WOMS202 Final: Study Guide Exam 4
14 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
1. What were gender relations like in Sungwai Jawa before the Malaysian state began to
implement its New Economic Policy in the 1970s? (Ong, "State versus Islam")
● Men were losing land and had control over female sexuality became
separable from a crisis in Malay cultural identity.
● Until the early 1970’s only kampung men sough migrant work; a few
women, usually divorcees or widows were compelled to earn wages
outside the village as rubber tappers or domestic servants.
● Daughters given half shares of land as compared to getting equal land
with sons; mainly male inheritance
● “relatively egalitarian (relatively equal) relations between the sexes" (343)
● Women weren't confined to the household or totally dependent on men
for economic survival
● Both men and women tapped rubber and tended coffee trees
● Land shares were given equally to sons and daughters
● BUT still Men were seen as guardians of their sister's, wife's, and
daughter's virtue
2. What was one change the Malaysia government instituted to modernize Malaysia, and
how did it affect gender relations? (Ong, "State versus Islam")
● Improvement of living conditions in the kampung coupled with a reduction
in the ability of most peasants to support their children by farming.
● Welfare policies prepared kampung children for different places in the
wider economy- coeducational high school and free trade zone were set
up
● Family planning was implemented- emphasized nutrition and well-being
while strategically pushing fertility control- create “nuclear families”
● The Deployment of Female Labor in Free Trade Zones- social
engineering redistributed the younger generations in new locations
throughout the wider society- thousands of female migrants collected in
urban free trade zones, working in labor intensive subsidiaries of
transnational corporations
● “Look East” policy- enforced discipline in modern institutions
● Encouraged migration for education and work in urban free trade zones
○ Decreased mens authority because women had a source of
income
○ Increased mothers purchasing power and resources and shifted
power within the family because fathers felt wrong asking their
daughters for their wages
○ Young women came into competition with males in experience
and knowledge making them more equal, shift in balance of power
● Encouraged family planning to reduce family size- this challenged mens
exclusive right sto their wives sexual, because men contraceptives will
make women go against their wishes, men were hostile to this policy, and
women were more interested in controlling their fertility
3. What kinds of gender ideals and relations were promoted by the Islamic revival
movement? (Ong, "State versus Islam")
● Influx of women into modern schools and offices
● A new “sacred architecture” of sexuality was being created, redrawing
boundaries between Malay men and women
● Weakened male authorities over women- parents were torn between
wanting their daughters to work and being concerned about keeping their
status honorable
● Factory women took to wearing revealing Western outfits (mini-skirts) and
bright makeup-”sarong-to-jeans movement”- seen as a license for
permissiveness that overturned kampung norms of maidenly decorum;
these nubile women while at work were supervised by men (non Malay
men) which seemed to mock male authority
● Working women began to date non-Malay men, breaking village norms of
sexual and religious segregation
● Promoted more gender-stratified social system (difference or separation)
than existed in Malay society
○ Woman put on more modest attire (put on the vail), women were
encouraged by their classmates to take on a more traditional role
-The government responded to their movement by getting on the game. They decided this will
happen through state operated channels. The population needed to dramatically increase by
being pro-natalist policies to encourage child birth.
4. What are two of the ways the U.S. government is involved in marriage?
● The government registers marriage and requires paperwork and licenses
for it to happen
● Legalizing same sex marriages- government decides who can marry who
(age, relation, color, immigrants)
● When you’re married you get taxed differently
● Welfare policies either encourage or discourage marriages
5. What was distinctive about local marriage practices in Huidong? (Friedman, "Intimacy of
State Power")
● Woman didn’t live permanently with their husbands until after their first
child, expended post marital natal birth family residence, were part of their
natal families and gave wages to them
○ Encouraged to avoid husbands, don’t want to get to know their
husbands and aren’t happy about it
● Distinctive practices were saw as futile according to chinese government
○ They tried to eliminate arranged marriages and happened very
young
6. Why was the new socialist regime in China concerned about marriage practices in
Huidong? (Friedman, "Intimacy of State Power")
● Practices resembled those of minority groups- marriages are inherently
public as well as private affairs- link individual, community and the state in
