Gender Bias and Social Pressure on Intellectual Women
Associate Professor Tran Thi
Minh Đuc
Translated by Doan
Thi Ngoc
Introduction
When viewing the attitude or behavior of individuals or
a social group, often times one forms an opinion based on first impressions
without knowing that in reality it is an example of bias or stereotype. In
other words, social bias is a groundless negative attitude; it is a set of
concepts, ideas, beliefs, symbolic stereotypes,
overgeneralization, and simplification of the face values of
a group of people which results in inaccurately describing other
people’s characteristics.
Social bias toward groups of men or women is known
as gender bias. Gender bias is defined as an expectation of
gender in a way that one is preferred over the other, and a basic belief or
attitude in which one gender has more power than the other, or one gender
should or should not have the ability to do something, or one gender may or may
not be able to do as the other in society. All these preferences have been
embedded in the human psychology throughout generations. Due to the pervasive
unequal treatment of women, the definition of gender bias emphasizes the
stereotyping of women. As a matter of fact, gender bias does not reflect the
actual capabilities of women, especially intellectual women. Misconceptions
regarding intellectual women are formed by the traditional
gender stereotypes, so gender bias also causes negative
discrimination against female intellectuals in comparison with
male intellectuals.
Social pressure is understood as psychological pressure that
one feels, and those affected by it behave and change their thoughts and
attitudes in a certain manner based on society and other people’s expectations.
In terms of gender perspective, this influence is usually subtle or overt
for men and women. However, changes in perception or behaviors
of female intellectuals due to the pressures of gender bias rely
very much on needs and choices that intellectual women value
or prioritize most in their lives.
Intellectual Vietnamese women are capable of being creative, knowledgeable
and they also have a sense of equality or justice. Thus, the gender biases
and social pressures against women scholars
have actually influenced their existing family happiness and advancement
of their status. In this article, we focus on analyzing specific
attributes of prejudices and social pressures that higher
educated women are intensively undergoing. The article analyzes
records of female PhDs at the Hanoi National University, research
of gender stereotypes and discrimination, in-depth interviews,
as well as literature reviews.
Social bias against women scholars
During the process of industrialization and modernization
of the country, women scholars play significant roles in all areas
of intellectual activities. Well-educated women are so frustrated
because many people in society (including those who are high ranking
and have academic titles and expertise) still tend to equate
women’s qualities and intellectual capacities with distinctive characteristics
and ideas of traditional Vietnamese women as being gentle,
submissive, gullible, dependent, and emotional. Society has ultimately
expected them to fall into the traditional roles and molds of wife, mother, and
homemaker. The fundamental formation of
prejudice against women with a higher education revolves around
the issues of gender bias that has been so deeply ingrained in the societal
system throughout time. Contrary to traditional expectations and roles, the
nature of female intellectual activities helps them to be independent, develops
intellectual capacity, and expands their vision
of democracy, assertion, and solid positions in their
professions as well as in society. For those reasons, we can say that compared
with other social groups, well-educated females highly demand
equality and self-awareness. The following analysis will shed
light on the biases
against women intellectuals from two factors, i.e.,
perception and behavior.
Bias in perception
Gender bias against women is often expressed
through language and traditional gender beliefs that are
quite unsuitable, especially for female intellectual groups. At
work, the blatant phrases such as “You, women”, “You don’t know
what you are saying”, “Stupid”, and “You are as stupid as a cow” are
hardly ever heard while these statements are very often used by many families
and are generally accepted.
At work, it is often times very surprising to hear male colleagues (those
who are young male intellectuals or those who have obtained a higher education
and a higher status and claim themselves progressive)
chit-chatting with each other about their intentional or unintentional
gender biases, resistance to change, and die-hard traditional views. That is,
to raise awareness on gender equality is still a long and tough battle. The
gender equality combat is about aspects of mentality, deeply traditional
ingrained beliefs and ideas about women’s roles in a patriarchal society,
rather than aspects of the benefits or the sustainable development of women
intellectuals that women in higher education have brought about and will
bring to society. Such a small number of the “disguised”
males at the office already cause great tension and difficulties in lives of
millions of highly educated women. Take for example what a well-known
male professor said to a female mentee: “In order to have a happy
family, a woman should walk three steps behind a man. As a rule, the man
is the provider and the woman is the homemaker. If the woman is the
breadwinner, it indicates a bad omen. If it is a competition, there will
be a loser and a winner. However, reality shows that women are subject to be at
a disadvantage. Women don’t need to study too much and don’t need to be eager
to gain a reputation and career because God created women as mothers and wives”
(3).
With regard to management, these findings blatantly identify two-sided
properties of the social assessment of men and women in leadership,
especially the daily expression of gender biases. It is said that men tend to be
more direct, aggressive, confident, determined, and goal-oriented while women
tend to be desperate, picky, difficult, emotional, and
compassionate. Those gender-biased phases are commonly found in research
around the world and so are they in Vietnam’s context.
As the study shows, there is very much bias when it comes to women in
leadership. Concerning women in leadership, a female instructor stressed,
"Today men and women can be leaders. If a male leader is rude and
unfair, it would be better to have a female leader who is responsible and
thoughtful.” This statement reveals in one’s every-day speech that bias is
unintentionally and intentionally molded or shaped or embedded through
generations and time. Often, one is unaware of or does not know how biased
one’s attitude is, even for female intellectuals.
In addition, research has indicated that, through observation at work, if a
male director becomes angry he makes many workers fear and others respect
him. This is generally accepted because “he needs to exercise his
power." Conversely, if a female leader expresses her anger in the
same manner, she certainly would be considered as having "lost
control" and/or "shows poor leadership". And no matter what her
reason was, she gets "bad points”. As a woman, she must behave
"gently" and as an intellectual she must behave in an
"educated" manner.
To clarify the perception of gender bias in the roles of women in
leadership, 150 students at Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities
were asked to assess the phrase "Men are leaders, women are vice leaders.”
The question was asked, relative to the following positions: rector/ vice
rector; deans / associate deans; director of divisions / deputy director of
divisions, who can perform these jobs better, male or female? Please
explain your reasons. Surprisingly, at least two thirds of the students
stereotypically said that "the male is the head, the female is the vice
head" following a traditional pattern, except for the position of chief
accountant which was considered best for women. A general explanation is
that to be a leader, one must be determined, assertive, and strong. Women’s
qualities of compassionate, meek, and not assertive do not fit with
leadership roles.
There are certain different perceptions about gender
stereotypes between beliefs and reality. The results indicate that
when generally asking students who are studying psychology to describe men’s
and women’s traits and characteristics, their thinking or belief is modeled
according to male or female gender. These students highlighted the fact that
men are characterized as strong, assertive, autonomous,
quiet, resourceful, flexible, etc. On the other hand,
women were characterized as being gentle, faithful, good at listening,
hard-working, tolerant of and having respect
for others, etc. However, when the students were
asked to describe their own typical traits and characteristics, the
results showed that there was no difference between the students’
description of female or male characteristics. This means
that both male and female students obtained almost
all the characteristics that they thought of as being that for a
man or a woman from their family or society. Many female
students say they are strong, self-controlled, quiet,
consistent, independent, assertive, etc. Similarly, many male students
said that their qualities were being tolerant, and
respectful, sensitive, good at listening, etc. [2]
In real life, the behaviors of women and men
are not that different. Women can do men’s work
and vice versa. But in perception, we often think
in stereotypical ways - this belongs to man, the others are
for women. The social patterns/molds always
support men in their professions and direct men to leadership roles,
while for women the social patterns attach them with the
qualities of homemakers, caregivers and being sensitive. How the
roles of men and women are molded maintains inequality in
our perception of female intellectuals.
Bias in behavior
An unequal acknowledgment between men and women at work is
not simply reflected in verbal stereotypes but also
in behavior. The question is how society evaluates women’s
merits and capabilities. Is it based on the facts of
their ability or on traditional gender stereotypes? Table 1
below demonstrates part of the answer.
Table 1: Research conducted by faculty
based on gender
|
Institutions doing
research |
Leader |
Vice Leader |
||
|
Male % |
Female % |
Male % |
Female % |
|
|
National University and 5 Regional Universities |
83 |
17 |
67 |
23 |
|
Other National University’s membership units and 29 regional universities |
90 |
10 |
74 |
26 |
|
5 Polytechnic Universities
(engineering and science) |
100 |
0 |
100 |
0 |
|
5 Economics and Law Universities |
100 |
0 |
83 |
17 |
|
6 Agriculture Universities
(agriculture, forestry, fishery) |
100 |
0 |
80 |
20 |
|
8 Pedagogy Universities |
88 |
12 |
50 |
50 |
Source: Statistics of Science and Engineering
Department, Ministry of Education and Training – May 2006 (3)
As the table indicates, it seems that the idea of “conducting research"
is mostly associated with men. Therefore, the management of scientific
activities is seen as the responsibility of men.
- The schools related to
engineering and science, agriculture - forestry - fishery, law, or economy
do not have any positions in which a woman is the leader in the office.
- The university may sound as
if it has a "female nature" such as an education university
whereas the management of scientific activity is "leveled down"
for women. However, women are only concentrated in the "deputy
leader" position - 50/50%
- Less than 20% of the faculty at the university in charge of scientific activities is female.
As a matter of fact, the management of scientific activities at universities
is actually not difficult for many women with a higher education. We
strongly believe that there are female instructors in schools who are able to
hold management positions. Is there any stigma in decentralized management
levels at universities because of the stigma in gender roles? That is, must the
leader be a man rather than a woman?
Gender equality is a sensitive matter for both sexes. Sometimes people
just avoid mentioning this phrase for fear of being misunderstood because
"women want to compete against men in leadership” or the fear of being
blamed as "Female intellectuals cause families to be broken or
troubled.” That is, our perception of equality regarding gender
perspective is not always true. Tables 2 and 3 below are specific examples
to help us identify a biased situation and discrimination against women
scholars at a larger and broader level. In reality, Hanoi University of Social
Sciences and Humanities is one of the few universities having female heads at
the highest level – one vice president and five female deans, directors of
centers and many female associate deans.
Table 2: Total number of faculty and students*
|
Total |
Total Males |
% Males |
Total Females |
% Females |
|
Faculty (347) |
171 |
49.3 |
176 |
50.7 |
|
Students (5840) |
912 |
15.61 |
4928 |
84.39 |
*Hanoi University of Social Sciences and
Humanities
For example, as shown in Table 2, by the end of 2009 Hanoi
University of Social Sciences and Humanities had 171 males and
176 females on its faculty. Based on this comparison alone, it would appear
that there is essentially complete gender equality. The small
gender imbalance between faculty in the school appears to
be inconsequential. However, since the population of female students was more
than 5-fold greater than males students, gender equality should be measured
based on the ratio of female to male students. According to 2010
statistics, the number of female students was so much higher
than that of the male students, and the percentage of male
instructors (49.3%) compared with female instructors
(50.7%) was too idealistic. For gender equality, one would think that
a 50/50 ratio of female to male faculty should have existed at this university
for true gender equality.
The thing is, when looking at the overall female/male student
imbalance, there appears to be a lack of gender sensitivity. When
trying to correct for this apparent imbalance, it can lead to acts
of discrimination during recruitment of faculty such
as accidentally allowing "looser" standards for
male candidates and "tighter" standards for female
candidates, even though the female candidates may excel in
common standards.
Table 3: Total number of faculty
conducted research studies at five levels of funding*
|
Year |
Levels of funding by year,
female/male |
||||
|
Level I** |
Level II |
Level III |
Level IV |
Level V |
|
|
2000 |
0/2 |
0/2 |
0/3 |
2/22 |
9/21 |
|
2001 |
0/2 |
0/3 |
0/6 |
7/21 |
6/24 |
|
2002 |
0/2 |
0/1 |
0/6 |
6/14 |
15/32 |
|
2003 |
0/2 |
0/2 |
2/4 |
6/12 |
15/27 |
|
2004 |
0/2 |
0/2 |
0/4 |
7/17 |
20/47 |
|
2005 |
/ |
0/2 |
2/6 |
11/23 |
9/18 |
|
2006 |
/ |
1/2 |
0/7 |
12/34 |
16/23 |
|
2007 |
0/1 |
/ |
2/8 |
13/34 |
21/36 |
|
2008 |
0/1 |
1/2 |
1/3 |
19/37 |
19/30 |
|
2009 |
1/4 |
0/5 |
3/9 |
22/39 |
24/33 |
|
Total % |
6.25 |
9.52 |
17.86 |
41.50 |
52.92 |
*Hanoi University of Social
Sciences and Humanities
** Level I = high level of funding and Level V =
low level of funding.
Regarding the research perspective, the findings indicate that female
intellectuals increasingly contributed to professional activities as shown in
Table 3 indicating that at the IV and V levels of funding there was a steady
increase in the number of women performing research from 2000 to 2009; the
increase was 4-fold during this time period. It seems that female
instructors have been gradually becoming equal in access to
scientific resources. However, it is also quite evident that at
the higher levels of funding (I to III), the number of research projects
carried out by women was extremely small compared with men researchers. It is
easy to conclude that female faculty members conducted mostly small research
studies at very low levels of funding. There are many objective
reasons leading to this situation in that the male attitude
is the main reason and that is that "Women do not have
enough intellectual capacity to compete with men." This suggests
that gender issues are to be assessed from the viewpoint of the
belief that women are inferior to men in many
aspects and this has been the reason for discrimination in the
past and the present. Thus, creating privilege for female
intellectual groups to catch
up with men and to facilitate their
self-improvement is vitally essential. This approach will serve
to reduce stereotypical concerns toward women who are considered not equal
to men.
In terms of a management perspective, resolution 11
of the Politburo dated 04/27/2007 confirms that women in leadership
at different levels have to account for 30% of the overall leadership during
the period of acceleration of industrialization and modernization
of the country. In reality, the proportion of female key leaders is very
low. For instance, at the ministerial level, Vietnam has only
one female minister out of 24 ministers.
At the school level, such as the University of Foreign Languages, Hanoi
National University, the number of women faculty accounts for more
than 4/5 of the total faculty (409 faculty in 2009). The
number of male faculty members between 1998 to the present has not
exceeded 100, while the students are mainly female.
But schools do not have a need to recruit a woman leader or
cannot find a female head. One of the Associate Professors at the
University of Foreign Languages confides, "The greatest proportion
of faculty members at the school is women who devote their lives toward
training thousands of undergraduates each year. Sadly, we have never had a
female leader on the Administrative Board. Where is the bottom line? I
think very seriously that our regime is
still patriarchal, subsequently women are still not allowed to make
their own decisions. Our leaders from micro to macro levels are primarily men.
Oh, how difficult it is for female intellectuals!”
Obviously, Vietnam does not have sanctions monitoring the implementation of
resolutions pertaining to women in general and gender equality in
particular. Women scholars should be given opportunities to grow and
decide their own matters. Considering the status of intellectual women in
leadership, the question is: Why are there so few women in leadership?
Based on many reports, one can see that gender bias is an invisible barrier
for women intellectuals who are able to work in a leadership position. It
has been reported that professional socialization of women is not in the
direction of leadership. This phenomenon is due to education of the family
based on gender roles only, limited career choices for women and set molds
based on gender roles, division of labor without challenges, and bias and
discrimination against professional promotion. In many families in Vietnam,
parents unconsciously educate young girls in a traditional gender stereotypical
manner. For example, parents most often buy dolls or girl-based-toys for
girls to play with which emphasizes traditional female roles, such as
caregiving, doing housework, and being obedient, meek, or submissive to adults.
What’s more, parents do not know how to incorporate or teach girls to gain a
sense of responsibility, have critical or independent thinking, and have the
ability to creatively play diverse activities as do boys. The aim of research is
not to encourage parents to teach girls the same as boys; however, parents
should educate their girls about values, qualities, and capabilities that are
in line with real life demands or requirements, so they may be able to make
their own decisions and independently deal with various life situations. Their
girls are then in a position of being empowered.
During their adulthood stage, female students have to try their best to learn in order to "overcome themselves". Many of them, in fact, just take jobs that are assigned to women only such as elementary or secondary teachers, clerks, accountants and the like.
The professional world of young women intellectuals
is limited both in quantity and quality. During their lives’
work, women scholars are not assigned challenging jobs, they
have less freedom to create because they are boxed-in with
a training environment that never allows them to grow further or
to become more mature. Finally, there is a bias against them at the
time when promotion opportunities come along. The selection criterion
for a leadership position seems to fit well and consistently
with the qualities of a man, rather than fitting with
a specific job. For example, during recruitment, employers
often hire men because they think men are strong, assertive, and
are less likely tied by family. Obviously, the professional life of
women intellectuals is a "glass ceiling".
Considering the
specific recruitment issues within intellectual
groups, aspects of gender stereotypes emerge quite
clearly. When looking at the 1000 recruitment advertisements
posted on the “vietnamworks web site” during February 2010, results indicated
that 16% of the organizations and agencies clearly
required specific gender candidates. In particular, the openings
to work as engineers, economic engineers, managers, directors
and sales supervisors,
personnel assistants, web designer, ISSO manager and the
like were aimed toward men. Inversely, opportunities to work as insurance professional, business assistant,
administrative assistant, clerk, customer care, training staff,
accountant, office worker and so forth were aimed at women. After
reviewing the 1000 advertisements, we found that all of them were
positions specifically assigned for male or female candidates. Discrimination
behaviors in recruiting have invisibly excluded female workers and female
intellectuals from the employment field regardless of their professional
training and education. Of all the women intellectuals, many want to become
devoted to a professional life and want to grow in their professions. However,
there are so many constraints toward their advancement.
The information in the box below reveals the leadership ability
of women intellectuals; if they had worked in an
environment without gender bias, they may have possibly become
excellent intellectual leaders. Many non-governmental
organizations in Vietnam have proven that women intellectuals can be top
leaders.
|
Who is the better leader, a male or a female? They get things done.
Women also need to get to know, understand, and learn from other
male entrepreneurs on the leadership board. These male leaders
may be working with her on a
par with them in the future. The friendly phone calls, deep
discussion about the company status and the changes of world
economics help them increase their ability to analyze situations. Source: Saigon Entrepreneur |
3. SOCIAL PRESSURE ON WOMEN INTELLECTUALS
The following ideas were derived from conversations with women intellectuals.
They somehow clarify the barriers they encounter when climbing up the
professional advancement ladder and higher social
status of women intellectuals.
- Women intellectuals have
a lack of will, confidence, desire for power, and often feel content
with their presence when compared with men,
- Women are bound to
their own heart and mind and strength in family;
they take more responsibility in caring for children
and doing housework.
- Laws, public policies, and society
do not fully support or encourage women to advance in their
profession as well as in leadership.
What specific social pressures do women scholars encounter? As for women
with higher education pressures to "overcome themselves" are
probably quite high. They need to overcome the barriers
of being satisfied with their role as women intellectuals. On the other
hand, to do well within their
professional interest, women intellectuals have to try
to settle family issues amicably to avoid the social stigmatization of being
proud, aggressive, assertive, annoying women. Support from society in general
and female intellectuals in particular will be nothing and will
not be sufficient if the family does not really vigorously support
them with action in all aspects of
female intellectualism. The following section will briefly
analyze women scholars under pressure.
Pressures for women scholars to overcome
themselves
Contentment is a psychological feature that enables human
beings to be satisfied with their current conditions. Individuals who
have ideas of contentment may easily accept the reality of life
and have no desire for anything more. As
for intellectuals, contentment is a factor that causes difficulties
and constraints in developing professional and social status. Contentment
is one of the pressures that women need to overcome.
Why is the nature of contentment common in women scholars
rather than in men scholars? In a patriarchal society, children are
socialized in accordance with gender, in which girls adopt the ways of women
from their mother and boys adopt the ways of men from their father. This has
created so much contentment in Vietnamese women. How parents buy
toys for children, how parents say things to their
children, how parents ask their children to help in the house and what
values and qualities parents teach their children mainly depends on gender –
female or male. At school, the manner in which teachers behave, show their
attitude and perceive attitudes towards their students are also based on male
or female gender. Within the first 18 years of students’ lives, female students
are trained to have a “feminine" inclination, such as being gentle,
meek, obedient, submissive, acceptable, inferior to men, and so forth; thus, women
are content with their conditions which is understandable. Such education
results that women at home must obey parents’ and adults’ orders, women at
school must obey their teachers’ orders, and women at work must obey their male
leaders. These attributes continue to consolidate and become more
ingrained and sustainable as a wife and mother in the family.
The contentment features of women intellectuals found in studies in
2000 are still common and still agree with 2011 research performed on young
women intellectuals. The properties of the young women intellectuals are:
• Accept and be satisfied with current
conditions,
• Do not tolerate stress from work or deal with
difficulties,
• Do not enjoy long debates about scientific topics,
• Be fearful of change and of trying,
• Rely upon the arrangements of the upper level or older people or superiors,
• Hold housework at a higher level than work.
To explain the roots of why many young women intellectuals are still
embedded with contentment characteristics, the results from in-depth interviews
stress that interviewees still:
- Are in fear of confrontation,
- Do not want to be any more
troubled in their lives,
- Feel a lack of confidence or
have a feeling of inferiority,
- Shoulder too much heavy
household work,
- Do not want to be promoted;
- Wholeheartedly support the
notion that their husbands will obtain a promotion,
- Do not gain support from
their husbands,
- Do not gain support from
society due to stigmatization against women intellectuals.
The contentment attributes of women can be improved if the
husband in the family, the head of the institutions,
organizations, or agencies help them change. However, it
is a noticeable fact that when a leader is a
man, he requires that women intellectuals accomplish their
assigned work as well as men. If the leader is a husband, he
hardly accepts that his wife be fond of work and neglects
her family’s duties. As the literature indicates, today many men
often prefer a gentle
and content woman. If she likes to work, that is fine; however, she
must also fulfill her family duties because she is in charge of housework.
A young 35 year old teacher at a low level of management shared the
following opinion, "My husband often says that I may pursue
higher education whenever I want or climb up the ladder to whatever level I
want to strive for,, however, if I don’t fulfill my family duties such as
housework, taking the children back and forth to school, it would be totally
unacceptable to him. He wants a wife, not a woman with higher education. To
him, it is enough that he has the education and knowledge in our family.”
The views of husbands toward women intellectuals are that
they will support them if their scholarly wives acquit their housework as well
as their professional work. The findings indicate that many men and society
seem not to truly support women with a higher education so they may be secure
with their professional life in the same way as a wife who would be
willing to support her husband. The assessment of female
intellectuals according to the patterns/models of a wife is the main reason
which leads to and bolsters the "content attribute" of women
scholars. This means that overcoming social pressure is not an easy task for
women intellectuals.
The pressure of family responsibilities
When talking about obstacles to women’s professional
careers, the first reason, that many women
intellectuals mention, is that men disproportionately share housework and
children care responsibility. According to female intellectuals, housework such
as cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, caring for children and other
family members and the like, is the main cause limiting their
professional development.
It is a fact that men are less likely to be bound by the household chores,
so they have the time and strength to concentrate on their work. When the
working time of women is fragmented by many unnamed and invisible chores, they
are constantly interrupted and not likely to totally focus on their expertise.
It is common logic that when women scholars go to work and become more involved
in the areas of professional activities and society, the involvement of men is
necessary and must be increased in addressing and carrying out family duties.
However, Robinson (1997) cited that the amount of time that husbands spend
doing housework and child care is not at all associated with their wives having
a paid job or not. That is, if their wives are women with or without jobs,
they still have to be responsible for doing household chores, care for children
and other family members who may be ill. The phenomenon occurs many times in
Vietnam, where many husbands do only certain “masculine” work. A female
chemistry Professor once said, "To do science, the most important
thing is one’s own determination. Women should select suitable mates who
know how to share. The family is a very important motivation to support
women doing science. If the family is happy, then women can do science
well. Women should strive to be the best and have goals as well as
ambition."
When it comes to men paying some attention to household chores, there
is also implicit support from the women. In
general, women intellectuals tend to value
their husband's career more than their own careers even though their
jobs are equally important. During the workshop on "Women
entrepreneurs during the integration period" held in
Hanoi on November 18, 2009, attendees were interviewed about the obstacles
women face in businesses. About 80% of the respondents mentioned that
their dual roles, coupled with limited time were the greatest pressures.
Are all women intellectuals hindered by household chores and
care giving roles? Certainly not; when observing life around us, there are
many women intellectuals who are maintaining their status quo as a wife to
cover up and justify the "contentment attribute”
and laziness in their professional activities. One of
the young graduates said: "Women who are
interested in professional work will affect the family relationship.
Professional work makes women get old very quickly and takes up all
their spa or beauty salon time. In addition, when women are busy, their
husbands will make excuses for going out with other women. Why do we have to
study so much and to such a high level?” This is what she said
versus what she does; such a contradiction!
Even though it is extremely difficult to successfully take on dual roles,
many women scholars do them well. In other
cases, women intellectuals can do well in
only one role: either work or family. It is their choice. The issue
here is that many women intellectuals use the pressure of housework and
caregiving to excuse their unconscious interpretation of failure and stress in
their professional life. Definitely, professional activities must be much more
difficult than household chores. Finally, there are no roles that satisfy them
and then they project their frustration on to their husband and children, which
leads to psychological disorder in the family.
In conclusion, we would like to quote a
few paragraphs of the article that was written by a physician,
Nguyen Khac Vien (This article was published in the 60s during the
twentieth century) to examine his view on the inequalities for
women intellectuals that is full of wisdom and humanity.
|
Fate/Position of woman today: I am not talking about the hardships of poor women who are undergoing dual
oppression and exploitation; I am talking about women who are from affluent
middle-class families such as Ms Kieu or Ms Van. Ms Kieu suffers while Ms Van
does not; Ms Van is a contented woman. The entire educational system,
rituals, and religion make her content with her position because she has good
parents, a successful husband, and good children. She is pleased and never
dreams for more than what she has because she is not as talented as Ms Kieu
and she also has less education. The feudal society has divided and arranged
the roles for each person. Anyone who follows such hierarchy is in
peace and is not tormented or agonized. Only the educated and talented
women suffer. Freud once said that “every girl has dreamed of being a boy at some time
during her childhood. That may be true for talented women in a traditional
society. A dream to be a man at some time during childhood, according to
Freud, is to have "male genitalia"; I think that dream is mainly to
have a solid career in society, so when I was a child, the dream was of “male
genitalia”. Vice versa, in a matriarchal society, perhaps a boy dreams of a
“shapely female bosom”. For women, especially women intellectuals, they have to give birth.
Generally, women give birth twice in their lives, each time taking up 18
months to care for babies and temporarily stopping their professional
activities. In a life of 40 years, the period of 36 months is not too
long. In the meantime, the family together with extended family
assistance, especially the husband’s family, must help women. On the social
side, a support system is critical for women intellectuals. With a little help from their husbands, their extended family and society,
most well-educated women will not have to make the choice between career and
family. Source: Young intellectual Journal, August 24, 2009 |
Reference
Tran Thi Minh Duc (2006). National University of Hanoi
Publisher (NUHP).
Tran Thi Minh Duc (2008). Experiments in social psychology.
NUHP.
Nguyen Thi Tuyet, (2007). Thesis on Educational administration: A
theoretical basis and practical management of scientific
research.
Nguyen Khac Vien, (2009). Journal of Knowledge young.
Ha Noi National University (2006). Set of documents
on women intellectuals in the universities.
Robinson (1997)
