To collect basic information on actual situation of gender equality has significant meanings and contributes to clarify actual relationship of gender and advancement of women today in Vietnam. The latest data provides latest information and becomes evidences for building and implementing policies on gender equality and advancement of women in future period.
The book named “Gender equality in Vietnam” by Dr. Tran Thi Van Anh and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Minh (Institute for Family and Gender Studies) published in May 2008 reflected the outcomes of consensus survey on gender equality conducted by Prof. Dr. Do Hoai Nam in 2005 and 2006 with the participation and collaboration of many agencies (The National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam, Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam Women's Union and Women’s Union of 13 provinces carried out the survey) and researchers of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and University of Social Sciences & Humanities (Hochiminh city).
With 525 pages, the book has introduction, conclusion, and four main contents. The first part presented the actual situation of jobs, income, workplaces, job opportunities, and retirement age; living standard and physical life of family; the economic contribution of family members; the training process and opportunities. The second part studied the labor distribution and making decisions process in family; parents toward the learning and career orientation of their children; the role of gender in health care. The third part analyzed the characteristics of marriage, attitudes towards affairs, sex and violence in family. The fourth part mentioned the gender spirits and model by studying free time spent on going to church and worship at home, gender model in family and the image of male and female on television.
“Gender equality in Vietnam” gave us a general picture of actual situation of gender equality. There are clear points where prove the voice of women, equal role between male and female are shown. Meanwhile, there are also unclear points where the opportunities between a gender is lower than other in terms of training accessibility, health care, break time and entertainment. Besides that, there are negative points where the big gap between two genders is shown, for example, in doing house works. Behind these points, there are biased opinions on gender model of male and female at different level and promoted by gender model on public media. Especially, this book included Questionnaires Appendix.
We hope this book will be a useful information for readers who are interested in this topic.
Minh Thuy