Letter from the Founder of Gender Talk
Letter from the Founder of Gender Talk
Dear Colleagues, Friends, and Students,
I am Doan Thi Ngoc - the
Founder of Gender Talk – An Academic Activity on Gender and Gender
Equality, Department of Liberal Education, Faculty of Social Sciences
and Humanities, Hoa Sen University (HSU). I would like to warmly welcome
you to the Website https://gendertalkviet.blogspot.com/!
Gender Talk was established
on January 2019. Gender Talk aims to raise awareness among students and the community
on gender issues and gender equality trends in Vietnam and in the world through
exploring, sharing, and exchanging multi-dimensional perspectives. In addition,
Gender Talk serves as a place to facilitate the connection of gender professionals,
students ,and individuals who are interested in issues of gender equality. Up
till now, we have organized eight Gender Talks and served approximately 1,600 participants
in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces in the South of Vietnam.
As a founder and teacher
of Gender and Development courses for many years at HSU and other universities,
I have often struggled with questions such as: How are people affected in
social relationships and status in today’s rapidly developing technological
revolution? How can people keep up with challenges and changes? Why has gender
inequality persisted for so long? Many studies indicate that people have
faced many types of inequality, but according to Professor Le Thi Qui (2009),
gender inequality is the longest of all inequalities. It has been found that
lately changes come very slowly”. Recently, research from the World Economic
Forum in 2021 suggests that it will take 100 years to solve the disparities between
men and women (including LGBTIQ+). In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 to present has
increased the gender gap between men and women, estimated to be about 34
years or more.
These challenges urged me
to take more action because I believe that gender equality is an important
development goal in Vietnam and around the globe. As we can see many governments
seem to support and implement gender equality value at all levels and all
fields. Furthermore, studies show that increasing gender equality is not only
an economic advantage for the nation, for families, and for individuals, but
also enhances labor productivity and improves economic development for future
generations. Gender equality both creates more favorable conditions for men and
women, particularly providing more opportunities for women and girls to make
better choices for themselves, for their family, and for society. Gender
equality also increases access to education and employment, and in particular
enhances equal competitiveness in the global economy.
With strong and burning desires
for the betterment of society, together with teaching Gender and Development courses
for thousands of students each year, being a volunteer for NPOs as a speaker
and an educator, being the founder of Gender Talk series, I decided to build a free
website since May, 2021 https://gendertalkviet.blogspot.com/ to raise people’s awareness
on Gender and Gender Equality more broadly and more flexibly.
The purposes of the
website include:
- Build a completely free website via volunteering,
- Contribute, share, and explore multidimensional perspectives on gender issues and gender equality in Vietnam and around the world,
- Build a community of national and international individuals who care about gender and gender equality,
- Post articles and documents on gender and gender equality in Vietnamese, English, and eventually other languages for educational purposes. Materials may be downloaded and used without asking permission, being sure to credit authors’ names and websites,
- If anyone would like to volunteer
or become an intern or desires to remove their names, articles, image,s or links
from this website, please email me ngoc.doanthi@hoasen.edu.vn or ngocthidoan@gmail.com,
and I will do it accordingly,
- All are welcomed to send us articles or voluntary contributions,
- The Gender Talk Team or volunteers have diverse professional knowledge and expertise, and are willing to serve the community for a good cause, and
- This website has
restrictions on size, structure, design, and images
due to the free source. We hope you understand this.
With a motto, “If you
want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” I cannot do
it alone. Therefore, I am calling for friends, colleagues, and students to
volunteer to contribute their efforts to build the website. Together we can
make a progressive, equal, and better society and help to enhance sustainable
development.
Finally, I would like to
deeply thank all readers, speakers, authors of past, present, and future
articles, websites, and volunteers for their invaluable support and
contributions to Gender Talk and Website https://gendertalkviet.blogspot.com/.
Doan
Thi Ngoc - Founder & Editor-in-chief of Gender Talk HSU
Gender
Talk Team (Current)
1. Doan Thi Ngoc (MSW from West Virginia University, U.S.A & MEd in TESOL from University of Southern Queensland, Australia) – Founder, Author and Editor-in-Chief of Gender Talk HSU, Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities, Hoa Sen University (HSU)
2. Pham Ngoc Thao Nguyen – (HSU IT) – Coder and Website Designer
3.
Phan Thi Dong
Hoai (MS) - Searching, posting, translating articles, HSU
4.
Truong Kieu
Trinh (ME)– MC, HSU
5.
Prof. Brian
Kilp, (Ph.D) – English Editor, ISU, U.S.A
6.
(Retired )
Prof. Neal Newfield (Ph.D) – English Editor, WVU, U.S.A
7.
(Retired)
Prof. Richard Clute (MA) – English Editor, U.S.A
8. Sofia Calicchio-Student - Searching articles-Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A from Italy.
Volunteers (Past)
1.
Mai Nguyen
Hoang Nam- Bachelor in Social Work – Website Designer
2.
Nguyen Nhat
Huy Hoang-Master of Social Psychology – Doing translations
3.
Hong Thanh
Lu - HSU Student - Logo design
4.
Duong Quynh
Nhu - HSU student - Logo design.
5.
Le Hoang Anh
Thu- HSU student-Searching articles
6. Phan Thành Công - HSU Student - Searching articles.
7. Huynh Phan Doan Trang (Highschool student)- The International Schools of North America (SNA) - Searching articles
