SOCIAL MOVEMENT OF THAI WOMEN’S MOVEMENT REFORM FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Abstract

          The objectives of this article were 1) to study concepts and policies on women’s rights of legal and political reform, 2) to study WeMove’s roles and approaches, and 3) to study reflects of WeMove’s social movement. The research was conducted through the qualitative research methodology and the participant interview and observation were employed to collect qualitative data from WeMove’s thirty key informants at individual and organizational levels. The data were analyzed through the descriptive statistics under the concept of feminism and the involved theories were studied as the research criteria. The finding of the research was found that WeMove’s concepts and policies on social movement were derived from social factors, which were less social space for women and feminism. In addition, WeMove’s roles and approaches on movement were not aimed entirely at women’s issues but its strategic and tactical movement was specifically focused on the country’s constitution drafting. WeMove’s strategies and tactics were specified upon political situations because politics and political leaders became key factors for submitting the government requirements. But the strategy and tactic always used was ‘putting the bite on something.’ The reflect from WeMove’s movement was that there were both supporters and protestors among the women’s groups, including the government’s unawareness of its existence. This might be because of the matrix structure of social power and politics, which caused its movement unsuccessful as possible. But WeMove’s answer, regarded as its standpoint, was “whenever we breathed, we had to call for our rights because of our existence.”