Winners of Viet Nam Women’s Awards honored

Vietnamese women play an increasingly important role in the nation’s development, especially at present and in the future.

When we look back at the development of Vietnamese society, particularly economic development, women hold a key position, as they directly participate in the national labour force and in paid labour.

Women’s economic roles will be much more significant in the future as Viet Nam more deeply integrates into the world, while these industries continue to spearhead the economy.

In many other countries, men are the families’ breadwinners, but in Viet Nam women make money at the same rate as men, or even better.

I want to emphasise that society, though praising women’s role, has not fully recognised women’s monetary values, as well as psychological, spiritual and cultural values brought about through their contributions. This is unfair.

In Viet Nam we see a lot of women who are very active. The participation of women in Viet Nam’s labour force is quite high compared to other countries in the region.

Women are also advancing in their educations, so they are starting to be recognised in society.

For Vietnamese women, the challenge is the traditional understanding and expectation of women’s role in families, which have not changed along with women trying to enter into society, even as women are very burdened by trying to balance their being part of the work force and continuing their educations, and taking care of their families.

Women have a very important role in the country’s development, especially during the integration period. They make up nearly 50 per cent of the total work force and are present in all fields, including the economy, culture, society and politics.

Viet Nam has had a lot of policies for women, such as about gender equality. This is a foundation for women to develop, but the policies should be applied widely in their lives.

Women are facing double pressures. On the one hand, Party and Government policies always encourage women to participate in economic and political activities. On the other hand, not only the Party and State, but all of society encourages women to be capable of handling their housework.

As the country’s political and administrative centre, Hanoi has exerted great efforts to promote gender equality, resulting in the noted rate of female labourers at 60.9 percent who engage in almost all sectors

Vietnam has been regarded as the pioneer in removing gender gap over the past two decades.

Other challenges facing the country include high rate of untrained female labourers and insufficient attention to gender index in all aspects

To promote women’s social role, Hanoi has encouraged them to participate in management and leadership posts and made its best to narrow gender gap in economic and employment fields, raise the quality of female labourers, ensure gender equality in healthcare access and improve State management in this regard.

Women perform equally well as men across all main functions and duties.

There is no significant difference between women and men delegates in the amount of time they spend on performing their delegates’ roles and mandates nor in the response rates in handling petitions and proposals from voters during this term.

Gender diversity is a smart business strategy as it goes with higher profitability and productivity, increased ability to retain talent, and greater creativity.

The good news is, women in Viet Nam are increasingly well-prepared for decision-making roles in businesses.

Gender biases in the mind-sets of managers can be barriers for women to advancing into leadership positions.