OP-ED: How women in East Asia became freer than their sisters in South Asia

Rural patriarchy in South Asia, instead of being undermined as in East Asia, has been reinforced by economic development Around 1900, women in East Asia and South Asia were equally oppressed and unfree. But over the course of the 20th century, gender equality in East Asia advanced far ahead of South Asia. What accounts for this divergence?The first-order difference between East and South Asia is economic development.