ABSTRACT
Southeast Asia is an area that defies generalisations and calls for historical and cultural specificity, particularly in questions related to gender and development. Southeast Asia has long been identified as an area where women enjoy 'high status', particularly in contrast to the male dominance characteristic of traditional Indian and Chinese societies. In the British colonial office in Burma in the 1880s a colonial officer struggled with this anomaly of the independence of Burmese women and the peace-loving nature of the Burmese, which must be destroyed for Burma to 'develop', to be 'on the road to progress'. New rice technology includes high-yielding variety seeds and the inputs associated with mechanisation. In some parts of Southeast Asia, these packages increased agricultural productivity, but also increased stratification in peasant communities. Crops such as maize and cassava, and plantation crops such as rubber and pineapple, provide employment opportunities for Southeast Asian women and men.
