ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how historical events have affected the Lao, including the development of Marxism-Leninism in the first half of the twentieth century and the rise and demise of the Soviet Union, which supported the Pathet Lao during the American War. It examines how economic liberalization on the heels of war and socialism caused major changes in culture and social institutions. The chapter shows that socialist economic changes did little to encourage greater equality between women and men. It traces the involvement of the Lao Women’s Union in village-level development as it provided resources, training, and authority to women in project villages. The most numerous institutional changes were economic: The Party and new government strove to fashion an integrated, monetized, socialist economy from scattered, small-scale, mainly subsistence agricultural economies. Global, national, and regional factors formed the context for local changes affecting gender relations, women, and families.
