Accelerating progress towards gender equality in ASEAN

ASEAN countries outperform much of developing Asia on several social and gender indicators. Girls today are more likely to attend school, marry later, and access basic health care than ever before. Yet beneath these achievements lie deep contradictions. Rapid growth has not fully eliminated child marriage in Indonesia. While Malaysia and Thailand enjoys balanced sex ratio, their neighbor Vietnam struggles with son preference in fertility choices despite high female labor-force participation. Cambodia and Laos still report wide gender gaps in digital access.

AI Brief

Youth from ASEAN stress collaboration and inclusive programs that empower girls as leaders, not just beneficiaries.
Universities must mainstream gender studies to shape future policymakers and support ASEAN's gender strategy.
Education and storytelling can shift mindsets, helping girls see themselves as leaders and challenge limiting traditions.

In celebration of this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, we organized a dialogue with dozens of youths from Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University to discuss their vision of a gender-inclusive region. Their reflections offer timely lessons for policymakers and development partners seeking to advance equality in the post-COVID era. Four themes stood out for us.

First is the importance of collaboration and wider regional youth dialogues. University students and graduates repeatedly stressed that governments and NGOs within the region must work in partnership rather than in silos. They highlighted country-specific programs that succeed because they build skills and confidence, not dependency.

In Vietnam, the Brighter Path Girls’ Clubs and Scholarship Initiative—supported by the VinaCapital Foundation—provides ethnic-minority girls with leadership training, reproductive-health education, and financial literacy. In Indonesia, Plan International’s SHE Leads initiative nurtures adolescent girls as advocates for policy change, while SheCodes Vietnam trains young women in digital skills to narrow the gender gap in technology. Such programs demonstrate that inclusion works best when girls are treated not as beneficiaries but as co-creators of solutions. Similarly in Singapore, the Girls2Pioneer by the UN Women Singapore Committee is nudging young girls into STEM studies.

Second is gender mainstreaming in higher education. ASEAN’s universities must harness their youth as future reformers. Integrating gender into graduate training—particularly in social sciences and public policy—can transform how future leaders design institutions. In the word of a Vietnamese youth, “Gender research helps reveal hidden stereotypes and social patterns that often go unnoticed in everyday life.”

Establishing an ASEAN-wide network of young gender scholars could also support the region’s new ASEAN Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Framework (2024–2030), ensuring academic input into policymaking rather than leaving it to consultants or donors alone.

Third is recognizing overlooked vulnerabilities. For Myanmar’s youths, gender equality cannot be separated from conflict and state fragility. In areas scarred by displacement and violence, girls are balancing schooling with caregiving and survival. With formal institutions weakened, grassroots organizations such as the Women’s League of Burma and the Kachin Women’s Association have become essential advocates for women’s safety and education.

Another Myanmar youth pointed to UNICEF’s girls-only classrooms in Rohingya refugee camps as an example of meaningful intervention. Yet such programs remain limited. ASEAN’s rights architecture still hesitates to address domestic political sensitivities, leaving vulnerable girls beyond the reach of regional commitments. If the bloc’s “One Vision, One Identity, One Community” motto is to mean anything, ASEAN must extend solidarity to girls living on its margins.

Fourth is the need to shift mindsets through gender inclusive education. Cultural transformation begins early—in the stories children read and the heroes they learn to admire. Students urged education ministries to reimagine textbooks so that women appear not only as caregivers but as scientists, diplomats, and revolutionaries.

Potential examples include Madame Nguyễn Thị Bình, Vietnam’s revolutionary diplomat and sole woman signatory of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, symbolizes courage and intellect. Đặng Thùy Trâm’s Diary, written by a wartime doctor, also offers a poignant portrait of compassion under fire. The novel The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai portrays intergenerational resilience and women’s quiet defiance. From Indonesia, national heroine Cut Nyak Dien led the Acehnese resistance against Dutch colonialism, proves that female leadership has deep roots in Southeast Asia. Including such stories in schoolbooks can shift attitudes toward girls’ capabilities and aspirations, helping erode the social acceptance of early marriage and limited ambition.

The message from ASEAN’s youth is unmistakable: progress without participation is fragile. Laws and economic growth matter, but transformation depends on listening to young voices and embedding equality in culture, curriculum, and community life.

ASEAN policymakers should treat these student reflections not as idealism but as strategy. Achieving gender parity in the region’s future workforce will require sustained investment in leadership programs, gender-sensitive education reforms, and mechanisms that protect girls in crisis zones.

Ultimately, the next leap in ASEAN’s integration will not come from trade agreements or technology parks but from classrooms where girls see themselves as leaders of nations, not victims of circumstance. The region’s promise will only be fulfilled when its girls inherit not the burden of tradition—but the freedom to redefine it.

*M Niaz Asadullah is an Adjunct Professor at Chulalongkorn University and Global Labor Organization Southeast Asia. Pataporn Sukontamarn is Associate Dean, College of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

** The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of Astro AWANI.