on two major women-oriented campaigns: the movement to make Buddhist institutional hierarchies accessible to women and the campaigns designed to enhance the lives and opportunities of women working in the prostitution sector. Buddhism is one of the oldest transnational institutions in Thailand since its influence transcends national boundaries and membership reaches beyond the borders of the nation. Equally, prostitution has flourished in recent decades with the expansion of the tourism sector. Prostitutionlinked tourism has contributed to the rapid growth of the Thai economy in recent decades and has inserted Thai women into a globalized economic system. This chapter shows that transnational women’s movements have been vital in Thai women activists’ formulation of questions of gender inequalities and women’s rights. It explores the transnationalization of the key organization working with prostitution-Education Means Protection of Women Engaged in Recreation (EMPOWER) and discusses the importance of the transnational Buddhistwomen’smovement in theThai campaigns to establish aBuddhist female monks’ order-a bhikkhuni order.
