VietNam Society: gender

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Budget priorities risk gender equality

Officials in central Thanh Hoa Province's Rung Thong Town explain business regulations to local women. Greater effort should be made to ensure gender equality and women's rights in business and politics, a conference in Ha Noi heard yesterday. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue

HA NOI – The selection of priorities to ensure the budget would endanger the investment made in women and gender equality, UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) representative, Viet Nam, Suzette Mitchell warned yesterday.

Gender equality was not only an important development target but also a basis for other development goals, she told a conference to promote a national gender-equality strategy for the next 10 years in Ha Noi yesterday.

Gender equality created the right dynamic for strong socio-economic development, she said.

Mitchell emphasised the importance of maintaining the achievements already made in gender equality, especially as Viet Nam was becoming a middle-income country.

Party Central Committee's Commission for Mass Mobilisation deputy director Nguyen The Trung said 10 years of implementing the national strategy for Vietnamese women had advanced their role in society.

The gender gap had narrowed, he said.

Women were now engaged in every field, especially the political system.

Viet Nam always had a female Vice President and 25.76 per cent of National Assembly deputies were women, the highest rate in eight ASEAN parliaments.

Strategy

Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs minister Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan told the conference that a draft national strategy for gender equality for 2011-20 had gone to the Government.

It was intended to ensure equal opportunities and benefits for both men and women in political, economic and socio-cultural fields, she said.

The strategy also aimed to the raise the number women deputies in the National Assembly and People's Councils to more than 30 per cent between 2011-15 and more than 35 per cent by 2020.

In addition, it was planned to provide vocational training for half of Viet Nam's rural women workers and create new jobs for at least 40 per cent of workers regardless of gender.

Minister Ngan proposed that next year's 11th National Party Congress set clear directions for implementing future gender equality targets.

Both the Party and Government agencies needed to facilitate human and financial resources to ensure gender equality, she said. — VNS

Friday, January 21, 2011

UN pledges help to Vietnam in gender equality

The top representative of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Vietnam , Suzette Mitchell, affirms the UN will help Vietnam improve its record in gender equality and the empowerment of women.

At a December 8 conference in Hanoi on ways of pushing a national strategy on gender equality for the period 2011-2020 on December 8, Mitchell emphasised the importance of maintaining the achievements already made in gender equality, especially as Vietnam is becoming a middle-income country.

She also highlighted the nation’s first-ever national strategy on gender equality. However, she said that the selection of national priorities to ensure the budget will endanger the investment made in women and gender equality.

Gender equality is not only an important development target but also a premise to achieving other development goals and creates the right dynamic for strong socio-economic development, she said.

Nguyen The Trung, the Deputy Director of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation, said that Vietnamese women’s role and position in society has been lifted after 10 years of carrying out the national strategy for the advancement of women during the 2001-2010 period.

The gender gap in society has been narrowed, said Trung, adding that women are now involved in every field, especially in leading roles and political management.

Vietnam always has a female Vice President and women make up 25.76 percent of the country’s NA deputies in the 2007-2011 term, the highest rate among eight ASEAN parliaments, he stressed.

However, the conference pointed out the shortcomings in social life which have hindered economic growth, social progress, equality and sustainable development.

The Minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Kim Ngan, said that the draft of the national strategy on gender equality for the 2011-2020 has been presented to the Government. The strategy aims to ensure equal opportunities and benefits for both men and women in political, economic and socio-cultural fields, she said.

The strategy also aims to the raise the rate of women deputies in the National Assembly (NA) and People’s Councils to over 30 percent during the 2011-2015 period and over 35 percent in the following five years.

It also targets providing vocational training for half of rural women workers and create new jobs for at least 40 percent of workers of each gender.

She proposed that the 11 th National Party Congress set out clear directions for implementing gender equality targets in the future. The Party, as well as Government agencies need to facilitate human and financial resources to ensure gender equality, she added./.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Vietnam leads region in gender gap eradication

Vietnam is evaluated as the best performer in Southeast Asia in terms of eradicating gender gap over the past 20 years, said Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

Ngan, who doubles as Head of the Vietnamese National Committee for the Advancement of Women, delivered the remark at a seminar “Enhancing women’s position in development and international integration” which was held in the central province of Khanh Hoa on Dec. 4.

The minister said Vietnam ’s gender development index (GDI) climbed to 0.732 in 2009, ranking 94 out of the surveyed 155 nations, from 0,537 – the 72 nd among the 130 countries worldwide in 2005.

The number of female National Assembly deputies currently accounts for almost 26 percent, making Vietnam top the list of eight Southeast Asian nations that have parliaments and 4 th in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of female parliamentations, Ngan added.

To enhance women’s position, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director in Vietnam Setsuko Yamazaki suggested Vietnam improve the awareness and political will of women so that they could engage in the leadership.

Vietnam should also encourage localities to bring national gender equality policies into life and build up the capacity for women by organising training courses.

Meanwhile, Cao Tran Quoc Hai, Deputy Director of the Multilateral Economic Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, urged the government to complete the legal system and concerned policies, and establish specialised agencies to implement and monitor gender equality.

The seminar, co-hosted by the Vietnamese National Committee for the Advancement of Women, the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNDP, saw the participation of almost 50 delegates and the ambassadors of Finland, Ireland, Canada and Laos to Vietnam./.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Putting an end to gender selection

A newborn girl at Ha Noi's National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The Government is trying to reverse the gender imbalance at birth with a combination of measures. — VNA/VNS Photo The Duyet

HA NOI — By promoting a radical shift in women's roles within the family unit that allows daughters to perform ‘masculine' duties, Viet Nam may be able to reverse the country's imbalanced gender ratio.

Participants from across the country discussed this measure at the Workshop on Sharing Visions to Adress Viet Nam's Imbalanced Gender Ratio in Hoa Binh last week.

The gap in the ratio between boys and girls born in Viet Nam began to widen in 2006. The 2009 Census on Population and Housing reported that there were 110.6 boys born per 100 girls born last year.

Head of the General Office For Population and Family Planning Duong Quoc Trong said the desire to have a son is influenced by centuries-old beliefs that males provide additional stability for families. A survey conducted by the Research Institute for Social Development that was published this year also reported that couples favour male children because boys are given the important task of carrying on the family name and caring for the family.

Bac Lieu Province's Department of Health deputy director Chau Tuyet Ngoc said the motivation to have sons differs from the North to the South. "In the South, parents are more likely to prefer to have both sons and daughters than parents in the North are."

Participants at the conference discussed how new technology allows couples to determine the gender of their child earlier, and to what extent this technology has affected the nation's gender imbalance.

Trong said gender-selective abortions were only a small part of the big picture.

He said traditionally couples had also sought to engineer the sex of their child by ingesting traditional medicine, following a special diet or selecting a specific time for conception.

Participants said that in several provinces where people had limited access to ultrasounds and abortion clinics, the gender ratio imbalances at birth were still high.

Khuat Thu Hong, head of Research Institute for Social Development, said although the Population Ordinance in 2004 banned doctors from revealing the sex of a foetus before birth, many doctors ignore the rule.

"Patients and doctors often form close relationships during the nine-month pregnancy, which at times makes it nearly impossible for doctors to refuse to inform the parents about the foetus's sex," said Hong.

"And actually revealing this information is very easy, some doctors just use gestures."

Trong said officials were lax on enforcing the law. Only two clinics have been closed after investigative reporting uncovered that doctors were informing parents about the gender of their foetus.

Most pregnant women at health clinics that were surveyed knew their foetus' gender, said the office's deputy inspector Nguyen Dinh Bach.

United Nations Fund for Population Activities officer Pham Nguyen Bang said the demand to know the gender of one's child in advance is rational, normal and humane. It was the utilisation of that piece of information to eliminate a female foetuses that was illegal.

"It is time to intervene in gender-selective abortion, however, it is not easy to distinguish between a gender-selective abortion and family planning," he said.

Bang said as long as abortion is used as a tool for family planning, it will be difficult to combat gender-selective abortions.

Hong said South Korea's experience should serve as an example to other Asian countries. South Korea was the first of several Asian countries to deal with large gender imbalances at birth. The country effectively reversed the trend by implementing economic policies that opened the doors to women into the work place. South Korea also introduced a series of policies that established equal rights for men and women. These measures effectively empowered women and reduced the country's gender imbalance. — VNS

Friday, December 17, 2010

Workshop focuses on gender imbalance at birth

Representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local population officers have gathered in the northern province of Hoa Binh to share their visions on addressing gender imbalance at birth in Vietnam .

At a workshop jointly held by the General Department of Population and Family Planning and the UN Population Fund in Vietnam from November 3-4, the participants discussed pathways, plans and activities to solve the problem.

They also analysed the increasing sex ratio at birth and socio-cultural factors that affect the gender imbalance in the country.

Vietnam ’s sex ratio at birth has rapidly increased in recent years from 105 boys per 100 girls in 1979 to 110.5 boys per 100 girls in 2009, making it one of the few countries in the world seeing a high gender imbalance at birth.

If there are no positive measures, the gender imbalance will cause serious social implications, especially for future generations, the delegates said.

Over the past years, Vietnam has taken a lot of measures to control the gender imbalance, including the implementation of the “interventions to minimise the gender imbalance at birth” project in 18 provinces and cities where the sex ratio at birth is 110 boys per 100 girls upwards./.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

No more gender gap

Like any mother, Ta Thanh Binh is worried how she will cope when being away from her child while pursuing a master's degree in the UK.

"Being away from my child makes me feel like I am losing something," the 22-year-old Cambridge scholarship recipient said.

Nevertheless, the young teacher from Hanoi Teachers' Training College sees the opportunity as a chance to empower herself with new knowledge. She will leave for the UK late this month to start her one-year master's degree in education at the University of Cambridge .

The scholarship to Cambridge is an example of the kinds of capacity building that is crucial for sustainable change, says UNDP country director Setsuko Yamazaki.

"Empowering women and strengthening women's participation in decision-making and leadership is at the heart of sustainable socio-economic development," Yamazaki said at the conference on enhancing the contribution of women to the nation's development, on Sept. 14.

"If Vietnam is to continue its impressive development record in this area of international economic integration, it will be essential to find ways to mobilise the full potential of its workforce, both men and women."

"When they are equipped with the skills and political support to participate fully, women can play a strong role in their communities and countries."

The national strategy on gender equality has set a target of increasing the proportion of female master degree holders to 50 percent by 2020 from a current 17.1 percent. By that time, all ministries, ministerial-level and governmental agencies, and people's committees are expected to feature the participation of women in their leadership.

"I would like to set a good example to my daughter that women should be highly-educated," Binh says. "And as a teacher I would like to pass on the knowledge and skills I will absorb to my own students."

"I don't have an ambition to change Vietnam's entire education system, but I do hope to contribute a small part of my knowledge to that process."

The opportunity Binh grasps is seen as a vital factor to increasing equality between men and women.

According to Alice Perkins, former Group HR Director for the UK Civil Service, the issue of gender equality is the same in all countries, but the difference is the opportunity women have.

"Some countries make further progress in rebalancing differences than others because they have been doing it for longer, or maybe the circumstances are more beneficial," she said.

It is essential that "they [women] have to deal with opportunities of education, training, development, and cultural expectations."

According to Nguyen Duy Thang, head of the Ministry of Home Affairs' Committee for the Advancement of Women, more and more Vietnamese women are participating in various areas of society and holding important positions in the political system.

With a high proportion of women in parliament, Vietnam ranks 4th in the Asia-Pacific region and 33rd in the world.

"Vietnamese women are striving for improvement in all areas, equipping themselves with knowledge in order to catch up with the regional and international communities. Women are increasingly self-motivated and confident in leadership, management, and scientific research; playing an active and courageous role in the market economy," he said.

The UNDP country director Yamazaki said she was impressed with significant progress Vietnam had made in gender equality, but more should be done to ensure women had an equal say in the decisions which affect their lives.

"It is clear that Vietnam has paid great attention and support to gender equality from earliest days of its constitution," said Yamazaki.

"Investment in women and girls is essential if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and investment in this one area can drive MDG progress across all the goals."

She suggested that a strong political will, effective implementation of gender equality laws and capacity building will contribute to creating a future generation of strong women leaders.

That is what the Cambridge scholar Binh expects to see in the near future as she considers pursuing a PhD degree in education./.

Monday, October 4, 2010

No more gender gap

Like any mother, Ta Thanh Binh is worried how she will cope when being away from her child while pursuing a master's degree in the UK.

"Being away from my child makes me feel like I am losing something," the 22-year-old Cambridge scholarship recipient said.

The scholarship to Cambridge is an example of the kinds of capacity building that is crucial for sustainable change, says UNDP country director Setsuko Yamazaki.

Empowering women

"If Vietnam is to continue its impressive development record in this area of international economic integration, it will be essential to find ways to fully tap the potential of its workforce, both men and women."