Cambodia's future rests on its young generation, particularly university students and recent graduates. Yet, traditional gender roles and societal norms, such as Chbab Srei, persist, hindering true gender equality. This thesis investigates the experiences and perceptions of Cambodian youths of gender equality in the context of university students and new graduates. The research aims to understand to what extent Chbab Srei (women’s code of conduct) plays a role in shaping the participants’ world. It examines how their experiences and perceptions intersect with different factors such as gender, and how these young people’s agency contributes to the reproduction or transformation of the existing gender equality. This thesis draws upon a theoretical framework informed by three key concepts. The first two, habitus and capital, stem from Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Practice, and the third concept, intersectionality, is central to contemporary social theories of gender. A qualitative method was employed through focus group discussions, with the support of a short survey. The data was collected from 24 participants with 14 females, nine males, and one LBGTQ+. The results show that Chbab Srei still has a strong influence on the lives of female participants. Female participants’ mobility is strictly restricted, they are expected to be close to home, responsible for housework, and get married at a young age. Such expectations impact their education, networking opportunities, career development, and leadership advancement. The lack of female leaders made most youths perceive women as incapable of leadership roles and masculine traits as desirable traits for leaders. The knowledge of participants on gender equality is low, reflecting the habitus of the social world of these participants, a low-gender-equality-index Cambodia. Symbolic capital was found to be the social force for the participants’ agency in social reconstruction and transformation. While participants’ experiences intersected with their gender, their perceptions seemed to be uniform regardless of their gender. Place(s) was found to be another aspect that influenced participants’ experiences and perceptions. Participants’ actions for social change were mainly at micro and meso levels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-65262 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Sok, Phany |
| Publisher | Jönköping University, HLK, Sustainable Societies (SUS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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