User:Allison275/Women's rights in Myanmar

Introduction Revised
Women living in Myanmar continue to face barriers to equality. After forty years of isolation, myths about the state of women's rights in Myanmar (Burma) were centered around the conception that Burmese women face less gender discrimination and have more rights than women in surrounding Southeast Asian nations. After Myanmar opened its borders in 2010, this gender discrimination began to be seen by the international community. Currently, a variety of organizations--both domestic and international--strive to educate people that this is a misconception to better make strides towards protecting women's rights in Myanmar.

Myanmar's legal framework, traditions, and religious beliefs protect women's rights. However, many concepts of the traditional role of women continue to keep women in Myanmar from gaining advancement. Traditionally, a woman in Myanmar is responsible for her family's well-being, while the husband earns the income for the household. Women continue to remain underrepresented in government positions, and women living in rural areas of the country face fewer opportunities for advancement than women in more urban areas of the country. Additionally, women belonging to ethnic minority groups face added discrimination and barriers to access, particularly those who are not Buddhist.

Governmental strides towards women's equality have been made, particularly in establishing institutional agencies to address women's representation. Additionally, there have been changes centering general women's rights and women's representation. Despite this, there are still large cultural barriers, as well as additional disparities in access for women who are rural or ethnic minorities.

Education[edit]
The equal right to education for men and women is guaranteed by Myanmar’s Constitution. In 2008, Myanmar's new Constitution prioritized education after years of under prioritization of education in the previous military rule. Between 2008 and 2013, because of the government's encouragement of education policies, Myanmar saw a rise in the number of girls attaining education. Currently, there are more women than men in Myanmar's education system. The literacy rate for adult women is 86% compared to just over 90% for men. Education is co-educational at all levels. Despite the progress, there are continued traditional cultural barriers that prevent women from capitalizing on their education attainment.

There are extreme disparities between urban and rural educational performance. The Shan State region of Myanmar has the lowest female literacy rates at 59.4%.Additionally while a growing proportion of women are pursuing higher education this number does not match the future employment fate of women, where men make the larger proportion of those in the workforce. Moreover, women still do not occupy senior levels of economic decision making, despite their high education.

Representation in Government and Politics
Women in Myanmar remain largely underrepresented in elected positions. Women have been historically underrepresented, and while women's officeholding has seen some recent increase, women's rights activists in Myanmar argue the government has been unwilling to promote women's representation.

In the 2020 election, representation for women in the Myanmar's National Parliament increased: in 2018, the percentage of women in National Parliament rested at only 11.32%, but saw an increase to 16.83% of the seats in 2020. Generally, there is minimal support for female candidates. There are no resources at female candidates' disposal for female candidate-specific trainings from any source. However, political parties were where women received the most support overall, particularly in areas such as campaign financing and voter outreach. Myanmar has used a Plurality, first-past-the-post electoral system since 2010. Following the 2020 elections and what many women's rights activists considered a smaller increase in women's representation than expected, activists are calling for a proportional representation electoral system.

Women are also severely underrepresented in local government. Prior to the 2020 elections, women were less than 1% of Ward/Village Tract Administrators. Ward and village public meetings often have a strong attendance of female attendees, however women are unlikely to hold leadership positions or even voice opinion at the meetings.

Ethnic Women's Rights
Not all Burmese men and women have been able to vote in elections. In 2015, 1,000,000 citizens were denied the right to vote officially based on security reasons, however half of those barred from voting in the election were Muslims, largely Rohingya Muslims, and the other half were voters from other predominantly ethnic minority areas.