Small Steps for Women in Asian Life BANGKOK - Pusadee Tamthai, a member of Parliament for the Thai opposition Democrat Party, rolled her eyes as she recounted how female members were required to wear skirts in Parliament until the late 1990s. It was so difficult for women to go around, running from their constituency to Parliament in a skirt. They wanted to wear trousers," Ms. Pusadee said during an interview in Bangkok last Friday with half a dozen female politicians and rights activists. It was a bit annoying. Personally, I'd like to have the choice to wear a pantsuit. Today, Ms. Pusadee, 61, can do that. And last year, Thailand elected its first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, 45, who, even her critics say, is charming many with her calm demeanor and winning smile in a country weary of coups and political violence. But Ms. Yingluck is the younger sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, a controversial former prime minister and wealthy businessman living in self-imposed exile after being deposed in a military coup in 2006. That means she fits into an Asian tradition of the wives, sisters or daughters of powerful men becoming political leaders after the men are forced from office, assassinated or die of natural causes, as has also happened in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. For some women in politics who see Ms. Yingluck as merely a proxy for her brother, that's frustrating. "We've been hoping and dreaming to have a woman leader in this country, but when we got it, we got Yingluck," said Ratchadaporn Kaewsanit, a member of Parliament for the Democrat Party. "Thaksin thinks, Yingluck implements," Ms. Ratchadaporn sighed. Does achieving power that way advance women's rights? Not necessarily, feminists say, though it can offer an opportunity for attitudes to shift. "One good thing we get from Yingluck is that it's image-building for women," said Ruengrawee Pichaikul of the Asia Foundation. Asia has 60 percent of the world's population, and women have seized opportunities as Asian economies have boomed. But problems like lower wages and chances for promotion in the workplace are endemic, as are threats to their physical well-being like sexual slavery, acid attacks, gang rape, child marriage, dowry-related crimes and so-called honor killings, according to the United Nations. There are bright spots, most recently in October when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, held its first ministerial-level meeting on women's issues, in Vientiane, Laos. That was a sign of interest, said John Hendra, an assistant secretary general of the United Nations, who attended that meeting. Women's advancement in Asia is "a political imperative that is absolutely fundamental" to both human rights and economic development, said Mr. Hendra, who is also a deputy director of U.N. Women, in an interview. "I think things are changing, slowly," said Ms. Pusadee. Too slowly. In Thailand, Ms. Yingluck is proving adept at playing the female card, but not in a way some feminists want to see. "She says things like, "I will use the charm of being a woman to mediate things, because women will not use violence,"" said Ms. Ruengrawee of the Asia Foundation. Last week, the prime minister announced she was taking over management of the country's security portfolio. According to The Nation, an English-language newspaper, she was doing it because "several men in the cabinet have failed to handle the issue successfully." In September, Ms. Yingluck said Thailand wanted to help resolve territorial disputes in the South China Sea. "Perhaps I can bring a bit of a woman's touch to addressing this conflict," she said at the Asia Society in New York. Perhaps more important for the status of women, in February she set up a 7.7 billion baht, or $250 million, development fund for Thai women aged 15 and over. Women can use the fund for low- or no-interest loans. "The money will be used to develop their potential and occupations, promote their leadership and ease their problems," a government statement said. Yet much here is colored by highly partisan politics. Huge anti-government demonstrations in 2010 ended with the deaths of more than 90 people in confrontations between supporters of the exiled Mr. Thaksin and security forces. Feminists in the political opposition accuse Ms. Yingluck of creating the women's development fund to "buy" female voters, just as they say her brother did with the general population. "I don't think the Pheu Thai," Ms. Yingluck's political party, "cares so much about getting women to stand on their feet," said Ms. Pusadee, the Democrat Party member of Parliament. They just want them to be addicted to quick cash. Still, the women acknowledge she is popular. "I feel she's acted pretty well in terms of mediating things," said Ms. Ruengrawee, referring to the intense pressures in Thai politics of balancing Mr. Thaksin's supporters, the traditionalist opposition, the powerful army and the revered royal family. "People are really upset and bored with the macho fighting," she said. So she just came in a really good time, a right time to calm people down.