ABSTRACT
In south Asia up to the borders of Burma, women originally were respected by their husbands and by their society. Among the patrilineal majority in western and eastern monsoon Asia women had no rights to land or property; remarriage of widows was proscribed, and a woman who divorced lost access to her children. The status of women has been attributed by many specialists, most notably Boserup, to environmental conditions and the forms of agriculture that these permit. In the People's Republic of China, women's rights were protected in the Marriage Act of 1950, but while divorce and remarriage are sanctioned, a woman still receives no share of the property for which she worked during the marriage, and still loses her sons to her husband's family. Legislation is not lacking in most countries for the protection of women in the fields of personal rights and in the labour market.
