Every March 8th, women at Thu Hang's office have a photo shoot in ao dai, are given an envelope of 500,000 VND and a party, but she never feels happy.
“It’s just gender equality on the surface,” said Thu Hang, 33, an employee at a state-owned enterprise in Hanoi.
She cited examples of inequality at work. The most obvious is that the preparation of what to eat, where to eat, and cleaning up on March 8 are all assigned to women. Her department has 10 men and two women, and every year on this day they are busier and more tired than usual.
She and her female colleagues also had to do nameless work. Every day, they had to make tea for 12 people and take minutes at meetings. "Even though we go to work, we still have to do nameless work like at home," Hang said. "These jobs take time, are unpaid, and are not appreciated."
Two years ago, Hang asked her superiors to transfer her from the administrative department to work on projects to increase her learning opportunities. "But my superiors advised me to work in administration so that I would have time to take care of my husband and children," she said.
Flower shops around Nghia Tan market, Cau Giay district, Hanoi are bustling before March 8. Photo: Phan Duong
As scheduled, the households on the same floor of Ms. Bich Ngoc's apartment building in Ha Dong district discussed plans for a party on March 8. This is an opportunity for husbands to raise their glasses to congratulate their mothers and wives. "The party is a way to bond families together. But there is also another reality: the women eat less, the men drink more," said Ms. Ngoc, 43 years old.
What Ngoc finds strange is that some men who normally "don't touch a broom" are very active in these activities. For example, the floor manager over 40 years old has two children, 5 months and 3 years old, but all the housework and childcare are done by his wife and her parents. During parties, he always stands up to thank women who are "good at making money, giving birth, and taking care of the house" and volunteers to wash dishes on March 8 and October 20.
"I wash the dishes twice a year and he thinks that's equal," said Ngoc.
Vietnam has a legal and policy framework on gender equality and has made significant progress compared to other countries in the region. In the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Vietnam's gender equality index ranked 72nd out of 146 countries, up 11 places compared to 2022.
However, research still shows that the picture of gender equality is not very optimistic, because the deep structures of inequality remain unrecognized, unexplored and gender discrimination in the workplace is increasingly complex in the context of globalization.
A 2023 study by social enterprise ECUE with 160 businesses in Vietnam showed that there is still a lack of knowledge about gender in general and gender in the workplace in particular. Activities on related days such as International Women's Day 8/3 or Vietnamese Women's Day 20/10 or International Men's Day are being commercialized.
"When celebrating International Women's Day by giving flowers, letting women take time off to go to beauty salons, or organizing cooking and flower arranging competitions, it also means continuing to reinforce the gender stereotype that women are responsible for care," said Mr. Le Quang Binh, representative of the research group.
At work, women still have to do the main work of tea and logistics, which reduces their time and energy for their career. Women are often assigned to administrative, human resources or service departments. At home, the story of family care has been talked about a lot over the years but there has been almost no change.
A report by the General Statistics Office shows that in 2023, the average income of male workers will reach VND8.1 million and that of female workers will reach VND6 million. The gender gap in income is 29.5%, with the gap in urban areas being 21.5% and in rural areas being 35%.
In the Overview of Gender Equality in Vietnam 2021, UN Women (United Nations) stated that in Vietnam, as in other countries, there still exists the notion that women are "secondary breadwinners" while men are "main breadwinners".
Sharing the same view, Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Director of the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS), said that in many agencies and businesses, gender equality is still a formality, mainly focusing on organizing March 8 and October 20. "Women are always encouraged to be good at both public affairs and housework while still being beautiful, making their husbands and children happy," the expert said, calling this subtle gender inequality or insubstantial gender equality.
Ms. Hong once heard a female worker share that every month a portion of her salary was deducted because she "frequently went to the bathroom." It turned out that she had heavy menstrual bleeding and was forced to change her sanitary napkins frequently.
Experts say this is a case of "gender blindness" on the part of many employers. They do not understand the physiological characteristics of women in order to have appropriate regulations and create more favorable working conditions for female employees.
ECUE's research shows that business owners do not fully understand gender equality, and still have many unconscious gender biases, so they continue to carry out activities that reinforce gender stereotypes. Many business owners believe that their organizations already have gender equality, because "they do not mention gender in recruitment information or consider gender as a condition for promotion".
"This is just formal gender equality, because it does not take into account women's physiological characteristics and care burden. This reality makes it so that women do not have a fair playing field with men in the workplace," said Mr. Binh.
According to recruitment expert Nguyen Phuong Mai, recruitment trends in Vietnam in recent years have been increasingly closer to the general trend in the world, but there are still hidden inequalities.
"Many employers hesitate to hire women because of concerns about maternity leave and there are some industries that are often considered more suitable for men such as technology, oil and gas, manufacturing, and construction. Therefore, many employers implicitly discriminate or actively filter candidate profiles from the beginning," she said.
Experts emphasize that to achieve real gender equality, workers and agencies need to pay and assign work based on both women's housework volume and their psychological and physiological characteristics to create conditions for them to do their best work, not what men do and women do, that is equality.
"In addition to working at an office, women also have great responsibilities towards their families, children and elderly parents. That is also their responsibility towards society and needs to be included in women's labor," said Ms. Hong.
Women of an agency in Thanh Hoa responded to "Ao Dai Week" to celebrate March 8. Photo: Le Thu
According to experts, the first and most persistent is that women work longer hours than men. The 2021 "Vietnam Gender and Labor Market Study" by the International Labor Organization (ILO) shows that on average women work 59 hours and men work 50 hours per week, with women spending twice as much time on housework as men.
Second, prejudices about women's leadership abilities are still very deep. Many people still think that men are better leaders because they are decisive, talented, and have a long-term vision. Women are emotional, only used to doing meticulous work, and prioritize family, so they cannot do "national affairs" and high-pressure work. In fact, in many industries such as education, health care, footwear, textiles, women account for more than 70% of the workforce, but the proportion of female leaders is only about 20%.
The third is to emphasize the role of women in taking care of the family and children, considering it a "natural duty" of women, a "destiny in heaven". This concept makes both men and women believe that only women are suitable and good at this job, and no one else can do it for them.
"These three points show how traditional thinking can put women at a disadvantage. They must try to demand their rights, and at the same time, they must be stronger and more confident, not just listen to nice words," said Ms. Hong.
Phan Duong
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