Choose to Challenge, Vietnam!
Monday, March 8, marks the worldwide series of events and celebrations highlighting women’s continuing struggle to achieve equality in society and the workplace.
Two themes are running this year. The first aims to point out the lack of female representation in government and senior business roles under the banner of ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’ and ways to address the issue.
“Women have also been acknowledged as some of the most effective leaders during the pandemic, with female heads of government, including New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, having been praised for their handling of the crisis,” the World Economic Forum said on its website.
Within this, it’s noted that women are twice as likely as men to lose (or already lost) jobs and the vital income that predominately supports them and their children, especially since COVID-19 hit the world.
It’s noteworthy that the Asia Pacific UN women’s group also pointed out: “Women are also at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, as frontline and health sector workers, as scientists, doctors and caregivers, yet they get paid 11 percent less globally than their male counterparts. An analysis of COVID-19 task teams from 87 countries found only 3.5 percent of them had gender parity.”
The second theme, I’ve noted from the International Women’s Day official website is 'choose to challenge,' meaning to forcefully identify and bring to public attention gender equality issues, by people involved in attempting to bring about real and significant change.
In Vietnam, the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) Central Committee will run a number of events to mark achievements and ongoing issues. At the same time, the annual Kovalevskaya Award was given on March 5 to the leader and team from the Institute of Natural Products Chemistry under VAST, and Associate Professor Dr. Truong Thanh Huong, senior lecturer at the Department of Cardiology of the Hanoi Medical University for their work in creating products to assist in the treatment of public healthcare problems, such as 'Khuong Thao Dan' (a drug for the treatment of arthritis, degenerative spine pain, and bone pain), Cordyceps Sinensis, and essential oils. (Dan Tri International News)
The government recently adopted a new ‘National Strategy on Gender Equality for the 2021-30 Period’ making commitments to increased female representation in the workforce and politics, particularly at local and provincial government levels. While these seem like lofty ambitions set somewhere in the future, the very fact that this is a publicly ongoing discussion makes achieving the realities of gender equality just that bit more solid. (Vietnam Law magazine)
Read more here Source: https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/city-diary/20210308/choose-to-challenge-vietnam/59665.html