Arpaporn Sumrit
Oxfam, Asia Regional Centre
The paper is a result of years of field study and practical experiences as a development practitioner working on Vietnam. The paper aims to examine the complex trajectories of gender discourse directed at and negotiated by Vietnamese women from the post war to transition period.
The paper argues that despite the scrutiny of the propagandic nature of its gender discourse, the State has succeeded in building a solid foundation for gender equality and for progress on women’s status. The discourse on women’s strengths and equal footing with men, accentuated during and after the war, has familiarized the society with a progressive mindset on the role and position of women. Indeed, the legacies of the Communist period, this paper asserts, have been conducive to women’s advancement.
Employing state feminism as a lens, it can be concurred that the institutionalisation of gender equality into its mechanism, namely the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) at all societal echelons, the national committee for the advancement of women (NCFAW), the incorporation of gender units in many of its ministries and the implementation of a law on gender equality, has paved the way for the concretization of a feminist State. Compared to its neighboring countries, the women of Vietnam, hand in hand with the State, have a much better ground to build on in striving, working toward and achieving gender equality.
(Presented in the 2013 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: The Emergence and Heritage of Asian Women Intellectuals, 10-11 September 2013, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)