A Seminar on “Gender in the Perception of Young Research Staff”
By
Doan Thi Ngoc
In conjunction with the National
Strategy for the Advancement of Women, the Institute for Developmental Studies
invited Dr. Thai Thi Ngoc Du, Director of the Gender and Society Research
Center, Hoa Sen University, to present a seminar on “Gender in the
Perception of Young Research Staff” to raise awareness on gender
equality for their employees.
Because she was one of the pioneers
to study gender and women’s issues, Dr. Du said she felt honored today to be at
the Institute for Developmental Studies to share and address a narrow perspective
of gender equality with the audience. She called for participants to
discuss issues openly and to exchange ideas candidly and frankly regarding
their interest and intentions in gender research.
The focus of Dr. Du’s presentation
was on: gender equality, the evolution of feminism (three waves of feminism),
and the discussion of practical gender issues in everyday life. The seminar
attracted about 40 young research representatives from various units of the
Institute for Developmental Studies, such as: Economic, Culture-Society, News
Division, Science Management, and Urban Environment Planning; one
representative from the Gender Equality office of the Department of Labor,
Invalids, and Social Affairs also attended. All attendees participated excitedly
and enthusiastically took part in analyzing and debating real life matters in
combination with gender views.
An Overview of Gender Equality
The Vietnamese gender perspective
For a long time Vietnam has shown
great interest in and concern about goals and activities of gender equality and
the advancement of women. One of its significant achievements was that a Law on
Gender Equality was passed on November 29, 2006. The new law defined key
aspects of gender equality in all areas of social and family life, and provided
measures to promote gender equality, responsibilities of all public and private
agencies, and oversight of violations. In particular, the National Strategy for
the Advancement of Women in Vietnam is one example of the institutionalization of
gender equality targets to eliminate discrimination and ensure women’s equal
rights in the fields of labor, employment, education and health care. The law
was passed to improve the quality of women’s participation in economic,
political and social fields and to enhance the capacity of the national
machinery for the advancement of women.
Gender perspectives exist in all
fields of endeavor at different levels; therefore, gender mainstreaming in
inter-disciplinary research such as: economics, health, social science, etc,
brings practical benefits to individuals, organizations, social programs, and
public policies. Due to objective and subjective factors, few gender studies
have been performed in Vietnam. Therefore, gender research is like a fertile
and promising land for researchers to explore and generate knowledge.
Definition of the term Gender
Equality
To understand what gender is, we
should begin with the definition of "Gender Equality". Dr. Du
employed simple questions to explicit respondents’ ideas and thoughts. She
said, perhaps many of you are familiar with gender study. However, are
you familiar with the term "gender" or “gender equality” and do you
think that people misapprehend or understand the term differently? Some
participants said that the concept sounded strange, some said it is a little
bit familiar, and others said they do not remember what they learned in the
past. Generally, all participants wanted Dr. Du to analyze the term in depth.
During Dr Du’s presentation, one
young participant remarked that the definition of gender equality is
understandable; nonetheless, the law solely refers to the position and role of
males and females, but why doesn’t the law make mention of the position and
role of gay people? Dr Du responded by pointing out that when regarding
demography, human beings are considered as being either male or female when
being born, and societal relationships are based only on the two sexes.
However, when regarding sexuality, our relationships are broken down not only
as heterosexual but also as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTs)
relationships. Generally, women in a patriarchal society are often at a greater
disadvantage than are men, and LGBTs are also discriminated against. In
society, lesbians are doubly stigmatized - as women and as lesbians. Therefore,
the gender equality set out here is not based on the sexes; it is rather
centered on human beings because as human beings we are equal in all aspects.
More importantly, human rights are thus conceived as universal and
egalitarian. Therefore, the law needs to be adapted and reformed to fit
with the actual situations. Professor Le Thi Quy recently cited that: “the
Constitution of Vietnam has, over many past decades, enshrined gender equality
between men and women in all aspects. That is a large achievement; however, if
the law only legislates or applies at this level, women are not really equal.
Though men and women are human beings, there are natural differences between
the sexes based on biological and anatomic factors, most notably differing
reproductive roles, along with disparity between the two sexes due to gender,
which is socially constructed. If we just apply the same treatment (based on
what is common) without paying attention to the individuality or uniqueness,
there will never be true equality” (Le Thi Quy, GAS Web site, 2012) [2].
According to the Law on Gender
Equality in Vietnam, " Gender equality indicates that men and women
have an equal position and role; are given equal conditions and opportunities
to develop their capacities for the development of the community and family,
and equally enjoy the achievement of that development” [1].
The Evolution of Feminism
Three waves of feminism
What is the difference between
gender equality and the women’s rights’ movement? Some people think that gender
equality is the struggle for women’s rights; is it true or not? Historically,
there have been three waves of feminism. The first wave of feminism began in
the late 19th century, the second wave was from 1960 to 1960, and the third
wave of feminism was from the 1990s to present.
The first wave of feminism (1848 –
1920)
The first wave of feminism took
place in the late 19th century in North America, the Netherlands and the United
Kingdom when the revolution of industrialization and modernization arose. The
industrial zones grew dramatically like mushrooms in the big cities, while the
proportion of the agricultural sector steadily decreased. This occurrence of
economic and social change created a phenomenon which drew a tremendous labor
force from the countryside to the cities and towns to become factory workers.
Both men and women workers in the factories were oppressed, exploited, and
suffered under a terrible social welfare. Workers stood up fighting for higher
wages. In addition to the male workers’ union movement, there was a gradual
emergence of women leaders who, struggling for higher wages, demanded the
same wage, shorter working hours, and other social welfare benefits such as
health insurance and maternal leave. Female workers compared with male workers
were always more disadvantaged; for example, women were less likely to be paid
the same amount for doing the same jobs. Because women were always considered
at a disadvantage, International Women’s Day (originally International Working
Women’s Day) was originated during the first wave of feminism and anniversary
is observed on March 8 of every year to honor women and draw the attention of
the public.
During the early 20th
century the feminist movement in France, UK, and the USA emphasized the right
to vote. The French Revolution occurred in 1789 by transferring and
overthrowing the monarchy to establish democracy; through the right to vote,
people were able to express their expectations and aspirations. However, in France
men had suffrage (legal right to vote) while women did not until they obtained
their right to vote in 1944. After many feminist movements, American women exercised
their right to vote for the first time during elections in
November of 1920. Another significant movement was to reform and expand career
options for women while utilizing a famous slogan “career has no sex”. At that
time women were not allowed to study law, though thanks to such movements for
equal rights women's jobs increasingly expanded. Society was gradually becoming
more democratic and several women's rights were recognized, nevertheless, there
were many rights that were as yet not "accepted" such as abortion and
reproductive rights or body ownership. For example, if a woman had an unwanted
pregnancy and wanted to go to a clinic to abort, she could not because there
were no legal abortion services. As a result, she had to choose an unsafe and
secret clinical service for an abortion procedure which many times led to
unpredictable and dangerous complications to the woman’s life.
The second wave of feminism (1960
-1990)
Simone de Beauvoir is a well-known
modern French writer, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist
theorist, and social theorist, who has a profound understanding of
interdisciplinary knowledge: biology, history, philosophy, ethnology. Although
she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had significant influence on
feminist existentialism and feminist theory. In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir
launched a book "The Second Sex" which is central to the
precept and laying of the groundwork for radical feminism and for analyzing
women’s oppression, and is a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. In
1999, many research centers, institutes, and universities around the world
organized gender activities and conferences to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of her book. This indicated Beauvoir’s huge impact on the school of
thought on gender and women’s issues. Since Simone de Beauvoir first analyzed
and made distinct clearly biological and social proposals, why has The
Second Sex paved an avenue for gender studies? Biologically, sex refers to
the biological and physiological characteristics that are universal,
unchangeable over time as well as defining men and women, whereas, gender
refers to the socially constructed roles and positions, behavior and
personality traits that are developed through education, social environment,
culture, politics, and economics considered appropriate for men and women [4].
In the chapter "Woman: Myth and
Reality" in The Second Sex, Beauvoir argued that men had made women
the "Other" in society by putting a false aura of "mystery"
around them. Men employed the “Other” as an excuse to not understand women and
women’s issues. This bias was carried out by groups with powerful positions and
economic resources who maintained a patriarchal society. Beauvoir wrote that
this also happened on the basis of other categories of identity, such as race,
class, and religion. From this point of view, she stressed that many existing
patriarchal societies have assigned and equated the roles and positions of male
and female with biological properties. For example, in Vietnam society,
traditional values for women who are responsible for the caring of members of
families, and doing housework with their natural roles as mothers (pregnancy,
childbirth, and breastfeeding) are combined. Beauvoir made a huge contribution
toward separation of sex and gender features. She believed that women are as
talented as men and if given the opportunity they can elevate themselves, move
beyond their ability to reach transcendence into a position in which they can
be free to advance themselves and society.
According to Simone de Beauvoir, in
terms of personality traits, it is common to see women as being very meticulous
yet having very short or no vision at all, because women for generations always
did the housework and therefore became conditioned by the views of an old
society. Given such positions and circumstances, they could do nothing else
than become conditioned toward being careful and detailed. Beauvoir cited that:
“when women were beginning to take part in the affairs of the world, it was
still a world that belonged to men. Man-the-sovereign provided woman-the-liege
with material protection and undertook the moral justification of her
existence. Consequently, she could immediately evade both economic and
metaphysical risk of a liberty in which ends and aims had to be contrived
without assistance.” Later, worldwide researchers designed gender-training
materials based on the view of Beauvoir. As a result, in the very first chapter
of any gender-training document, there was an emphasis on "Sex and
Gender”.
The construct “gender” was fine as
it was translated into English; on the contrary though, it did not sound as
clear as in French. With regard to French grammar, “Genre” is used to
distinguish masculine and feminine. Therefore, it emerged from two schools of
thought, one school employed the term “Genre” when referring to attributes
of social relationships between male and female, while the other did not use
the term "Genre"; instead they used “rapports sociaux
hommes-femmes”,that also means social relationships between male and
female.
As previously mentioned, the
"Gender" definition above refers to social characteristics of men and
women and sex refers to biological attributes that do not change regarding
space and time. For example, in the past, our famous heroines Ba Trung and Ba
Trieu preformed their natural roles of women such as pregnancy, childbirth, and
breastfeeding, and in the recent past Hillary Clinton also performed the same
function. How interesting that due to these biological characteristics a woman
would take on such a very crucial and weighty responsibility as carrying a
child in her womb for nine months. In the past, women had to deliver many
children; a family could have had from 10 to 20 children, which took women many
years in fulfilling their natural roles of motherhood. Thus, they engaged in
limited productive work and, quite the opposite, men occupied and took on
social roles and constructed, and maintained a patriarchal society. As a
result, women lost their important positions of productivity, withdrew to the
home to take care of their children, and did the housework. Incidentally and
apparently the natural role of women was equated with their traditional social
status, personal identities, and life opportunities in such social conditions
and circumstances.
Unlike traditional society, in this modern
era policy on family planning has come into effect so that each family can plan
their pregnancies and have only one or two children; hence, women have more
time to pursue their career choices and work outside the home.
Researchers emphasize that how social characteristics are established depends
on family education, culture, changes in history, politics, and social
conditions. The social attributes can be changed constantly. If they were not
changeable, as biological features are not, gender studies would never exist or
develop.
Society needs to change its social
structures and gendered social order to ensure equal rights. During the second
wave of feminism, women fought for the right to own their body and moved their
focus from women studies to gender studies. This means that to achieve gender
equality, it required the support, participation, and cooperation of men. In
reality, studying gender, women’s issues, and the relationship between women
and men, is still limited. There is still a lot of room and themes and topics
for inter-disciplinary researchers to explore and conduct their research.
The third wave of feminism (1990 –
present)
At the beginning of the third wave
of feminism, feminists focused on occupations and professions that were thought
to belong to males. That included science, politics, economics, culture, and
technology, disciplines that had historically belonged to males. There were
also other issues to be fought in the women’s movement, such as HIV/AIDS,
sexual violence and prostitution.
The Third-wave of feminism beginning
in 1990 was a movement of younger feminists who grew up with feminism. As
inheritors of women’s studies curricula in school and a much less
gender-segregated social, economic, and political world, they rejected the idea
that women were oppressed by men. Rather, they included men as feminist
activists. They assumed that gender equality was the norm and the union of
women and female sexuality were forms of power. They tended to exercise their
belief in politics outside of the mainstream organizations and media, through
confrontational e-zines (email marketing [*])and street protests, and they
connected with each other through social media rather than formal organizations
[4].
Feminist movements have occurred in
many countries around the world and the organizations have developed
comprehensively and with insight in different disciplines. There are many
feminist theories including: Liberal, Marxist, Socialist, Radical, Social
Construction, Postmodern Feminism, and Queer Theory (a very specific subset of
gay & lesbian studies). All these theory categories analyze gender
inequality problems and determine how people became advantaged or disadvantaged
in a society dominated by men. The Liberal feminism movement demands equal
rights and opportunities between men and women in all aspects of life,
especially the requirement of equal access to education and politics as men.
Liberal feminists oppose the idea that women exist only to be the helpers of
men, who are responsible for their natural role of becoming pregnant,
delivering a child, and breastfeeding. They are opposed to the idea that
women’s IQ or intellectuality is less than that of men. Liberal feminists
believe that women have the same intellectual capacity as men and according to
them women are dominated and bound by men’s norms and legal rules. Their belief
is proven by the laws of many countries such as: the laws of Islamic
Sharia, the laws of the Malaysian Islamic Hudur, the Shinto laws in Japan, the
Vietnamese Hong Duc Codes, the laws of the 15th century, and the Vietnam Gia
Long laws of the 17th century [2], [4].
A Discussion of Practical Gender
Issues
Questions and answers
The waves of feminism emerged in the
late 19th century when science and technology developed. Does the process of
industrialization create inequality for women?
Dr. Du responded that it is not
exactly the case. She argued that in modern society perhaps, the form of
inequality is revealed more explicitly because individuals have more rights and
because of the changes of social conditions. During feudal times, societies
were dominated by men and divided into classes that stretched from the very top
of society to the very bottom. Women were at the lowest rung of the social
ladder. They had few rights and little property. The disadvantaged men remained
conservative and patriarchal. As Uncle Ho said, "Poor women during the
colonial period suffered two to three layers of oppression." Women
in the higher classes relied on men. In the past, ideas of equality and equal
rights had not developed yet. Through space and time and various revolutions,
the ideas regarding independence and gender equality were slowly formed and
continuously developed. When people are aware of inequality, they will
stand up and fight for justice. It totally differs from the misty times when
human history began.
One participant asked Dr. Du’s
opinion of the label “social attributes”.
She responded that regarding
behaviorism, it is said that a woman has to be reserved and shy; women are
taught that way. Therefore, I think gender inequality is indicated not only in
something big but in something small as well.
We live in a social environment that
influences our behaviors. However, each individual can choose the most
appropriate attributes and can show the world who one is. Think of them as
a MOSAIC; it is an image with thousands of small pieces, with diverse
colors and different materials, so women today have more choices and many roles
that make them happier. Unlike traditional women, those women in the current
era not only grew up getting married, having children, caring for family, but
they also have more opportunities to advance their status outside the home, to
pursue higher education, political power, and contribute to society. Depending
on social changes, economic structures, social organization, culture and
politics, women can make the best decisions for themselves and for the benefit
of society. With regard to the evolution of society, if we are aware of social
changes and social conditions, we may choose progressive behaviors. Dr. Du has
an expertise in this environment, thus she sometimes compares the bio-
diversity of habitat with the certain evolution of the human environment.
If one society has a diverse race, religion, ethnicities and culture, one can
choose the best fit to promote social advancement. In addition, the impact of
policy, law, political wills and ideology also plays a significant role in the
development of society.
One male participant commented that:
“if society "labels" women then women can also ‘do away with the
label’ as well. Our society requires women to do their best outside the home as
well as in the family. This is bias. This is label. This is too much of an
inequality for women. In our present context, women have to work too hard and
are too burdened to fulfill “dual roles”. Due to social changes, I think that
people need to change overall as well.”
Another participant made a
statement: “Concerning women in leadership, men acknowledge that there is a
problem with women and women relationships. Women don’t want to vote for women
and though male leaders may assign women to higher positions, few women are
voted for by other women. It seems that this is a weakness of women and they
need to change first, instead of asking that men treat them equally”.
Dr. Du responded with the argument
that men do not vote for women and neither do women because of many factors: 1)
many people think women lack ability and talent, 2) women should not
participate in leadership roles because this area is the highest and most
powerful hierarchy that has always been dominated by males, 3) people mistrust
women in leadership, 4) people have pity for women because they are too busy
with housework, caring for their family, and are reproductively active; when
women engage in leadership, their working hours are very long and cannot be
scheduled in advance, and 5) women are often jealous of each other. Other
assumptions are that women do not help each other in progressing; therefore, if
there is any woman who is outstanding other women may drag her down.
Envy also occurs in male groups. Men
many times will conspire to confound other men to get a promotion or plot to
overthrow the government. Why don’t people talk about men’s envy rather than
that of women? Is it a form of discrimination toward women? Dr. Du stressed
that whatever the reasons are, if men and women are conscious of stereotypes,
we can still repair or change them through education or becoming more aware.
Many parts of the world have changed, why is it that we cannot?
In addition to the above analysis,
regarding the roots of these views, Simone de Beauvoir explained that
"women, especially traditional women, are preconditioned to them."
This means that women from generation to generation have always been confined
to their homes, to the kitchen, and to care-giving roles. They often do trivial
things around the home; as a result their visions are practical and short. If
people see any women as prominent and talented leaders, they find it too
significant, too outstanding, and too new to traditional patriarchy. More
importantly, these women challenge views and values that have existed for
centuries and they dare to go beyond the set roles, norms and rules and
definition of women in society; these are features of gender. If women
recognize that these disadvantages can be affected by education, ideology,
culture, economic structure and political will, they can raise their awareness
through education and find proper ways to overcome and change perceptions,
behaviors and attitudes, and gradually achieve common progress for both men and
women.
Two more questions asked were: how
do men view gender inequality? What are the roles of men regarding the issue?
A young male researcher responded by
pointing out that we teach our children gender attributes at home and at
schools; for example, boys play with guns, knives, and swords where in contrast
girls play with dolls, and act out cooking roles and care-giving roles.
Recently, mass media broadcasted a new phenomenon of single women with a higher
education or women intellectuals with broken families. They were criticized for
their own choice of how they were living. The male researcher thought that any
society wants to have gender equality; however, Vietnam also needs to call for
gender equality for men. Why? Because men have to pay for their girlfriends
during courtship and women have more benefits when they have a medical check-up
to determine their health; this is an inequality toward men.
A young female participant expressed
her view that laws on gender equality were introduced; that is, both men and
women are equal with regard to legislation, however, the inequality still
exists pervasively due to ideology that is taught. To improve ideology takes a
very long time. In a patriarchal society, people highly value males;
consequently selection by sex is very common. In addition, when considering
education, poor families tend to invest in their sons. They do not choose girls
because they think sons are more important than daughters; sons are potential
breadwinners while girls continue to be subordinate and dependent. Girls need
only to learn cooking, sewing and finding a good husband; that is good enough.
With such a pervasive mentality, to advance gender equality is a long journey
and requires holistic solutions to eliminate the ingrained and dinosaur views,
as well as active involvement of the entire society. As a matter of fact, the
status of men is higher. There is obviously favoritism towards men, even in
language. Through language, we understand other people’s perspectives of women
and whether or not there is a bias toward them.
Dr. Du agreed with the young female
respondent’s opinion on gender from a language aspect. Some Vietnamese
researchers have had a discourse on gender. In English, the word “chairman” was
used in the past, but now people use “chairperson” and “policeman” has been
replaced by “police officer”, and “Mrs. or Miss by Ms”.
Another young male attendee
disagreed with the above argument. He debated that women in society want to get
married to smart and intelligent men, therefore men are also discriminated
against. Another issue he brought up was that the male and female populations
in our society are equal in number, thus why does discrimination and gender
inequality exist? He explained that these problems are due to economics. People
who have power and are better off economically, financially, and politically,
have the resources to control the lower class, the disadvantaged, the vulnerable,
the weak, and the poor. The reasons why men dominate society are simply because
men were hunters for centuries and even now bring food to family tables every
day. This indicates that men have more power, and as a result they rule the
world and create their own regimes. The idea that women are bound within the
home, care for family members, do not work outside is natural and universal.
There is no gender opposing viewpoint here. Taking for example that men have
adulterous relationships with someone, yet they never abandon their families;
this is contrary to women. In addition, he stressed that the old values or
qualities are gone only when there are new ones to replace them. If we say that
the four qualities required of women are hard-working, being beautiful, being
well-spoken, and being well-behaved are out of date then what are the new
qualities?
Another opinion expressed was that
the seminar was very interesting and meaningful and that gender issues attract
an audience’s curiosity, interests and concerns. In terms of the gender
equality law, there is a disparity in women’s retirement age. Currently men
retire at age 60 and women at 55 – five years before men. This is another
inequality and another facet of gender discrimination for women in Vietnam. Dr.
Yu added that early retirement constrains women’s professional jobs and
promotion opportunities for 5 years and also leads to a lower monthly pension
compared with that of men. Meanwhile women also have reproductive roles and if
they have two children, it may take them at least 4 to 5 years to care for
their children. In addition to preventing women from rising to a senior
management level, considered from this angle, women are promoted more slowly
than men and have fewer opportunities for on-the-job training and career
advancement. Professor Le Thi Quy, Director of the Center for Gender and
Women’s Studies, says: “that women lack the opportunity to be promoted to
higher levels after they turn 50, while men have the privilege until they turn
55, which makes it difficult for women to climb the corporate ladder” [2], [5].
Therefore, the pension age needs to be equal to that of men and women should
have an equal opportunity to contribute to society as do men. In overall terms,
the government on the one hand has called for an increase in participation by
women intellectuals in governmental organizations, while on the other hand only
few women achieve this goal. There are many causes for this problem including
early age retirement. For example, a female rector of a university must retire
at the age of 55 while a male rector is able to participate for another
five-year term.
Also, there are concerns with
raising women’s retirement age to 60 from the current 55 which are associated
with the working capacity of female laborers after 55. This discussion impacts
all sectors of the economy and social services and leads to certain revisions
in the labor laws to provide women the right to retire at the same age as men.
Hoa, a Senior Development Specialist in the World Bank East Asia Pacific
region, has claimed that though the opposite party addresses the fact that
women often suffer from more health issues compared to men and, therefore,
women merit to retire early as they would not have energy to work, he indicated
that in reality “many women pensioners continue to participate actively in the
labor market after retirement: about 61 percent of retirees aged 51-55 and 55
percent aged 55-59 work mostly in the informal sector” (Hoa Thi Mong Pham,
2008, p.8) [5]. As a result, early age retirement limits women’s jobs and
promotion opportunities compared to men, particularly for those who have
wonderful leadership abilities and for those who want to be leaders.
Some arguments have stressed that
society severely criticizes women with regard to adultery. People think
that when involved in adultery, women leave their family for good, while men do
not, they stay to take care of family; this is gender bias. Concerning the four
traditional values “hard-working, being beautiful, being well-spoken, and being
well-behaved", women traditionally must also know sewing, knitting and
cooking, however, today with the support of science and technology women are
still well able to take on family responsibilities without knowing these
skills.
In a further opinion, a participant
raised the concern that if people have a mindset that women who are highly
educated cause a high rate of divorce and singlehood, then the question is when
or how equality can be achieved and how it is that women dare to study to
become more highly educated. Actually, there is no research or sociological
evidence indicating these phenomena. What a dogmatic view! On the contrary,
intellectual women at research institutes are happy with their marriage, they
maintain family happiness, and benefit society in many ways. The participant
cited the old saying “To live with a sensible person who is, however, not
strongly minded is far better than to live with someone for a hundred years but
who is ignorant”. Men are very smart, they want to become married to wise women
with whom they can exchange and share ideas. Women who are highly educated have
the ability to quickly gather and understand information and be sensitive and
accurate; men love wives who comprehend what they are saying. Often times,
smart women are able to sense the meaning of an entire situation within a few
sentences. Men are also proud of well-educated females. Therefore, women with
higher education will bring tremendous benefits and subtle things to the
family, community, and social development. These women encourage young women to
continue to pursue a higher education. Women should not give up opportunities
for learning and potential empowerment because of a few individual biases or
dogmatic opinions.
Dr. Du was in agreement with the
above perspective on encouraging women to enhance the path of knowledge and
education; she also stated that the Government and the State encourage and
provide conditions for women to pursue their higher education. All that remains
then is their determination; the more women learn, the more they enjoy it and
the more purpose they find in their lives. In the past, women followed a set of
ideas that dictated they have a stable family with children and a good husband;
however, in the context of today's society the goal of women is higher and
wider, along with the family. Women have more choices and brighter outlooks
such as business, education, and contribution to society. Dr. Du stressed in a
metaphorical way, “Don’t put all your ‘eggs’ in one basket. Do put your eggs
into several so that if one basket breaks, there are still others”. With regard
to divorce, developed countries have a very high rate of divorce and this is
not because women have obtained a higher education. There is no correlation between
the two issues. Regarding adultery, no society supports it. We should take a
biological approach to interpret the problem of adultery. Each society has its
institutions and laws on marriage. Marriage has to be based on true love and
willingness by both sides, and legal and social acceptance. When it comes to
inequality or discrimination against women, it is a detriment to family and
society. To some extent Dr. Du also agreed with an attendant’s opinion on the
distinction between the biological and psychological aspects of men and women.
There was a final comment during the
discussion session on the debate that society in general places very high
demands on women. It is not easy for women to fulfill dual roles in an
excellent manner. In a humorous voice, one participant said, “I hope that men
will gradually reduce gender bias, they should not treat their wives as if they
were ‘cold bread’; they should see them as delicious, organic, whole grain
bread, or seafood fried rice, or hot chicken soup. To promote gender equality,
women always need the support and cooperation of men."
Concluding Remarks
Dr. Thai Thi Ngoc Du concluded that
what was shared and discussed this day related to gender stereotypes. They
include that: women should be homebound to care for their husband’s family and
children, they should not work outside the home; when it comes to adultery,
women are fiercely criticized and condemned compared to men; women who prefer
to be single or get divorced should not study to obtain a higher education and
gain leadership status in society, and women do not support or vote for women.
These are gender biases and if we dig deeper into our sub-consciousness,
discrimination against women is revealed; the discrimination is hardly seen on
the surface. According to Dr. Du’s experience in France, nine out of ten of her
friends’ husbands took care of the cooking while she was visiting them. The
husbands felt joy in being free to do the cooking and housework. Or, Vietnamese
men who lived during a difficult time in the economy, voluntarily went to buy
groceries, cooked, took care of the housework as well as worked in society
without an ingrained mentality that housework is the responsibility of women.
These are work responsibilities for ‘both sides’ that are free from
stereotyping because of each other’s love and respect.
Last but certainly not least, Dr. Du
expressed a high spirit of optimism regarding the process of enhancement of
gender equality in Vietnam. Today the younger generations have more choices,
more opportunities, more freedom, and are more open to promoting gender
equality, although in comparison to other nations we still have a lot of things
to accomplish. She also thanked all of the participants who shared their
thoughts openly and honestly. Finally, she said that it is important that
everything we do in society is geared toward eliminating poverty, disadvantages
experienced by women and men in the lower classes in society and toward gaining
freedom for all people in society regardless of whether they are rich, poor or
somewhere in between.
References:
Law on Gender Equality (2006).
Retrieved July 15, 2012, from http://thuvienphapluat.vn/archive/Luat/Luat-Binh-dang-gioi-2006-73-2006-...
Lê Thị Quý (2009). Retrieved July
10, 2012, from http://gas.hoasen.edu.vn/vi/gas-page/van-de-cong-bang-va-binh-dang-gioi-doi-voi-nu-tri-thuc
Beauvoir. De. Simone (1996). The
Second Sex. Women Publisher, Hanoi, Vietnam
Judith Lorber (2012). Gender
Inequality: feminist theories and policies. 5th ed, Oxford
University Press
Hoa Thi Mong Pham (2008). The facts
on women’s retirement age in Vietnam. World Bank website
http://gas.hoasen.edu.vn/en/gas-page/seminar-gender-perception-young-research-staff
