Men and women are different biologically and socially. The former is called “sex” and the latter “gender”.
Difference in itself is not the problem; the problem is that because of these differences, men and women are valued differently and in relation to each other. This is called social relations of gender.
These differences are manifested in a number of ways: gender division of labour, gender needs and access and control of resources.
These differences are inter-related and affect each other. They also shape society (in terms of who is valued, who gets to do what) and, in turn, society reproduces these differences creating, as a result, gender subordination.
Vietnam seems like a society where gender equality is important. For example, women are a valued part of the labour market (all the vendors at the market are female; they are very money-savvy) and generally seem to have an important status within the family. Vietnam has signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and has passed marriage and family laws granted women equal rights in the case of divorce.
Fruit and flower vendors on the way to the market in Tra Vinh
However, as the following quote from a Cambodia gender profile attests, men and women are far from equal in South-East Asia.
Although women representation in local government has increased, 15% in 2007 compared from 8% in 2002, female commune councillors (CC) still face obstacles in terms of participating in local government. Low levels of education among women mean that many feel they do not have the skills, experience, or qualifications to act as representatives of their community. They feel unable to assert themselves during council meetings, and they know that this has an impact on their ability to raise issues of concern to them as well other marginalised groups and poor people. High levels of poverty force many women to focus solely on supporting their families and also means they do not have sufficient funds to stand for election.
Some women also feel politics is simply men’s work in which women should not be involved. Perceptions that women are not capable of serving as councillors and that women’s participation in government is ‘inappropriate’ also discourage women from standing for election and entering political decision-making. Some female councillors have reported being marginalised by their male counterparts. In addition, female CC members are also worried about how they can balance their council duties with their traditional household, family, and child-care responsibilities.
I personally think that the first step to take in order to achieve greater gender equality is to admit that there remains structural (and behavioral) discrimination against women. Most of the people I have talked to at TVU about gender insist that men and women are equal. It is true that salaries are equal for male and female teachers, and there are many women in positions of authority at TVU. However, there is a remarquable "gender segregation" when it comes to the labour market - employers admit that they seek women to do a certain kind of job (generally a job that requires a meticulous nature, e.g. working with knives at a food canning factory, or working as an administrative assistant) and men to do another kind of job (security guards, construction work, IT, engineering). Furthermore, women continue to hold the lion's share of family responsibilities as well as managing the household accounts and doing income-generating activities, despite some advances among younger men taking over household duties.
I also wanted to share this statement - a quote from Ann Whitehead at the Institute for Development Studies:
One of the specific forms of oppression which women suffer, and which other oppressed social categories share, is the inability to be in social relationship and social situations in which gender is not present. Our experience as women is of being always perceived and treated as members of a gender category about which there are all kinds of stereotyped beliefs, and which is inferior to the alternative gender category, that of men. [...] Gender then, like race, is never absent.
Food for thought, indeed.
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