North–South discrepancy and gender role attitudes: evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

In Vietnam, it is commonly believed that gender norms, sex labour segregation, and structural organization of social institutions often favour male dominance while restricting women’s roles in domestic spheres. However, there is a scant literature of Vietnamese scholarship on the determinants of gender role attitudes, especially geographical disparities. This paper aims to fill this void by using a nationally representative survey with 8288 respondents. Our findings suggested that age, marital status, religion, education, living area, region, ethnicity, and personal monthly income are the factors that predicted gender attitudes. In terms of regional disparities, we found that Northerners were more permissive in their gender attitudes than Southerners, which may be explained by distinct historical and political trajectories in Northern and Southern Vietnam during the last century. There were, however, inconsistent patterns among different age cohorts whereby region significantly impacted the attitudes of women born before the end of the French War in 1954, men born after the Reunification in 1975, as well as both men and women born between 1954 and 1975.

Does gender and education of the households’ heads matter for wealth accumulation in Vietnam? Evidence from a recent decade

“…Our findings from this empirical analysis align with those reported in previous studies on the role of Confucianism on gender inequality in Vietnam [ [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] ]. Among these studies [ 55 ], concluded that Confucianism negatively affects gender inequality in labour, health, and educational outcomes.…”

“…Among these studies [ 55 ], concluded that Confucianism negatively affects gender inequality in labour, health, and educational outcomes. However, their findings also indicate that when females pursue more years of schooling, they perform better than males [ 56 ]. examined gender role attitudes in Vietnam using a sample of 8288 respondents.…”

Cultural immersion, acculturation strategies, and depressive symptoms among first-generation Vietnamese migrants in Germany

“…In contrast, for women, items measure DSI and the opportunity to interact with the dominant society outside the home. Prior research shows a traditional division of gender roles in Vietnamese families in Vietnam, as well as in Vietnamese migrant families, where women, in general, are responsible for most domestic activities and care-related work ( Do et al, 2023 ; Knodel et al, 2005 ; Nghe et al, 2003 ; Nguyen et al, 2021 ). Thus, it seems plausible that, while both genders stay equally embedded into their ethnic society, women might have fewer opportunities to immerse into the dominant society because they are busy with domestic activities and care work (in our sample, 64% of men were working, compared to only 47% of women).…”