Gender Roles in Khmer Society

As defined in the glossary of Introducing Cultural Anthropology by Roberta Edwards Lenkeit, “gender roles” refers to “the tasks and behaviour assigned by a culture to each sex.” That is, people who are born with different sexes are supposed to do different things and act in different ways as expected by the society they belong to. Each sex has his or her own appropriate set of behaviour, which might be inappropriate for another sex. Like most societies in the world, Khmer society has the similar division of gender roles, seen from the early stages of a person’s life through their old age.

Indeed, gender roles in Khmer society begin early in life. As a baby who is just born, especially in a family with above-average economic status, it is now—though not in the past—common to dress that baby according to whether he or she is a daughter or a son. A baby boy may be clothed in blue, whereas a baby girl is most likely to be in pink. This is because it is generally thought that blue is a boy color, and pink is a soft and gentle color best representing female characteristics. Furthermore, as the children grow bigger, the types of things they are provided with and activities they like to do are also typical signs of gender roles. Actually, nine out of ten boys like to play with toys, such as cars and guns, not dolls which are common among girls. Also, in their free time, boys are often seen playing games or sports while girls seen playing with the make-up, for example.

In addition, talking about the education among the males and the females in Cambodia, when students are ready for university study, the subjects that are considered for their selection in part depends on their sexes. It would be unusual or uncommon for female students to choose to major in information technology, architecture, engineering, and other scientific subjects, which are all popular among male students. True in most societies, these subjects will lead students to jobs concerning “outdoor activities, high-level decision making, and knowledge of mathematical principles”, which are believed for men to be predominant in. (Bailey and Peoples: 155.) Obviously, the popular and usual majors among female students are as: accounting, pharmacy, tourism, interior design, and so on, which will lead to jobs relating to “nurturing, routine interactions with the public, and repetitive and patient use of fine motor skills”—jobs women are predominant in. (Bailey and Peoples: 155.) These choices of study are made by each individual based on the perspective of their family and society.

Besides, the gender roles practiced in Cambodian society can be observed clearly after a couple gets married and has a family. Generally, a Cambodian man is regarded as a stronger gender, who, after marriage, is responsible for earning money to meet all the household expenses made daily. For average family, particularly in the city, the husband is expected to be away from home, spend most of his time during the day in his workplace, and come back home for lunch and dinner. However, when free from work, especially during the weekend, it is common and appropriate for him to spend time with his wife and children either indoors or outdoors. On the other hand, the Khmer women’s tasks and duty are different from men’s. Traditionally, for a woman in the countryside or in the city, as a wife, she is supposed to stay home most of the time, taking charge of most domestic work. Her job is bearing children, cooking, doing the dishes, washing, cleaning, and so forth. Another important duty of hers as a good mother is that she needs to take good care of her child(ren)—including teaching them morals and ethics in life. However, because of the revolutions made by humans, some women in Khmer society broke the glass ceiling and started going to work outdoors just like men do. Apart from their work as a housewife, they also share the part of earning the money to support their family.

What have been mentioned above are just some tasks Khmer men and women are assigned to do by their society, but there is one more thing to focus on so as to see the distinct difference between gender roles in Khmer society. It is about the proper set of behaviour which is important for a Khmer woman but not necessarily for a Khmer man. Actually, it is vital for a Khmer girl to always act gently and gracefully. In accordance with the writing about The Status of Khmer Women by Elizabeth Chey, it is said that:

Khmer traditionalists compare a Cambodian girl to white cotton wool. A boy is compared to a gem…when white is muddied, it can never be washed to the purity and cleanness it once had. Gem, on the other hand, can be clean to shine brighter.

Through this, it is clear that in Khmer society, the females are considered inferior to the males. A woman, for instance, cannot involve in sexual relationship with anyone before marriage, whereas it is nothing serious for a man. If she does involve in such relationship, she will not be considered desirable for other men to take her as their wife anymore. Thus, behaving in a proper way and following morals set by the Khmer society is very significant for Khmer women’s future. Moreover, although, with the improvement of technology, some Cambodians’ perspectives about this issue appear to change in favor of the women, there are still a lot of Cambodian people holding up this traditional mindset and practicing it quite strongly.

            Anyway, one of the reasons why these types of roles exist in this country may be because of the thought which is deep rooted in Cambodians’ heads just as in people in most society’s heads—the thought that says men are superior to women. Men are strong, independent, tough, rational, individualistic, and aggressive. In contrast, women are dependent, nurturing, gentle, emotional, physically fragile, patient, and passive. (Lenkeit: 160.) (Bailey and Peoples: 155.) Another reason may lie in the religions Khmer society has practiced. Historically, Brahmanism and Buddhism, the main religions in Cambodian history, has tremendously affected and shaped the way Khmers think. In these religions, the founders and important gods are all male; therefore, men’s superiority always remains true to most of these religions’ followers, even though it is now not as strong as it was in the past.

            In summary, the gender roles found in the Khmer society are not very different from the ones found in most societies in the world. The society assigned roles for the males and the females since the day they were born. Everything from the clothes and things they use to jobs they do indicate their roles in the society. Cambodian males are expected for strong and important tasks while Cambodian females are expected for inferior tasks—tasks that fits with the weak, dependent, and gentle nature of a Khmer woman. However, as time passes with greater technology, things start to change; thus, it will never be sure if these types of roles will exist to the far future or vanish someday.

Bibliography

Bailey, Garrick and Peoples, James. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Wadsworth Publishing Company, (New York, 1999). 

Chey, Elizabeth. “The Status of Khmer Women.” 13 May 2007, Cambodia, <http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/women.htm>.

Lenkeit, Roberta Edwards. Introducing Cultural Anthropology. Mayfield Publishing Company. (California, 2001). 

Smith, Teresa, Instructor of Cultural Anthropology, Pannasastra University of Cambodia.