Context

There is no one reason why women are treated unfairly in Vietnam. There have been different traditions and beliefs that have contributed to the current situation of gender roles in Vietnam. Gender roles have been instilled in the minds of the Vietnamese for centuries. Different cultural ideas have surfaced to equalize the rights of women in Vietnam but it often brings about little change. It is not easy to change traditions that have been in place for so long.

Ancestor worship began many years ago in Vietnam. Boys carry their grandfathers’ and fathers’ lineage with them. Boys are thought to be born with the honor of their father. When the grandfather or father passes, the young man carries his honor with him. This puts emphasis on the importance of boys as opposed to girls. When girls marry they move in with their husbands’ family leaving their family behind. They also begin to worship their husbands’ paternal lineage putting their own ancestors in the backseat. Because of this, boys are much more desired than girls because the girl will just leave the family once she is married.

Confucianism had a major impact on gender roles. Confucianism is a code of ethics or philosophy that is based on merit as opposed to military position or family situation. In the Confucian system there was a lot of emphasis on hierarchy especially in the family unit. Women were supposed to be subservient to their husband and eventually their son. Women had to obey the one above them which almost always boiled down to women obeying men. Women were socially lower than men so they were supposed to abide by these “social rules”. Women were to follow these social hierarchies or they were not following Confucian ways properly. The explosion of Confucianism on Vietnamese culture had such a negative effect of the roles of gender.

In the early 1900’s, Communism begins to filter into Vietnam. Communism made major positive steps in the right direction to equalize the genders. In this system women were “supposed” to be allowed to own land or even get a divorce if it was necessary. By necessary I mean extreme physical abuse in the marriage, nothing like they are just not in love anymore. Women were to be treated equal and no longer brutalized by men. Even though this is what Communism preached, as one might say, not much changed. If women did own land it was to go through the man’s hand. Divorces rarely happened and women still had trouble having any rights what so ever, especially in marriage.

I have discussed all of the bad aspects of gender differences in Vietnam but it is not all horrible. Many say that women in Vietnam have it much better than women in China or other countries. For example, Vietnam never practiced feet binding which was very popular in China. I was very surprised by this because China and Vietnam have many similarities. Especially currently in Vietnam, many women are very successful. Dr. Sasges brought up in class the fact that a woman in Vietnam spent something like 1.5 million dollars on a car. This is pretty amazing especially because it was a woman who was purchasing it.

Things in Vietnam continue to get better especially for women. Hopefully the future will only bring further positive changes for both genders, especially women. I can only hope that I read about equality between the genders in Vietnam and that things get even better for the country. There was such a sad past but I believe that it will only get better.