Gender inequality in the transition economy: A case study of double burden of vietnamese women
GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE TRANSITION ECONOMY: A CASE
STUDY OF DOUBLE BURDEN OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN
Ngo Quoc Dung, MSc
National Economics University
Email: [email protected]
Nguyen Van Dai, MA
National Economics University
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Gender inequality has been much researched in the existing literature review
in the last few decades. On the one hand, women are much freed from some gendered
barriers that limit their educational, job and personal welfare opportunities at
different levels. On the other hand, empowerment for women worldwide has been a
‘stalled revolution’ in which they are constrained in gender stereotypes that require
them to play the critical role within the home. We argue that empowerment for women
also creates more burden for them with which they need to shoulder two roles of both
paid labor and unpaid care-giver. In so doing, Vietnam, a transition economy, is
selected to make a case for the increasing burden women face. Besides the literature
review, secondary data mainly from General Statistical Office of Vietnam is used to
provide more evidence on in what way women are in the double burden. We conclude
that empowerment for Vietnamese women has been far from achieving gender
equality and the continuation of a holistic gender equality strategy is needed.
Key words: Double burden; gender equality; gender roles
1. Introduction
The transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy has
brought about positive changes to women's rights and status in Vietnam. Women in
Vietnam participate more and more in economic, political and social activities.
Women participating in the labor market are increasingly at a high level with 48.21%
of the total number of employees aged 15 and above working in 2017 (General
Statistics Office of Vietnam 2017). The proportion of women participating in paid
jobs is increasing, at 73.2% in 2017 (UNDP 2018). The rate of women's income is
83.74% compared to Vietnamese men in 2017. The proportion of female National
Assembly deputies increased from 3% (National Assembly I) to 24.4% (National
Assembly XIII) and increased. level 26.72% (QH XIV). Especially, for the first time, the
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National Assembly of Vietnam has a female president. According to a survey of small
and medium enterprises in 2016, 25% of leaders of small and medium enterprises in
Vietnam are female (Le Quang Canh and Nguyen Vu Hung 2016).
However, gender barriers for women still exist. The effects of Confucianism
have formed and deepened gender stereotypes and prejudices that are detrimental to
both men and women, especially women. Women are often subordinate to men within
the family and society. Strictly customary laws such as "tam tòng, tứ đức"(Three
Obediences and Four Virtues) or more recently "giỏi việc nước, đảm việc nhà"... are
still highlighted by a vast majority of the population. These cultural factors have
gradually limited the rights and scope that women can participate in. As a result,
women still face many barriers to participation in economic, political and social fields.
On the other hand, gender stereotypes and prejudices exist in the media in Vietnam. As
reported by CSAGA and Oxfam in 2011, communication in Vietnam has been distorted
and perpetuated gender stereotypes. Women often appear and are featured with the
image of "Nội tướng" (main player within the home) as a housewife, harmony keeper,
taking care of meals and health for family members (CSAGA and Oxfam 2011).
2. Literature Review
The term ‘patriarchy’ often used by feminist scholars and sociologists refers
to the structures within which men predominate and take their authority over women
(Waters, 1989). There are some basic forms of patriarchy including the kinship ruled
by men, the oppression from men, the men-oriented perpetuation of social
reproduction and the formation of the so-called ‘sex-class’ categories. More
specifically, first, kinship structure becomes the root of male domination to express
the masculinity and power in a family. As cited by Waters (1989, 195), Maine (1963,
118) indicated that “The eldest male parent - the eldest ascendant -is absolutely
supreme in his household. His dominion extends to life and death, and is as unqualified
over his children and houses as over his slaves; indeed the relations of sonship and
serfdom appear to differ little beyond the capacity which the child in blood possesses
of becoming one day a family himself”. Obviously, in this case, before being affected
by the official laws in the legal system, the family is first structured by male
domination. Similarly, Weber (1968) elaborated on the understanding of ‘patriarchy’.
He considers ‘patriarchy’ as the ‘patriarchalism’ rather than its origin. Accordingly,
‘patriarchalism’ is a status occurring in a group of people for some certain purposes
within which one person will determine the way of heredity and therefore, patriarchy
often coexists with ‘gerontocracy’. What can be drawn from the works of Maine (1963)
and Weber (1989) are the characteristics of ‘patriarchy’. They include: first, the
unbalanced or unequal allocation of power among the members of a group depends on
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sex and age; second, women are shunted and set aside in the process of passing down
the power among generations.
In addition, Connell (1987) showed that understanding ‘patriarchy’ should be
put in the gendered contexts in order to be more conscious about the distribution of
power, gendered division of labor which favors men as well as assigns women to do
domestic work (unpaid work) in the social life. One the other hand, McDonough and
Harris (1978) asserted that the relationship relating to power in patriarchy is, in fact,
structured by the other relations of labor and asset among members. The lower status
of women could be explained through the relations of them in the processes of social
reproduction. More importantly, Delphy and Leonard (1984) indicated that unpaid
labor within households is probably the way to which women are exposed to men's
oppression. The way division of labor occurs within domestic sphere is much
different with what take places in the production of goods and services. The labor
relation will be built up regardless men's economic status. On the contrary, Hartmann
(1976) strongly supposed that patriarchy takes place not only within households but
also in a broader sphere, public, for example. To illustrate this, Hartmann refers to
activities which women take part in a real world such as educational, political and
religious activities. Obviously, the space for these activities is beyond the domestic
sphere within a household.
The division of labor within households, particularly between men and
women, refers to a term "Family strategies" which could be understood as the ways
in which a family will make the decision about the size of family members, the
distribution of labor in many different levels (Lamphere 1987). In doing so, the
decisions will cover the questions on how much time for work, who will be the main
labor(s), how to balance the time for income-generating work and care work for the
elderly and the children. These decisions are affected by the organization of gender,
social norms (Brenner and Laslett 1986). According to the review of Laslett and
Brenner (1989), gendered division of labor complies with the interaction among
social norms, family values, individual decisions across the span of world history
from early 19th century.
Agarwal and Silliman (1996) defined the concept of the gender-based relation
of labor in production in the way that labor market in which men and women take
part in should be considered to be based on the differentiation of power among them.
It can be witnessed at all micro levels including households, local market and so on.
In many contexts, women attempt to take the role to play in labor market in
negotiation with the so-called "altruism" and the natural duties, which are inclined to
women, with the aim of gaining more relative independence in correlation with other
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family members (Ong 1987, Mill 2001). To a large extent, women consider the
decision of migration as a means of labor force participation and with that way,
women can not only relatively break up with the traditional roles in a family which
often disproportionately fall on women than men but also help themselves gain more
freedom (Foner 1978). Employment does not, however, fully ensure women's
independence if women are entitled to the domestic work in the home. In the same
way, it helps women redefine themselves in a different way to harmonize the work
inside and outside the home (Pedraza 1991).
Vietnam has witnessed the renovation (economic reform) since 1986 while it is
still affected byConfucian-based ideologyin terms of culture, familyvalues and the social
standards for women. Such a context entails the great effort for women those who want
to take part in the labor market as well as try to avoid the possible discrepancies due to
the change of the economic status or the decline of time for housework.
One of the reasons could make sense in illuminating the tension requiring
women to do trade-off or negotiate with their family regarding the work inside and
outside their family is the norm of patrilocality. In the context of traditional Vietnam,
especially in rural areas, this is a mandatory role for the newly marriage couple,
particularly in the case the husband is the only son of his parents. For example,
grandparents may provide free short-term childcare but their daughter-in-law also
needs to learn how to serve them (Hirschman and Nguyen 2002). More recently,
similarly, the analysis of Khuat et al. (2013) is the most obvious emphasis for the
burden of modern Vietnamese women. Vietnamese women in contemporary society
need to be responsible for many different tasks including doing housework well,
having a good performance at public. These tasks are encouraged by policies and the
organizations related to women's issues. The research of Khuat et al. reveals an
important point that ironically, the policy of the state, which targets the gender
equality, resonates with the traditional culture to put more burden on women's
shoulder and make them achieve the socially expected identity of "modern" women"
(p.78). It is also supported by the research of Jayakody and Pham (2013) in terms of
the continuity of attitude regarding ‘fathering' in the cultural context of Vietnam
through many years.
Whereas in contrast, parallel with the increasing economic status in terms of
contributing to family's finance, women are more and more allowed to have paid
work under the less pressure from their family duties. The study of Nguyen (2012)
indicates that the ideology that women is totally confined in home with housework in
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terms of care duties for husband, children and/or the elderly by doing washing,
cleaning and so on is not completely dominant because the housework is partly
transferred to the husband due to the more important role of women in supporting
family in terms of finance. Men can make a concession in cooking, picking up the
children rather than buying foodstuff or washing. Interestingly, men's engagement in
household chores does not necessarily lead to the decline of women's. For instance,
an analysis of 40-year cohort data of Teerawichitchainan et al. (2009) demonstrates
that although the awareness of men about gender equality along with women's
increasingly improved educational attainment has changed, there have the certain
kinds of housework men would do. For example, men will be likely to do household
chores rather than childcare. Therefore, despite the improvement of women's
education which offers many job opportunities for women, they still have a much
more contribution to household labor than men.
3. Methodological approach
This paper analyses women’s issues through the gender perspective. Gender
lens is applied to explore the deep insight into the double burden that women face in
a modern society. Further, reviewing the literature is employed to frame the research
in a systemic way in which the research problem is approached through a number of
relevant gender-related themes such as gender roles, patriarchy, female participation
in politics, labor market and domestic sphere.
Secondary data is also used to provide more evidence to showcase the
conundrum which asks women to behave in a way in line with social expectations.
[1] The code of conduct for women’s behaviors with which Vietnamese
women have to strictly follow the rules set by men (father, husband and son). For
example, women have to obey their father, husband and son, hard-working and
careful with their speech, take care of family members and family’s harmony…
[2] A propaganda initiated by Vietnamese government encourages Vietnamese
women to be excellent at two roles, a good labor and a great mom and wife.
4. Results and Discussion
The Vietnamese economy is a gendered structure in that economic resources
such as jobs, assets, infrastructure and time are not equally distributed between
women and men. Gender biases can be found in the labour market, where women
often work in a narrow range of sectors and occupations, and their earnings do not
always reflect the full extent of their contribution. Gender biases are also found in the
sphere of household-based domestic work and care, which are overwhelmingly
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carried out by women and girls, with only limited support from male family members
and public institutions. This household work, which involves many hours of unpaid
labour spent on cooking and cleaning, collecting water and fuel, and taking care of
the children, the elderly, as well as ill and able-bodied adults, is vital to ensure the
effective functioning of the market-oriented economy, through its impact on the
wellbeing and productivity of the labour force (Elson, 1991; UN Women, 2015). The
burden of combining productive (mostly paid) and reproductive (unpaid)
responsibilities limits women’s access to decent jobs, often increases their stress levels
and has an impact on power dynamics within households.
Rising female participation in politics
Strengthening women’s participation in leadership and management to
gradually close the gender gap in the political field is one of the seven objectives of
the National Strategy on Gender Equality for the 2011-2020 period. Specifically, the
objective is to strive for 25% of women in the Communist Party’s executive
committees at all levels in the 2016-2020 tenure; and over 35% female deputies
elected to the National Assembly and the People’s Councils at all levels in the 2016-
2020 tenure; and over 95% of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and government
agencies having high-level female leaders by 2020.
The statistics shows that the role and status of women in the political field
have been enhanced through the years.
The data of table 1 shows that the percentage of women in the Communist
Party’s executive committees in the 2016-2020 tenure at the provincial level was
12.6%, at the district level 15.5%, and at the local level 20.8%. Thus, at all levels, the
percentage of women in the Communist Party’s executive committees had not
reached 25%.
Table 1: Percentage of women in the Communist Party’s executive committees
by administrative level, 2015-2020
Provincial level
District level
Local level
12.64
15.49
20.08
2015-2020
Source: The Central Party Committee’s Commission for Organization
In the 2016-2020 tenure, 26.8% of the National Assembly members are
women, being one of the few Asia-Pacific countries with a percentage of female
parliamentarians exceeding 25%.
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Table 2: Percentage of female members of the National Assembly by term
1997 – 2002
2002 – 2007
2007 – 2011
2011 – 2016
2016 – 2021
26.2
27.3
26.0
24.4
26.8
Source: The National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Viet Nam (NCFAW)
Notably, the number of female members holding important positions in the
National Assembly agencies has increased in recent tenures. Notably, the National
Assembly has had a chairwoman, for the first time. The proportion of female
members of the National Assembly increased by 2.4 percentage points as compared
to the previous tenure, but still falls short of the objective set in the National Strategy
by 8.2 percentage points. Similarly, although the percentage of female deputies in
people’s councils has increased over the recent tenures, it has not met the targets.
Specifically, the percentage during the 2016-2021 tenure is 26.6% at the provincial
level, 27.5% at the district level, and 26.6% at the commune level.
Table 3: Percentage of female deputies in people's councils by administrative
level and term (%)
Provincial level
District level
21,0
Commune level
21,1
23,9
16,6
19,5
1997-2004
2004-2011
2011-2016
2016-2021
23,0
25,2
26,6
24,6
27,5
21,7
26,6
Source: The National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Viet Nam (NCFAW).
Also, the proportions of government agencies having high-level female leaders
considerably fall short of the objective in the National Strategy. In 2016, 36.7% of
the ministerial and government agencies had high-level female leaders. This
percentage was 44.4% among ministries, and 25%among ministerial-level and
government agencies.
Table 4: Percentage of ministries, and ministrial - level and of Government
agencies with high-level female leaders
OVERAL Ministries
44.4
Ministrial-level agencies Government agencies
25.0
25.0
36.7
Source: The Ministry of Home Affairs
Increasing involvement of women in economic sphere (labor
participation, economic leadership, etc)
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The aggregate picture of employment status in Viet Nam shows that more
women than men are in vulnerable employment. This is mostly due to a much larger
share of women in the category of ‘unpaid family workers’.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines workers in vulnerable
employment as the sum of own-account workers and unpaid family workers. As in
many other low- and middle-income countries, women in Viet Nam are more likely
than men to be in vulnerable forms of work.
Table 5: Employed population by sex and employment status, 2014 – 2018
period in Viet Nam
2014
2016
2018
Female Male Total Female Male Total Female Male Total
(%)
1.2
(%)
2.9
(%)
2.1
(%)
1.8
(%)
3.8
(%)
2.8
(%)
1.2
(%)
2.9
(%)
2.1
Employer
41.6
26.6
30.6
40.1
16.5
40.5
40.8
21.4
35.6
40.3
22.0
35.8
39.5
10.4
46.3
39.9
16.1
41.2
39.1
20.8
38.9
39.0
9.9
39.0
15.1
43.8
Own-Account Worker
Unpaid Family Worker
Wage Worker
48.2
Source: Labour Force Survey, GSO 2018
Table 5, constructed with most recent LFS data shows that in 2018, 60 per cent of
women workers were in vulnerable employment compared with less than 49 per cent of
men workers and these proportion has been decreased since 2014. It is significant that this
gap is mostlyexplained bya much larger share of women in the categoryof ‘unpaid family
workers’ (21 per cent of women compared with 10 per cent of men are in this group), while
the female and male shares of ‘own account workers’ are similar (39.1 per cent and 39 per
cent of the total employed population for women and men respectively).
Importantly, the proportion of women in the ‘wage worker’ category has
increased in the last five years, while the proportion of women in all the other
categories has declined. This is most certainly a reflection of the increased presence
of women in manufacturing described earlier, since wage work is a more common
form of employment in this sector. By contrast, and as might be expected, agriculture
tends to have higher shares of unpaid family workers and own account workers than
other industries (FAO (2011), IFAD (2012) and ILO (2010)).
The proportion of women in vulnerable employment is higher than that of men,
but the proportion of wage workers with social insurance is lower among men (19.7
per cent) than among women (22.9 per cent) (GSO, Labour Force Survey, 2016). This
is most likely due to male wage workers’ overrepresentation in domestically owned
private enterprises, where social insurance coverage is much lower than in either the
public sector or the foreign-owned sector.
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More engagement of females in professional and technical works
Table 6: Employed population by sex, aggregate industrial sector and Ownership
Unit: %
Industrial sector
Industry and
Construction
26.6
Ownership
State-
Private
Foreign-
Agriculture
Services
owned
domestic owned
38.2
37
35.2
32.7
37.8
9.6
84.9
87.2
82.5
5.4
3.4
7.6
Total
30.3
9.4
9.9
Male
39.5
22.6
Female
Source: Labour Force Survey, GSO 2018
Table 6 shows that, women is more engaged in professional and technical
works than men. These data show that the proportion of women having jobs in
services is higher than that of men (with 37.8% in female and 32.7% in male).
However, in non-state economic sectors which is the majority of workers, men still
have a better position than women.
Table 7: Gender patterns of employment at one-digit level industrial
disaggregation, 2018
Female
Employment
(% of total
female
Male
Female
Intensity
(%)
Employment
(% of
total male
employment)
employment)
47.6
100
100
Total
A. Agriculture, forestry and fishing
B. Mining and quarrying
C. Manufacturing
49.2
19.0
54.9
39.5
0.1
37.0
0.6
20.5
0.1
15.3
0.5
D. Electricity, gas, steam andairconditioningsupply 16.1
E. Water supply, sewerage, waste management
40.7
0.2
0.3
and remediation activities
F. Construction
9.8
1.6
13.6
11.3
G. Wholesale and retail trade; Repair of motor
vehicles and motorcycles
55.7
15.7
H. Transportation and storage
8.5
0.6
6.9
0.4
0.8
5.8
3.0
0.7
0.7
I. Accommodation and food service activities
J. Information and communication
67.8
35.1
49.7
K. Financial, banking and insurance activities
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Female
Employment
(% of total
female
Male
Female
Intensity
(%)
Employment
(% of
total male
employment)
employment)
L. Real estate activities
40.5
35.3
0.4
0.5
M. Professional, scientific and technical activities
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
N. Administrative and support service activities 40.2
O. Communist Party,
socio-political organizations activities;
29.6
1.9
4.2
public administration and defense;
compulsory social security
P. Education
73.8
59.5
46.6
44.7
6.1
1.4
0.5
1.6
2.0
0.8
0.5
0.2
Q. Human health and social work activities
R. Arts, entertainment and recreation
S. Other service activities
T. Activities of households as employees;
undifferentiated goods and services producing 94.6
activities of household for own use
0.7
0.0
0.0
0.0
U. Activities of extraterritorial organizations
37.8
and bodies
Source: Labour Force Survey, GSO 2018
This further sectoral disaggregation exposes more marked gender patterns than
data for broad industrial sectors, showing how women tend to be clustered in different
sectors than men. Table 7 shows that in 2018, the main sectors of employment for
women after agriculture are, in order of significance: manufacturing (20.5 per cent of
total female employment), trade (16 per cent), hotel and restaurants (6.9 per cent) and
education (6.1 per cent). Paid domestic services is by far the most female-intensive
sector in the whole economy (94.6 per cent of the total employed in this sector is
female), whereas construction and transport are predominantly male (less than 10 per
cent of the employed in these sectors are female).
An interesting finding from the 2012 VHLSS is that women with little or no
schooling are obviously at a disadvantage in obtaining wage jobs compared to women
with more schooling but this gradient is not as steep for men. Only 13 per cent of
women with no schooling have access to wage employment compared to 48 per cent
of women with upper secondary education, while 22 per cent of men with no
schooling are in wage employment compared with 49 per cent of men with upper
secondary education (reported in Rodgers, 2015, Table 3.6). This suggests that
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women may face a higher standard in gaining access to wage employment and/or that
men are more likely to be in unskilled wage jobs in non-tradable domestic industries
such as construction and transport, where terms of work are insecure and formal
education not a condition for entry. Generally, it is evident that, for both women and
men, higher levels of education greatly facilitate access to jobs that are decent
according to the ILO definition.
Table 8: Average monthly earnings of wage workers by sex, location and
industrial sector, 2018
Average monthly earnings
(thousand VND)
Gender
Differential
(%)
Type of contract
Total
5622
6377
5216
6435
3666
Male
Female
5919
5216 88.1
5875 85.7
4619 83.3
6043 83.6
2940 72.5
5201 90.6
5622 84.2
5954 84.4
6391 82.3
5504 83.1
6527 80.5
3193 62.4
5782 86.3
6148 82.3
4630 89.5
5186 93.0
3989 80.3
5781 86.6
2907 75.4
4898 92.5
4811 85.6
TOTAL
1 State-owned enterprises
ownershi 2 Private domestic enterprises
6857
5544
7227
4054
5742
6680
7052
7768
6621
8112
5120
6698
7472
5173
5579
4966
6676
3853
5297
5621
Firm
p
3 Foreign-owned enterprises
1 Agriculture, forestry and fishery
Economic
sector
2 Industry, Mining and Construction 5524
3 Services
6189
6558
7102
6179
7083
4579
URBAN
1 State-owned enterprises
2 Private domestic enterprises
3 Foreign-owned enterprises
1 Agriculture, forestry and fishery
Firm
ownershi
p
Economic
sector
2 Industry, Mining and Construction 6312
3 Services
6838
4954
5384
4643
6068
3512
RURAL
1 State-owned enterprises
2 Private domestic enterprises
3 Foreign-owned enterprises
1 Agriculture, forestry and fishery
Firm
ownership
Economic
sector
2 Industry, Mining and Construction 5140
3 Services 5261
Source: Labour Force Survey, GSO 2018
Earnings are another important dimension of employment quality. Table above
shows that agriculture is by far the lowest paying sector for women, followed by paid
domestic services and hotel and restaurants. Agriculture is also where the gender
wage gap is most pronounced.
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Gender gaps in economy-wide earnings may be due to various reasons such as
the fact that women tend to cluster in lower-paying sectors – what is often called
‘horizontal gender segregation’. Another reason may be that women also cluster in
lower-paying occupations (within a sector), whereas men are able to more easily reach
higher paying positions—what is called ‘vertical gender segregation’. For example,
according to 2012 VHLSS data, while 40 per cent of all male workers were skilled
production workers, just 28 per cent of female workers belonged to this occupational
category. In contrast, just 11 per cent of male workers held jobs as sales and services
workers – an occupation category that pays less than skilled production work – compared
with 18 per cent of female workers. The gender gap in the proportion of skilled
production workers as well as in the proportion of sales and services workers seems to
have widened since 2004 (Rodgers, 2015). Gender gaps in earnings may also be due to
the fact that women tend to undertake paid work for fewer hours than men. In Viet Nam,
14 per cent of all female wage workers worked part-time in 2012, compared with 10 per
cent of men, a gap that has not changed since 2004 (Rodgers, 2015).
In contrast, Vietnamese women are still a main player in domestic sphere
compared to men
Unpaid care and domestic work are primarily undertaken by women and girls
throughout the world. As indicated, women perform around 75 per cent of the world’s
total unpaid care and domestic work, which has been conservatively valued at 13 per
cent of global GDP. Globally, women perform nearly 2.5 times as much of this work
as men, with large gender disparities in time spent cooking, cleaning and caring for
household members (IDS, 2016). Similar findings were revealed in the 2012 World
Development Report and United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2015
Human Development Report.
The imbalance in paid and unpaid work of women and men is pronounced in many
countries. As in other countries, housework remains the primary responsibility of
Vietnamese women, as showed by Viet Nam’s Household Living Standards Survey
(VHLSS), which has been conducted every two years since 2002 by the General Statistics
Office (GSO). According to VHLSS 2008, women and men spent 2.2 hours and 1.5 hours
per day for housework, respectively (Rodgers, 2015). They are the only statistical data
available at the national level. There was a question on ‘hours of housework per day’ in
the VHLSS until 2008, but this has no longer been the case since 2010.
The time-use survey (TUS) is a tool for understanding the patterns of
individuals’ time use. It provides data and information on the time spent by women
and men on specific activities. It is commonly used to measure the invisible
contribution of unpaid care and domestic work of women. In Viet Nam, the first TUS
was conducted in nine provinces in 2016 by ActionAid Viet Nam. Figure 1 indicates
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that on average, women spend 314 minutes and men spent 190 minutes per day on
unpaid care and domestic work, and that there is little difference in the time spent on
unpaid care work among women’s groups with different education levels and marital
status (ActionAid, 2016).
Men
Women
C 1 , C 2 , C 3 P A I D W O R K C 1 , C 2 , C 3 U N P A I D W O R K
( C A L C U L A T E D G D P )
C 1 , C 2 , C 3 U N P A I D
C A R E W O R K
C 1 , C 2 , C 3 S E L F W O R K
( L E A R N I N G , S L E E P I N G ,
E T C )
Figure 1: Overview of the time use diary
Source: Report on UCW, ActionAid Vietnam, 2016
Note: C1, C2, C3 are the arithmetical averages at three round of data collection
of the research
A recent study on the social determinants of gender inequality in Viet Nam
(ISDS, 2015) found that while progress has been made in many areas, the value of
the role of family caregiver assigned to women is still firmly sustained in the minds
and behaviour of Vietnamese men and women across all social strata. Here, there is
a large gap in the balance of the gender division of labour, which a key factor
influencing and maintaining gender inequality
5. Conclusion
This broad-brush picture based on official statistics permits identification of a
number of key policy areas that require attention if the most persistent aspects of
women’s socio-economic disadvantage are to be redressed. Thus, this section outlines
a set of initial broad-brush policy recommendations following from the statistical
picture presented in this chapter to help the Government prioritize its responses to
these challenges.
Improve the productivity and earning capacity of women who rely on
agriculture. When looking at the sheer numbers of women involved (more than 12
million, or about half of the total female labour force) and the regions where
agriculture dominates (the poorest ones), it is apparent that an economic strategy
662
aimed at supporting women farmers more proactively is crucial for achieving gender
equality as well as reducing spatial and income inequality and promoting a sustained
and balanced growth path.
Facilitating women’s access to employment outside jobs and sectors
traditionally seen as ‘female’. The Government could intervene in many ways, for
example, through increasing support for the provision of non-traditional skills. The
focus should be, in particular, on enabling women to participate in training of high
quality and providing opportunities for them to specialize in technical fields, which
are still often closed to them.
Support public investment to reduce and redistribute unpaid domestic work
and care. Government should take a more proactive role in promoting measures to
reduce and redistribute unpaid work; and must take steps to ensure that consideration
of unpaid domestic work and care is systematically integrated in the formulation of
its macro-economic planning.
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