Wives, Mistresses and Matriarchs: Asian Women Today - Hardcover

Offers a lively and accessible entry point for students and others, and it effectively uses a particular woman's experiences and reflections to inform a brief overview and commentary of a social problem or issue. -- Jan Jindy Pettman, Australian National University * Journal of Asian Studies *

This rich and perceptive book shatters the myth of the submissive Asian woman with its vivid portraits of women in the region. Drawing on her many years working in Asia, Louise Williams frames the issues facing women through the experiences of politicians, call-girls and mistresses, revolutionary heroines, laborers, and business magnates. Set in a vast region of enormous social disparity and rapid change, these unique stories dispel Western stereotypes and show just how often the concerns of women in Asia differ from those of women in the West.