VIETNAM: Real People, Real Stories on Gender
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By Do Minh Thuy* HANOI, Jan 15 (IPS Asia-Pacific) — Asked what gender equality means, Le Thi Chieu, a 24-year old street vendor selling silk flowers here in the Vietnamese capital, said: “What is it? I have heard nothing of it and I don’t know what these words mean.” Chieu, who is from a village in the northern province of Hung Yen, is just like many Vietnamese women who are not aware of how gender equality issues affect their daily lives. This can be surprising considering that Vietnam has several publications that cater specifically to women and women’s issues. Vietnam has more than 600 newspapers and magazines and stories about women can be found on various publications specifically those that cater to women readers such as ‘Mom and Baby’, ‘Family Happiness’, ‘Women’s World’, ‘Young Fashion’, ‘Her World’ and ‘Dep (beauty) Magazine’. Another prominent publication dedicated to women is ‘Phu Nu Vietnam’ (Vietnam Women), the newspaper arm of the Vietnam Women’s Union. ‘Phu Nu Viet Nam’ has four publications under its wing, namely ‘Phu Nu Vietnam Daily’, ‘Women’s World’, ‘Family Happiness’ and ‘Phu Nu Viet Nam Weekend.’ Each has a circulation of 120,000 copies distributed all over the country. Aside from ‘Phu Nu Viet Nam’, there are some city-level publications that also focus on women’s issues such as the ‘Ho Chi Minh City Women’ newspaper and the ‘Capital Women’ newspaper. To add to that list, dozens of publications, including youth magazines, have reserved pages and sections for reports and stories about women. Thai Minh Chau, a senior editor at ‘Phu Nu Vietnam’, is satisfied with his newspaper’s coverage about women and women-related issues. “ ‘Phu Nu Viet Nam’ is the publication for women. As such, all issues relating to them ranging from women in business and politics, women’s health, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and especially violence against women have been paid special attention to,” said Chau, who has been in charge of covering women and social issues in his publication for several years. Chau added that his newspapers have helped raise women’s voices and provided them with knowledge and experiences to prevent and fight gender inequality. “In those four publications, I believe that we have covered almost all the issues surrounding women. Believe it or not, the negative sides are reported,” Chau said. Despite the media’s coverage of various issues relating to women, Chau said gender equality issues in Vietnam continue to stick out mainly due to society’s adherence to traditional values. “In Vietnamese society, the attitude toward traditional values and obedience toward the oldest son are deeply rooted in people’s minds,” he said. But Chau said that progress has been made to address these issues through the development of the press and media industry in the country. “The issue of gender equality has been seen in a more correct manner and there has been a big progress. I can say that the awareness of gender issue is much better now, if not to say a breakthrough from the past.” ONE BOY’S SIGNATURE MEANS ‘YES’, TEN GIRLS’ MEAN ‘NONE’ Prof. Nguyen Thi Minh Thai from the National University of Social Sciences and Humanity said women in Vietnam continue to suffer from discrimination. “At birth, girls are not as welcomed as boys. They are always number two in the family after men, even they are the breadwinners,” she said. Thai, who has worked on a project on gender equality funded by the Norwegian government, said that the voice of women in Vietnam “paid with less attention unless they are extraordinarily outstanding”. She likened the condition as being “worse than Nora,” referring to the lead character in ‘Doll House’, a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Thai said that the women are not only discriminated upon at birth but also at work. At enrollment, 90 percent of her students who study mass media are female. But when they graduate, few go further up in the career ladder and even fewer are appointed to higher positions in media organisations. Prof. Le Thi, who set up the first centre for women studies in Vietnam a decade ago, remains enthusiastic that gender equality will eventually improve in her country. The 84-year old retired professor, however, noted that she has not seen a “big leap” in the awareness of women’s issue among the country’s media organisations. “I do not see these issues being covered by the mainstream media. Only ‘Thanh Nien’ (Youth ) or ‘Tien Phong’ (Pioneer) newspapers have done pretty good,” she said, adding that as a result, only “20 percent of reality has been covered”. She said that most of the stories published encourage women to be successful in public but also to be a dedicated housewife. Women who cannot manage and balance both are often projected as failures. “The Vietnamese press mostly focuses on educating women to be a beauty queen, a good cook, a tolerant housewife to please her husband,” Thai said. Both Chai and Thi share the same view that the lack of adequate media reports and stories about women and gender equality is also because women do not voice their concerns to the media. “Women in general are very passive. They neither react nor oppose even when they are oppressed,” said Thi. She added that this follows the Vietnamese proverb “One boy’s signature means ‘Yes.’ Ten girls’ mean ‘None’.” Tolerance and embarrassment are, too, the common reasons why women do not speak out. Thi said wives in the countryside who are mistreated by their husbands often do not file lawsuits due to various reasons. Some are afraid of being further beaten, while some want to keep quiet so as not to lose face. “Your man is ugly, well, shame on you!” she said, referring to a common prejudice against battered women. Thi also blamed the media and non-government organisations for not standing by women’s issues and supporting women who need their help. She said most media organisations often focus their coverage on central and national issues and do not pay attention to the grass roots level, where violence and inequality against women mostly occur. “Those stories (on gender equality) have not reached the women at the localities where inequality happens. There must be proper coordination and cooperation among media and authorities at community level,” Thi said. For media to do their job well, meeting and talking with real people with real stories should be the approach, she added. She said the media play a key role in getting public attention on women and gender issues. Thus, she urged them to be more pro-active in reporting about gender equality and in supporting women media practitioners in their work. Meanwhile, silk flower vendor Chieu starts her day at 6 a.m. She carefully steers her old bicycle, loaded with dozens of silk rosebuds and strings of grape leaves that are twice as tall as her tiny figure. She earns about 30,000 dong a day from selling these. When she returns to her rented house at 7 p.m., she prepares dinner for herself. She does not see her husband who works as a cook in Hanoi but lives in another part of town, or her six-month old baby she left in the care of her mother in the province. Chieu’s husband migrated to Vietnam’s capital from the countryside seeking a better job. Chieu said she does not mind going through backbreaking labour every day. “I wish that my family is happy forever. Hardship? I don’t mind,” Chieu explained, quickly paddling her bicycle away to catch the rest of the day market. |
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