Gender, Household and State in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam

Emerging, transitory or residual? One-person households in Viet Nam

“…Other sources show that widows are, for instance, often discriminated against in terms of access to land and to housing (Gammeltoft 1999;Bélanger and Li 2009). In view of the strength of the family systems and the frequency of intergenerational arrangements across Viet Nam, we find that the overall proportion of widows and widowers living on their own is surprisingly high, considering that the aged are expected to be taken care of by their children, according to the prevailing Confucian norm of filial piety (Werner 2009). Given the lack of significant state support for the old, families still constitute the major source of resources for them, and co-residence is the best insurance mechanism to protect them from economic insecurity and health difficulties (Knodel et al 2000, Barbieri 2009).…”

“…Their specific impact on demographic behavior is considerable, especially on migration within Viet Nam, as the analysis will illustrate. But they also affected fertility behavior and family structures in many ways, notably by reducing the power of the State vis-à-vis resurgent traditional institutions and emerging market forces (Barbieri and Bélanger 2009;Werner 2009). …”

‘I want to take risks, like my mother’: Memory, affect, and Vietnamese masculinities – the legacy of gendered variations in socio-economic mobility duringÐổi mới

“…In this article, I have aimed to focus on both the affect and effect on young men of their mothers' social and economic mobilities during the early years of Ðổi mới. Most gender-sensitive research on social mobility during Vietnam's transition to a market economy has suggested that the newly emerging social-economic systems focused on 'the household' became linked to preexisting internal institutions in 'the family' and their associated systems of meaning (Werner & Bélanger 2002b;Drummond 2004;Werner 2008). However, my informants' memories of their mother's changing work and domestic practices during the period of transition appeared to indicate to them that traditional Confucian ideas about women's social and economic immobility were only valid as long as people conformed to them, which they often did not, at least during the 1990s and early 2000s.…”

“…The policies announced at the congress are considered historically important in Vietnam for signalling the formal commencement of widespread transition from a centrally planned, subsidized economy to a multisector commodity-based economy. Some of the most notable changes in Vietnamese social life following the congress included shifting family practises and pressures (Nguyen Huu Minh 2006), the easing of political controls on citizens (Le Long 2009), new cultural and material influences (King et al 2007), and changing attitudes and work practices among women (Desai 2000;Werner 2008). …”

Fictitious Kinship: Intimacy, Relatedness and Boundaries in the Life of Hanoi's Migrant Domestic Workers

“…Th e kinship rituals and practices toned down during the state socialist time have thus been extensively revived. While some authors see a resurgence of old-time patriarchal relations, others point to their new character and the mixing of old and new practices, particularly regarding the more fl exible boundaries and membership in kinship institutions (Werner 2009; T.A. Nguyen 2010).…”