Reviews:

Japanese journalist and feminist Yayori Matsui investigates the current female condition in Asia. As she points out, the uncontrolled free-trade development of the 'tiger' economies commodified everything - and had dire effects on women and their work. Women were exploited in their own countries, and, if unemployment took them to wealthier nations, such as Saudi Arabia and Japan, faced abuse, violation and denial of human rights. When the economic crash began in 1997, the feminisation of poverty accelerated. Matsui makes a compelling case for alternative models of development, while cautiously hoping for a 21st century of empowered Asian women.

Reviewed by Lucy Sussex
The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
20 March 1999