Rice Plus

Explores the economic coping practices of rural widows in the aftermath of the Cambodian civil war, exploring their access to key economic resources. This book concludes that although Cambodia's gender arrangement offered many economic options to widows, it also devalued their labour in a cultural structure of inequality.

War produces a preponderance of widows, often young widows with small children in their care. Rural widows must feed their families and educate their children despite rural poverty and the lack of opportunities for women. The economics of widowhood is therefore a significant social problem in less developed countries. This book explores in depth the economic coping practices of rural widows in the aftermath of the Cambodian civil war. War decimated widows' family support networks, including the loss of children - their social security. Their predominant economic plan was then to combine rice cultivation with an assortment of microenterprises - a 'rice plus' strategy. This significant study therefore also explores widows' access to key economic resources such as land, credit, and education. It concludes that although Cambodia's gender arrangement offered many economic options to widows, it also devalued their labour in a cultural structure of inequality: gender, poverty, and war interacted to reduce widows' financial resources, accounting for their economic vulnerability.

Acknowledgements
Preface List of Tables
Map of Cambodia
I. Third World Widows' Economic Vulnerability
The Economic Context of Widows' Lives
Southeast Asian Gender Patterns II. Cambodian Social and Historical Context
Cambodian Family and Economic Life
Cambodia's History of Armed Conflict
III. Rice Plus and Family Solidarity
The "Rice Plus" Economic Strategy
Household Variations in Strategy
Family Solidarity
Microenterprises: Source of Cash Income
Wage work: Selling Labor Power
Sexual Division of Labor
The Long-term Consequences of War IV. Widows' Access To Productive Resources Land
Credit
Education
V. Widows Surviving (Barely): Subordination and Resistance
Surviving or Barely Surviving?
Theoretical Implications
Tables
Appendix A: Named Widows Appendix B: Glossary
Reference List