Based on three months of ethnographic field work in a Hmong community in Northern Thailand where approximately 90% of the community converted to one of two Christian sects (Protestant and Seventh-Day Adventist), I analyze changing ideas about gender and gender roles within this community. I document circulating discourses about how gendered expectations are different in this “new” Christian society, as opposed to the “old” ritual system of traditional Hmong culture. Specifically, I document an emerging Christian feminist discourse that frames Christian gendered expectations as liberating for women. These discourses are especially interesting given the generally more conservative nature of these sects of Christianity. Thus, this analysis will demonstrate how Christian Hmong people in Thailand have incorporated feminist discourse into a conservative, even patriarchal, Christian framework. I compare my findings to other anthropologists who document similar trends in seemingly ‘conservative’ contexts (Mahmood 2005; Menon 2002).
