2020 action month for gender equality underway

During a humanitarian crisis, the needs of girls, women, boys, men and other vulnerable grouare different and distinct

Ensuring a gender analysis in the response means planning and implementing action which addresses the specific needs of various groups in the affected communities.

Efforts are underway to create a stronger gender focal point system to support a deeper understanding of gender equality in humanitarian action

The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a health issue. It is a profound shock to our societies and economies, and women are at the heart of care and response efforts underway.

As front-line responders, health professionals, community volunteers, transport and logistics managers, scientists and more, women are making critical contributions to address the outbreak every day.

Vietnam has made great strides to increase women’s participation in the economy over the past 30 years. Today, 72% of women are in the workforce, giving Vietnam one of the highest female employment rates in the world, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

It is great that women are able to earn a living and contribute to their family’s economic wellbeing; however, women still face a host of workplace discriminations, from pervasive sexual harassment to unequal wages that curb the development of true gender equality in Vietnam.

With so many challenges, what do you address first? That’s a gut-wrenching question when you consider the multitude of areas that need and deserve attention on the march towards true gender equality. Unfortunately, no magic wand exists to erase all discrimination with the flick of a wrist.

Despite being entitled to six months of maternity leave, which is higher than most countries in Asia, Vietnamese women still face obstacles in understanding and realizing this right.

Pregnant women or women even considering starting families, moreover, are frequent targets of discrimination in the workplace and have fewer and less secure employment prospects.

Only vigilant factory monitoring processes and continued education on gender equality will enable Vietnam to rise above the hurdles that women continue to face.

Critically, we are educating factories on the importance of meeting international labor standards from both a social and business lens.

Social change does not take place overnight, but the time for true gender equality to be realized is long overdue.

One article or one seminar won’t bring about wholesale change, but, with a strong, persistent effort to educate the public and gain commitments from key stakeholders in government, business, and civil society to tackle the issue, Vietnamese women can realize their full rights at long last.

The first step towards genuine change is a commitment to better understand the issues that women face, both socially and in the workplace, and we hope that you will join us on the march to gender equality.

Girls and women are discriminated against during education in terms of access, permanence, completion, treatment, learning outcomes and career choices, resulting in disadvantages that go beyond schooling and the school environment.

he presence of gender stereotypes in curricula, textbooks and teaching processes; the violence they face in and out of school; structural and ideological constraints as well as male dominance in certain academic and professional fields are factors that prevent girls and women from claiming and exercising their human right to education on an equal stands.

Serious obstacles to the full realization of the human right to the education of girls and women go far beyond school access or the treatment they receive in schools.

Beyond the educational field, there are other strong injustices against women: their reduced political representation and unequal salaries they receive, their almost exclusive responsibility for domestic work and the care of people, the criminalization of abortion and violence, once the rates of feminicide in the region remain alarming.

Cases such as these can’t go unpunished, and addressing them in education and in other spheres and spaces of our society is fundamental, so that these forms of violence and injustice have their existence recognized and can be overcome.