Reflections on the Politics of Power Patriarchy in Vietnamese Gender Employment

Abstract

The advent of Feminism, and the philosophical ideas it has engendered, have impacted significantly to improve 'gender equality', especially in the western world. However, such ideas represent relatively new, and from the public's perspective, unconventional concepts in Viet Nam. There is still a very strong underpinning of Confucianism which pervades and shapes community perspectives on the roles which women should and should not play. Nonetheless, a burgeoning governmental awareness of the depth of the problem of covert gender inequity is slowly but steadily surfacing, along with legislation that has encouraged and supported an increasing number of women to undertake education and employment at the tertiary level. Despite the admirable efforts of the government, there exists a cultural phenomenon of blatant inequity, now known popularly as the “glass ceiling effect” (i.e., a transparent structural barrier which compromises the spirit of equity which would otherwise afford women with the same opportunities to executive appointments in many areas of executive leadership as extend to men. The study presented here about the access women have to executive positions in Tertiary Education shows clearly that despite the fact that many women are as professionally qualified as the male applicants with whom they compete, there are significantly fewer women in executive tertiary employment than men.

Violence and adversity among pregnant women and new mothers in central Vietnam

“…Confucianism has a strong influence on the formation of traditional Vietnamese social norms in which a woman is expected to serve her parents, husband, and children (Lam & Laura, 2016). A well-known Confucius statement, the "Three Obediences", proposes that women should practice obedience to the father and brothers when young, to the husband upon marriage, and to sons after the husband's death (Vu, 2019).…”

Self‐stated recovery from flooding: Empirical results from a survey in Central Vietnam

“…While Germany is a parliamentary democracy, Vietnam is a communist state that liberalised its economy in the late 1980s and since then experienced rapid economic growth. A further difference is that in comparison, patriarchy has had a relatively stronger influence in Vietnam as compared to Germany (Do & Brennan, 2015; Lam & Laura, 2017). This has led to a deepening of gender based inequalities as, for example, the Global Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index 2020 report ranks Germany 10th and Vietnam 86th in the world in terms of the smallest gender gap (World Economic Forum, 2020).…”