Newsmaker
Monday, January 25, 1999
Name: Tin Myaing Thein
Age: 56
Education: Doctorate, Columbia University
Occupation: Executive director, The Immigrant Center
Hobbies: Hula, Burmese art
Whether they work in factories in Shanghai or raise children in Hawaii Kai, women share similar problems. A focus on
women’s issuesThey may look at those problems through the lens of different cultures and tackle them in different ways.
Still, says a Burmese-American woman who has been working on such issues since the 1970s, communication among women of different nations would give them more clout and help them come up with creative solutions. Women cannot rely on the world's male leaders to address their problems, she believes.
"We would find strength in common bonds," said Tin Myaing Thein, one of three people to receive the 1998 East-West Center Distinguished Alumni Award.
"Women are the backbone of the economy. The bottom of the economic ladder is made up of women with low wages. On that, a lot of profit is made."
Communication is difficult, however, and she's hoping that the Internet will give women the chance to communicate more.
"With e-mail and Internet, we can do things we couldn't do before," she said. "While face-to-face discussions are wonderful, when distance separates us we should use the new technology to help us."
Tin Myaing Thein started focusing on women's issues at a 1977 meeting in Houston to determine the U.S. agenda for the next United Nations Women's Conference.
She said the Houston meeting was the one that "galvanized" her. "I found so much energy. I believed in a lot of things they stood for."
The award recipient was born in Burma -- today called Myanmar -- and traveled outside her country for the first time in 1963 when she studied at the East-West Center. "The center is the foundation upon which I built my life."
And her life has been impressive. She founded the National Network of Asia-Pacific Island Women in 1978. President Jimmy Carter appointed her as the first Asian woman member of the President's Advisory Committee for Women.
In 1979 the National Education Association presented her with its Human Civil Rights Award. From 1984 to 1986 she directed the $27 million endowment of the American Association of University Women Education Foundation, and she's worked on projects in Asia.
Tin Myaing Thein named her daughter after political activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been kept under house arrest or restriction for nine years by Myanmar's military regime. As young girls, the two were friends in a Burmese Girl Scout troop. They later lived together in New York.
Tin Myaing Thein returned to Hawaii in 1985 and was one of 30 members named to a state Senate economic task force. Her daughter, Marni Reynolds, graduated from Hawaii Pacific University and her son, Robert Aukai Reynolds, attends HPU. Her husband, Jack Reynolds, is retired.
She said women in Hawaii don't discuss issues such as equal pay as much as on the mainland, and believes they should be more active. One problem is that people here have to work several jobs to make ends meet, so they must "be very specific where they place their energies."
She said: "People are aware, but old perceptions are hard to drop. We have to have more education. We have to continue to show women can perform in a variety of jobs."
Susan Kreifels, Star-Bulletin
