December, 13, 2011 - The newly-released report titled "Vietnam Country Gender Assessment" by the World Bank in Vietnam analyzed and evaluated gender issues in Vietnam on three aspects: Poverty and Well Being, Employment and Livelihoods and Political Participation. In each aspect, Viet Nam has also made remarkable progress on gender equality, but important gender differences still remain, as below:
1. Poverty and Well Being
- Gender differences in poverty are small, but older women – especially in rural areas – are overrepresented among the poor.
- The gender gap in primary schooling has been eliminated and women have caught up and even surpassed men in terms of attaining college degrees, except in certain ethnic minority groups. However there is a significant degree of segregation of men and women in their fields of study.
- The improvement in health indicators for women has been remarkable, but the problems of HIV and AIDS and gender violence are still significant.
- Sex ratio at birth (SRB) from 106 male births/100 female births in 1999 to 111/100 in 2009.
2. Employment and Livelihoods
- The gap in labor force participation and earnings has narrowed considerably, Women’s wages are now about 75% of men’s - this disparity is lower than many other East Asian countries. However, gender differences remain that may put women at risk.
- Women are also in more vulnerable jobs, for example, own-account work and unpaid family labor, the two categories seen as a minimum estimate of the lack of decent work.
3. Political Participation
- Even though representation of women in the National Assembly is high by regional standards and there is a woman member of the Politburo, there are signs that women do not have an equal voice in the public sphere. In fact, women’s representation in 2011-2016 National Assembly term got slightly worse, from 27.3% for 2002-2007 to 24.4%.
- Not only many men, but women are also resistant to women taking up leadership positions
- Gender equality policy commitments are lip service rather than the institution of concrete measures. The regulation regarding retirement age (55 for women and 60 for men) not only terminates women’s careers at an earlier age than men, but has knock-on effects on other aspects of their careers.
From those analysis, the report makes a series of recommendations aimed at helping to keep Viet Nam moving along the path to gender equality:
- Improve implementation of the Law on Gender Equality and the National Strategy on Gender Equality
- Increase the involvement of men and boys when addressing gender issues
- Increase the quantity and quality of data research for monitoring and analyzing gender issues
- Revise education curricula and materials to better promote gender equality
- Promote a comprehensive, cross-sectoral response to the problems of gender-based violence
- Increase training and incentives for women to enter a broader range of occupations
- Address the double work burden through better infrastructure and policy supports
- Equalize the mandatory retirement ages for women and men
- Build the capacity for women’s empowerment and involvement in civic life
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