Education or Labor Migration: The Empowerment of Thai-So Women, Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this research was to examine the influence of education and labor migration on the empowerment of Thai-So women across generations, this study employed the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) to analyze decision-making roles in the areas of household, agricultural production, income control, and access to productive resources. The Kusuman district was chosen as the area of study due to the significant number of the Thai-So ethnic group, who primarily use the ‘So’ language to communicate within their communities and families. A purposive sampling technique was employed to select thirty-six key informants, and semi-structured interview guidelines were used as the research instrument.
Findings reveal that: education and labor migration are mutually reinforcing pathways to empowerment. While education offers foundational skills and social mobility, it also enables labor migration, which provides immediate financial benefits, exposure to broader social networks, and decision-making experience. Among Baby Boomers and Generation X, migration played a central role, with education having only limited influence. In contrast, Generation Y women, who had greater access to formal education, were able to secure better job opportunities outside their communities, leading to enhanced empowerment outcomes upon returning home.

This study introduces a new “Three-Layer Empowerment Model,” which conceptualizes empowerment as an interaction between socio-cultural structures, individual agency, and observable outcomes. The model captures how gender, ethnicity, and generational change intersect to shape empowerment trajectories in a patriarchal rural society. It also highlights the importance of integrated policy support for both educational access and labor mobility in advancing empowerment among ethnic women in Southeast Asia.