Gender Roles in Vietnam: A Metalogue on the Traditional and the New and Suggestions for Transformation

Abstract

The paper is organized as a virtual dialogue and iterative commentary using email and phone calls during lock down. The authors address the potential for public education to redress the gendered inequality towards women. Historically women have shown their capabilities to take on essential roles in times of danger, in order to help the country gain independence and to recover from war, to help with reconstruction and development but unequal gender norms persist that need to be addressed. The tensions across traditional folklore and Buddhism which emphasizes harmony across the genders and some of the patriarchal notions in Confucianism remain a challenge for gender identity and roles. The paper concludes by suggesting that public education needs to continue to challenge the more conservative approach of Confucianism towards the role of women and shift the traditional gendered social norms towards more equality and more opportunities for the advancement of human development goals and the prevention of harassment. Nevertheless, the first author stresses that since the end of the Vietnam war considerable progress has been made.

The methodology applied is qualitative using a semi-structured question interview and draws on secondary data and because of the limitations caused by Covid, most of the interviews were conducted on line. The information cited in this paper is a part of the first author’s primary data collection for her PhD research project on “sexual harassment of working women”. As part of the research, she aimed to understand how people perceive gender relations and gender roles of women and how traditionally gendered social norms are associated with gender inequality and sexual harassment.