Dr. Kornvipa Boonsue

Thailand

Dr. Kornvipa Boonsue of the United Nations’ UNIFEM Regional office is a woman with a victorious personality. Throughout her life, she’s worked steadily as a scholar activist for the betterment of women and humanity. From the age of seventeen she held the post of Chairwoman of the Chiang Mai University Women ’s Group. Later, she worked with hill tribe women in the north of Thailand . She took her M.A. abroad, and returned to Thailand as the Director of Women’s Studies at Payap University . She went on to development work in Southeast Asia with the World Bank in Malaysia and AusAID in rural Thailand . She married, raised two children, and completed her Ph.D. at the same time.

Her M.A. research, which she completed in the Netherlands at the Institute of Social Studies at the Hague, has proven a landmark classic: Buddhism and Gender Bias. Now, at the United Nations she works to end violence against women. Her research indicates that cultural beliefs are the main contributing factor towards violence against women. These cultural beliefs, she indicates, are the result of a mixture of state ideologies which have been influenced by Buddhism in Thailand .