Becoming and being academic women in Lao PDR: Stoic but desiring change

Abstract

This is the first study of the role of women teaching in a university in Lao PDR. The extensive literature on this subject in Western countries guided the sixteen interviews in Laotian that were translated and analysed with the assistance of NVIVO. Pipeline effects limited women's entrance to the academy. We found eight junior women were motivated extrinsically to become academics compared to the intrinsic motivation of most senior women. In becoming university teachers, the senior women had more to deal with. Most of the women interviewed were also required to do mundane service duties as well as teach while the male academics were involved in administration as well as teaching and were much more likely to be tenured and to do research. The women's explanations of these differences were largely given in terms of a competency discourse and the effects of stereotyping. Practices were different from national policy. Culture and tradition are important factors governing gender choices in Lao PDR including at the university. Frame factor theory was useful as a process explanation that limited women's choices. Yet, in terms of the future, the women identified a range of practical actions that they or others, such as the university leaders and the men in their lives could undertake to create a community with greater equity. Future areas for research are identified.