Sexual division of labor patterns are similar in Khmer society now to what they were in pre-revolutionary days, but with increased flexibility. Men and women both engaged in a broad spectrum of tasks in pre-war society, though men or women may have tended to do one task more than the other. Now women do more of all sorts of tasks, while male labor tends to be concentrated in the areas that he traditionally performed.
One of the major changes is the emergence of an urban mercantile class of ethnic Khmer women. In the 1980 and early 90s Khmer women dominated in market selling in areas that were previously completely operated by ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese. While Khmer women had controlled small markets in the countryside in former times, they now dominated in the central markets and in many kinds of shops, from selling gold to importing household appliances. It is unclear whether or not this is still the case in Phnom Penh markets and shops since there has been a re-emergence of ethnic Chinese traders in the mid and late-1990s.
Women interviewed said that they usually hold the money in the household, letting their husbands keep small amounts of pocket money. They further said that economic decision making in the family was usually mutual, that is most decisions are made after discussion between the wife and the husband.
Garment Factories
One dramatic change in employment opportunities for women has come with the opening of garment factories in the 1990s. In 2000, 70 percent of Cambodia’s exports were garments, valued at $980 million. This sector provided jobs to some 160,000 workers, the vast majority young women (Cambodian Development Resource Institute [CDRI] 2001:1-2). Most of these workers are uneducated, young women who have come to the city from rural areas. CDRI found that with extensive overtime the women can make about $61 per month, half of which they spend on subsistence. In order to send money back home, they minimize their own spending. They suffer from frequent illnesses due to inadequate diet and long hours of overtime work (CDRI 2001:4). These circumstances seem to open dramatic possibilities for change from traditional gender roles. With these women living mainly with each other, there are no male relatives to "watch over" them. With their own limited earnings they may be making decisions on their own about the course of their lives in a way impossible in the past.
Prostitution
It is sometimes reported that prostitution came to Cambodia with the UNTAC mission in 1992-93. This is certainly untrue. As in neighboring Thailand, it was considered acceptable for men to visit prostitutes as their budget allowed; just as it was crucial for a woman to remain a virgin until married and thereafter be loyal only to her husband. In 1989-90, when I first lived in Cambodia, there were certain areas of the city that were the domain of prostitution, including the famous dike area in Tuol Kork. The prostitutes included both ethnic Khmer and many women from Vietnam.
But in 1992-93, during the UNTAC mission, prostitution expanded dramatically. UN staff had very high salaries and few places to spend their money. After the UN mission, the high levels of prostitution continued, in part because of a new demand for international sex tourism (in part related to the Thai sex industry), and in part because rising incomes among urban Khmer meant men had more cash to spend. With this explosion in sexual activity, and with newly opened borders -- including the border to Thailand, which was in the grips of an epidemic – HIV/AIDs also burst on the Cambodian scene. Today Cambodia has one of the highest infection rates in Asia, 2.8 percent of the population.
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