Most studies of the processes of nation-state formation in Thailand have ignored the role of women. Studies of politics have long assumed “the world of the domestic and familial is the world of women, and that of the public and political the world of men”. This separation of public and private spheres has resulted in a tacit assumption that the primary protagonists in the national narratives were male. As Craig Reynolds noted in his keynote address at the International Thai Studies Conference in London a decade ago, “If we look at the most well-known books on Thai politics….we find a conspicuous absence of reference to and discussion about women and politics”. Pioneered by such feminist anthropologists as Penny Van Esterik, a newer generation of scholars are focusing on the role of women in Thai society. The question we must confront is whether women really were not involved in politics or whether our intellectual paradigm which has blinded us from a more complex reality.