Gender discrimination is one of the biggest issues Cambodia is fighting with. Men seem to dominate women in all sectors. In an historical point of view, Cambodian women once were so brave and well treated as great leaders of the country. This supremacy and superiority are well embedded in Khmer literature. The word “leader” is always written in Khmer with women’s status at the beginning. However, in reality, Khmer women do not enjoy such pride when male counterparts take hold of most leadership posts in the bureaucratic governance.

Discrimination against aged group raises some concerns, too. Being a young teacher is less respected than being an older teacher.

However, being a young woman is an advantageous when it comes to love affairs. Old people like younger women better.

The following funny story is to tell us how the terms “old” and “young” are viewed so differently.

An old and rusty airplane was airborne. A few minutes later it experienced some serous technical problems. To calm down the passengers, a pilot talked on a microphone that:

“Don’t panic!” said the young pilot, “though the plane is very old, we are very young pilots.”