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Gender Equality and Women's Issues in Vietnam: the Vietnamese Woman—Warrior and Poet

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Gender Equality and Women's Issues in Vietnam: the Vietnamese Woman—Warrior and Poet Washington International Law Journal Volume 10 Number 2 3-1-2001 Gender Equality and Women's Issues in Vietnam: The Vietnamese Woman—Warrior and Poet Wendy N. Duong Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Law and Gender Commons Recommended Citation Wendy N. Duong, Gender Equality and Women's Issues in Vietnam: The Vietnamese Woman—Warrior and Poet, 10 Pac. Rim L & Pol'y J. 191 (2001). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol10/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington International Law Journal by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Copyright C 2001 Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal Association GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN'S ISSUES IN VIETNAM: THE VIETNAMESE WOMAN-WARRIOR AND POET Wendy N. Duongt Abstract: Exploration of women's issues in Vietnam strengthens the emerging voice of the "exotic other female" in contemporary international feminist discourse. Any women's movement in Vietnam today must be cast as the revitalization of the Vietnamese woman's collective cultural identity, rather than as a Western imported feminist doctrine. The Vietnamese woman's collective cultural identity is based on the history and cultural folklores of Vietnam, including expressions of feminist ideas in law and literature, and a long history of warfare and collective sufferings, wherein women have been seen as martyrs, national treasures, and laborers in war and in peace. The advocacy of gender equality in Vietnam today is limited by eight "risk factors." First, Vietnam's strong matriarchal heritage that persisted through its early history has at times led to the disingenuous proposition that Vietnam has no need for a feminist movement. Second, Vietnam's repetitive, prolonged war and poverty have together overshadowed gender issues. Third, women's movements in Vietnam have not evolved into a doctrine with a structured basis that is independent from nationalism, socialism, or literary movements. Fourth, gender equality in Vietnam has become entangled in what this Article describes as the "fallacy of a trio," in which gender equality becomes synonymous with nationalism and socialism. Fifth, the rule of law in Vietnam has traditionally been considered secondary to customs derived from the oppressive values of Vietnamese Confucian society and the autonomy of the Vietnamese agricultural villages. Sixth, women's rights advocacy has been caught up in the "universality versus cultural relativism" discussion, further complicated by the question of whether there should be "Asian-styled gender rights" in Vietnam. Seventh, Vietnam, despite its age, is a new nation with a wide variety of philosophical bases, legal traditions, and paradoxical values. Finally, the single-party political system of modem Vietnam renders any feminist movement susceptible to Party politics. The limitations on advocacy for gender equality are illustrated by the shortcomings of Vietnam's Year 2000 National Action Plan, which attempted to address women's issues in the aftermath of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Bejing in 1995. While the reassertion of cultural identity can effectively empower Vietnamese women, thefeminist advocate must approach cultural identity with caution in order to avoid the semantic traps of euphemism, empty ethnocentricsm, and unhealthy preoccupation with the past that can impede progress for the future. t This article was originally written as the author's LL.M. thesis in conjunction with a seminar on Asia Pacific Legal Community taught by Professor Raul Pangalangan and Professor William Alford, Director of the Center for East Asia Legal Studies, Harvard University. The author would like to thank the following individuals: Dr. Ta Van Tai, for lending the author research material; Ms. Helena Alvia, S.J.D. candidate, Harvard Law School, for helping the author identify feminist jurisprudence material; Mrs. Phan Ngoc Chan of the Yenching Library, Harvard University, for her invaluable assistance with locating Vietnamese sources; and Professor William Alford for agreeing to supervise the author's article while on sabbatical, giving the author the freedom to follow her instinct, and restoring her faith in the belief that "law as social engineering can be an art" (quoting Professor Alford from the fall seminar). 192 PACIFIC RIM LAW & POLICY JOURNAL VOL. 10 No. 2 I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................194 II. THE CONCEPTUAL AND DEFINITIONAL FRAMEWORK OF FEMINISM FOR A STUDY OF VIETNAM ....................................................................................................197 A. Defending the Esoteric CulturalApproach .........................................................197 B. Elements that Define Common Objectives and Bind the Vietnamese Advocate to the InternationalFeminist Community ............................................201 C. Developing a Vietnamese Agenda and Methodology Independent of Western Doctrines................................................................................................ 203 I1. VIETNAM: BACKGROUND-THE COUNTRY, LAW, POLITICS, AND WOMEN ...............206 A. The Old Country-The Vietnamese Woman and the Myths of Origin................. 207 1. M other Vietnam- Who Are You? ..................................................................207 a. "The founding parents "folklore .............................................................208 b. The story of Princess Tien Dung ..............................................................210 c. The story of the "awaitingwife ............................................................212 2. Early Feminist Literatureof Vietnam ............................................................212 B. Economic Transition Under the Doi Moi Policy-A New Nation, New Constitution, and New Laws-But What Has Happened to Women? ..................216 1. Vietnam 's Economic and Legal Changes ......................................................216 2. Women and Vietnam 's Human Rights Record............................................... 220 3. Female Leadership in the Government and in the Private Sector................. 224 C. The Socio-Economic Status of Vietnamese Women in the 1990s ........................227 1. Domestic Life .................................................................................................227 2. Employment.................................................................................................... 228 3 . H ealth .............................................................................................................2 32 4. Education .......................................................................................................234 5. Other Social Challenges Facing Contemporary Vietnamese Society ...........235 D. Legal Rightsfor Women in Vietnam and Gender Justice.................................... 236 1. The Convention on the Elimination of DiscriminationAgainst Women .......236 2. Domestic Sources of Women's Rights ...........................................................237 a. Constitutionaldistinctions between women and men ..............................237 1) Disadvantagesfor women ..................................................................237 i) Employment.................................................................................. 238 ii) M arriageand family ....................................................................238 iii) Imposed duty of motherhood........................................................ 238 iv) Affirmative actionfor men ...........................................................239 v) Politicalparticipation .................................................................. 239 2) Advantages for women .......................................................................240 b. Statutory rights ........................................................................................241 1) The Family Law .................................................................................241 2) The Labor Code .................................................................................243 3) The Civil Code ...................................................................................246 E. Impediments to Gender Equality Under the Vietnamese System .........................247 1. Lack of Influence of Women in Policy-Making and Real-Life Enforcement Issues ........................................................................................247 2. Limitation of the "Right" Rhetoric in Vietnam .............................................249 MARCH 2001 GENDER EQUALITY IN VIETNAM IV. ADVOCATING GENDER EQUALITY IN VIETNAM: THE EIGHT RISK FACTORS ...............251 A. FirstFactor: The Lack of a Gender Battle in Vietnam's Early History.............. 253 B. Second Factor: The Overshadowing Experiences of Repetitive, Prolonged W ar, and P overty .................................................................................................26 1 1. A ncient Civil W ars .........................................................................................26 1 2. A ncient B order W ars .....................................................................................263 3.
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