The Vietnam Women’s Union and the Contradictions of a Socialist Gender Regime

ABSTRACT

Vietnam’s transition from a centrally planned economy to a “socialist market economy under state guidance” since the late 1980s has provided women with unprecedented opportunities. Their increased mobility and economic power notwithstanding, Vietnamese women continue to be essentialised as mothers and carers in public discourse while their professional achievements and public lives are ostensibly de-emphasised. As the largest state institution tasked with representing women and advancing the Communist Party’s women-focussed social and political agendas, the Women’s Union plays a pivotal role in shaping the ideologies and values that serve to discipline women’s gendered behaviours and regulate their gendered lives. In this article, I examine the femininity ideals promoted by the Women’s Union in order to identify the contradictions in the Vietnamese socialist gender regime that subjects women to immense social pressure and perpetuates gender inequalities. The article invites re-thinking of the taken-for-granted relationship between women’s political representation and their empowerment. It also reveals ambivalence in the socialist state’s attempts to reframe socialist models of personhood at a time when the socialist national narrative is being challenged by globalisation, calling forth alternative modes of governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• development
• women’s empowerment
• market socialism
• Vietnam

Acknowledgments

A big thank you to Dung, Huyền, Linh and Phượng who provided me with materials relating to the campaigns and movements organised by Vietnam’s Women’s Union and General Confederation of Labour. This article has benefitted from constructive and insightful comments from Asian Studies Review’s editor and anonymous reviewers for which I am grateful.

Notes

1. The exchange rate was 1USD = VND22,800 circa January 2017.

2. Đổi mới (Renovation) refers to the economic reforms launched in Vietnam in 1986, moving the country from the command subsidised economy to the so-called “socialist-oriented market economy”.

3. Vietnam’s educational system uses a 10-point grading scale with 10 being the highest and 0 being the lowest.

4. “Social evils” (Tệ nạn xã hội) is a formal term used by the Vietnamese government and media to refer to social problems such as drugs, prostitution, pornography, gambling, theft, violence and even homosexuality. The term reflects the moral panic about the emergence of deviant communities and behaviours during Đổi mới.

5. The period from 2007 to 2017 includes the two latest terms of the Women’s Union (each term is five years) preceding this study. As much of the existing literature has discussed the Women’s Union during Đổi mới, a focus on its post-Đổi mới campaigns, movements and documents helps me to highlight the continuity in its discourse and practice.

6. Good at warfare; Good at production; Good at war invalids’ care; Good at education; Good at moral training. Responsibility for work and production; Responsibility for building the family and caring for children; Responsibility for taking part in the nation’s warfare.

7. The “Five Withouts” are Without poverty, Without law violation and social evils, Without domestic violence, Without giving birth to three or more children, and Without having children who are malnourished or who are school dropouts [Không đói nghèo, Không có người vi phạm pháp luật và tệ nạn xã hội, Không có bạo lực gia đình, Không sinh con thứ ba trở lên, Không có trẻ suy dinh dưỡng và bỏ học]. The “Three Cleans” are Clean house, Clean kitchen, and Clean surrounding lanes [Sạch nhà, Sạch bếp, Sạch ngõ].

8. See Hoang (2016) for a detailed description of my research methodology.