A Workshop "Gender and Development From Below: Creating Synergies Through Education"
Gender equality is an important development objective in Vietnam. Promoting gender equality is not only smart economics for the country, but also smart for sustainable development of each community, each household, and each individual. At the same time gender equality increases labor productivity, improves goals of development for future generations, and creates conditions and opportunities for women to access education and employment and in particular to improve competitiveness in a global economy.
A workshop entitled “Gender and development from below: creating synergies through education” was held by the Gender and Society Research Center at Hoa Sen University (HSU) on January 9, 2013. The workshop attracted more than 40 participants, including educators from various universities, social workers, HSU faculty and staff and those interested in gender and development. The speaker was Professor Lois Vietri, founder and executive director of "Women's Empowerment and Voice" (WEAV).
The
content of her presentation focused on the following main points:
• The definition of economic development
• Improvement of the gender gap in primary education
• The power of education and the maintenance of education after secondary
school and
• Interventions for maintaining children in school through mentoring programs.
The definition of economic development
At the beginning of her presentation Prof. Vietri gave her
definition of conventional development and alternative development.
Conventional development emphasizes economic expansion, industrial productivity
and national income. This approach employs the GNP (Gross National Product) as
a tool to measure the relative level of development in a country. The World
Bank uses the GNP per capita to classify economies as low income, middle
income, and high income. Alternatively, the United Nations uses a set of
economic and population statistics to assess the relative level of development
as ranging from high to low.
At the time when the traditional development approach was
born, the development of gender equality perspectives had not been recognized
yet. As the worldwide Great Depression occurred, it affected women more; the
youngest and oldest women experienced more layoffs, unemployment, wage
reduction, and poverty than any other population groups. In addition, the
centrality of women’s labor for development was neglected. Work and family is
intertwined in the lives of women and men where women are the social agents in
development. On the contrary, an alternative explanation of a development
approach focuses on the improvement of the standard of living of all people and
incorporates the conditions of women and families and that sustainable
development is more important than economic growth. An alternative perspective
employs the Human Development Index (HDI) as a tool to evaluate development. It
includes three dimensions: a long and healthy life, access to education, and a
decent standard of living.
Gender is a set of social relationships between men and
women in both the production and reproduction of the labor market and the reproduction
of the household. Gender and development is a process of socio-economic
development towards human development in order to have broader control and
access to economic power in the workplace and the family and in society, in
which women are agents of development and not recipients of development aid.
Improvement of the gender gap in education
Professor Vietri said that Vietnam has narrowed its gender inequalities in the field of education, especially in education for girls. The statistics show that the gender gap in primary education has been eliminated. The gender disparity has significantly closed at all levels of education. Even the proportion of girls enrolled in school is higher than that of boys at the tertiary level, indicating that more girls are pursuing a higher education. The average life expectancy of the people has increased; the female labor force accounts for a large part of the formal and informal economy; and partnerships between social and economic organizations in and outside the country have expanded and grown dramatically in recent years.
However, gender inequality still exists. For example, the percentage of
high-school dropouts for female students is very high, especially in remote and
rural areas. The data also shows that seven out of ten school dropouts are
girls. Although indicators of women's health have improved, there is still
significant inequality in their access to health services, especially the
issues of HIV/AIDS. In general, women also do not have equal access to economic
resources. There are still differences in the right to participate in making
household decisions. Geographic disparities for rural girls and women, ethnic
minorities, and disability still exist broadly.
Recent research performed in the Mekong Delta indicates
that there are many reasons for the dropout rate for girls: The family is
unable to pay the school fee, the girls have to work for the family, they do
not want to go to school, the family does not want girls to go to school, the
girls are too ill or disabled, or school is too far from their home, or they do
not know the Vietnamese language well enough. According to Professor Vietri, if
we conducted a more comprehensive and thorough analysis of this research, we
would discover that the major causes leading to a high dropout rate are:
economic hardship, living in poverty, and the need for labor in their families
that prevents girls from going to school. In general, a primary and
post-secondary education is important. Therefore, in order to minimize the
dropout rate for children, especially for girls, a huge effort is required by
the entire society, by institutions, and by international and local social
organizations.
The power of education and the maintenance of
post-secondary education
Professor Vietri claimed that when women and girls are
educated, they are more likely to invest in family, it enables them to be
better negotiators, and they have greater bargaining power in their marriage. A
post-secondary education is very important to provide better opportunities for
women and girls so they can fully participate in society and in the global
economy. Therefore, maintaining schools and a better education for girls has
important implications for improving gender equality and promoting development.
The contributions and talents of young girls are always needed in all
communities. They need to be trained to acquire knowledge, skills, and values
to find jobs, to increase their income and economic status in the family and
society. Maintaining girls at school is a significant strategy that aims to
contribute to development, enhance the quality of human resources, and to
enable the country to develop rapidly and sustainably. In addition, education
for women and girls helps them to obtain more power in the family, have
healthier lives, reduce poverty, and eliminate human trafficking as well as to
help improve the lives of children from early childhood. Maintaining primary
and post-secondary education also has important implications for the
integration of Viet Nam with other countries in the trend for globalization.
The girls will also have greater opportunities tomove to higher levels in
education such as high school, college, and university. Conditions are also
such that they will be able to learn more vocational training skills to
increase their incomes and their social and economic well-being. Most
importantly, education for women and girls could help them to not become
involved in manual labor early in life which may affect their physical, mental,
and social development as children.
Intervention to maintain schooling for girls
through a mentoring program
The Women’s Empowerment and Voice (WEAV) organization
implements mentoring programs for young girls to help them stay in school, help
them be confident, learn how to plan their studying schedules and tools, and
especially support their educational development during that critical
adolescent period. Research has shown that the application of mentoring is one
of the measures for cost-effective interventions. Mentors will be effective
models for mentees. Mentors at the same time build their confidence and leadership
skills and lead their mentees in going toward the right track. Research
has also demonstrated that the process gives “voice” to the mentors and mentees
and has multiple effects within the family and community and across
generations. The women to women development model focuses highly on key
sustainable leadership from below to raise awareness of the opportunities in a
global economy. It emphasizes the special needs of adolescent girls and applies
strategic opportunities to educate and empower girls by giving them the tools
and ability for critical thinking. Furthermore, this model also expands
powerful cooperative partnerships with universities, businesses and sponsors.
At the end of the presentation, a participant shared her thoughts with the audience about the mentoring program. She said that it is a very meaningful and practical model, but it may not be suitable in the context of Vietnam because an 18-year-old may not be sufficiently persuasive and it also may be very difficult for an 18-year-old woman to lead 16-year-old girls. In this case, both mentors and mentees are still young and may lack sufficient knowledge, skills and experience. Professor Vietri added that there are many theories for explaining mentoring programs for young girls; however, to put those theories and models into practice is not easy because it depends on many factors, such as the manner in which it is done, different ways of thinking, values, or social norms, standards, and the specific context of each region. Finally, Professor Vietri expressed her gratefulness to the audience for their attendance and experience having worked with vulnerable groups including women and girls.
Doan Thi Ngoc
