Role of Vietnamese women changingUpdate: March, 07/2016 - 11:33|On International Women’s Day, March 8th, Viet Nam News reporters Khanh Chi and Thu Trang spoke to women’s specialists about the role of Vietnamese women, especially regarding the pressures they face in modern life and within the context of deeper national integration in the region and internationally. The interview also discussed responsibilities Vietnamese men should assume in their families. 

How do you see the role of Vietnamese women at present, particularly when Viet Nam is furthering its integration in the region and internationally?

Khuat Thu Hong

Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Director of the Institute for Social Development Studies:

Vietnamese women play an increasingly important role in the nation’s development, especially at present and in the future. When we look back at the development of Vietnamese society, particularly economic development, women hold a key position, as they directly participate in the national labour force and in paid labour. For instance, in agriculture – one of the country’s key sectors – women make up some 70 per cent of the labour force, and in production alone, they make up not a modest workforce in export-oriented industries, such as garment and textile, footwear, light industry, and seafood processing.

Also, women’s economic roles will be much more significant in the future as Viet Nam more deeply integrates into the world, while these industries continue to spearhead the economy.

I do hope policymakers in Viet Nam are aware of the role of Vietnamese women in the economy, so they make appropriate policies to further support, empower and reward women equally. Society should look at women through their contributions to the economy, rather than as something secondary besides men.

In many other countries, men are the families’ breadwinners, but in Viet Nam women make money at the same rate as men, or even better. Apart from economic fields, women also play a key role in building a happy home life. Saying so, I want to emphasise that society, though praising women’s role, has not fully recognised women’s monetary values, as well as psychological, spiritual and cultural values brought about through their contributions. This is unfair.

I’m also not comfortable with all of society thinking that family affairs are women’s work and responsibilities. In Viet Nam, it is commonly thought that if women are unable to manage their family affairs, they will be nothing, no matter how successful they are in society. In other words, women’s achievements in careers, politics, economics and education will be disregarded if they fail to perform their roles as wife and mother. That way of thinking discourages women from opportunities to move forward, study further, develop their careers, as well as participate in social and political activities.

Men can sacrifice their families, but women are not allowed to do so. Saying so, I don’t mean to encourage women to give up their families for careers, but I call for a more equal outlook, and if women can’t take leading positions, it doesn’t mean they are incapable of doing so.

If women only stayed at home caring for their families, the country’s history would have been written in a much different way. So many beautiful words have been spoken to praise women’s roles as wife and women, so that women themselves think that “it’s right that I need to sacrifice my education, career, and strive for male siblings, husband and children” and that “my greatest priority is family”. That always makes women more slow-paced than men.

In many areas, higher education plays no role at all. For example, many men who have a high position in society or have only finished first grade in education think alike in believing that the position of women must remain “inside the kitchen”. It is often thought that men are born stronger and can go here and there, whilst women should stay at home taking care of children. Yet, women in Viet Nam do all the work, including going to battle fields in wartime, but they are always considered inferior and underestimated. If we do nothing to change this situation, it will remain as it is forever. As I mentioned earlier, upon Viet Nam’s deeper integration into the world, if inequality still exists women will bear much heavier burden