Configuring an Ideal Self through Maintaining a Family Network : Northern Thai Factory Women in an Industrializing Society

Abstract

This article explores unmarried factory women's family networks and personal identity formation in an industrial community in northern Thailand. It focuses on these young women's strong and sustainable ties to family members, and the importance of maintaining these ties in order to form a positive self-identity after leaving their rural villages. By maintaining reciprocal relationships with their families and contributing substantially to their rural households economically, these women are able to construct ideal images of themselves as dutiful village daughters while also approximating themselves to the image of "modern" women in the industrial community. Creating an ideal image of themselves illustrates the way that "modernity" and "tradition" are interpreted and embodied among these female factory workers. While theories about modernization have traditionally assumed that modernization weakens the ties among families, kin groups, and communities, more recent literature demonstrates that such theories are not applicable to many Asian societies. This study builds upon such research, revealing that in the case of young factory women in northern Thailand, family support networks actually enable these women to maximize their opportunities to work at the estate, contribute financially to their rural families, and gain some degree of financial independence and social autonomy. On the other hand, this study also shows that factory women's practice of maintaining family ties is not just a remnant of a village-based social norm, but takes on a new meaning in their new community. Retaining reciprocal relations with their families becomes an active and creative strategy young women use in order to adjust to the rapid social change in their community and to develop a positive self-identity.