Fighting Myanmar's patriarchy, one all-male panel at a time

Despite backlash, woman calls out country's panel discussions without female speakers

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CHIANG MAI - A panel discussion in Myanmar about female leadership had two speakers. Both were male.

Another talk, about how to stay safe from the military government's deadly bombing campaign against civilians, featured four men and no women.

Yet another, an event to raise funds for rebel forces, gathered more than a dozen speakers online, all of them men.

Over the past four years, Ms Ying Lao has documented scores of "manels" - all-male panels - organised by the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.

To her, this exclusion of women is evidence of the deeply ingrained sexism in the country.

This suppression of women, she added, is also hurting the years-long battle to oust Myanmar's military rulers.

"Unless we are effectively fighting the patriarchy, we will never defeat the military," said Ms Ying Lao, who runs the Salween Institute for Public Policy, a Myanmar-focused think-tank.

"This is the time to be fighting all sorts of oppression."

Ms Ying Lao has long worked for democratic and feminist causes. But she has faced a backlash for her public evisceration of manels and her demand that at least 30 per cent of every panel be female.

Some critics have implied that attacking opposition figures makes her complicit with the military.

A few manelists, or members of all-male panels, have vowed to change. Not all of them have made good on that promise.

Except for Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's former civilian leader, the country's politics have been dominated by men.

She was the only female member of her administration, which came to power in a brief period of civilian rule before the generals again seized power in February 2021.