INDIVIDUAL ESSAY DƯƠNG NGUYỄN bảo tâm AEn T321WSB 6 21000895

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DUONG NGUYEN BAO TAM

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21000895

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Academic English

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INDIVIDUAL ESSAY

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AEn-T321WSB-6

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T2-T3-T5 (8H-11H15)

Mr. Gabriel Ryan

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Title:

GENDER EQUALITY-ARE WOMEN COMPLETELY TREATED UNFAIRLY?

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Due date:

Home campus (where you are enrolled):

02/01/2022

Date submitted:

02/01/2022

Vietnam

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DUONG NGUYEN BAO TAM

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ARO 00380 08/15

TOPIC: GENDER EQUALITY-ARE WOMEN
COMPLETELY TREATED UNFAIRLY?

Student name: DUONG NGUYEN BAO TAM
Class: AEn-T321WSB-6
Instructor: Mr. Gabriel Ryan

Western Sydney University
January, 2nd, 2022
Word count: 1556

DUONG NGUYEN BAO TAM-AEN-T321WSB-6

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‘Many people already know about toxic masculinity, so what is toxic femininity?’ - a question
posed by one user on the Reddit forum in August attracted more than 5,000 discussions, according
to Vice News (2021). Women must be financially independent, women must succeed in their
careers, women must not be dependent on men, etc. These may be familiar sayings that people
have heard once. Under the label of the modern feminist movement, these messages are widely
spread and supported by quite a few people, but in reality, few of them understand the concept of
feminism. Up to now, there have been 4 waves of feminist struggles, but in the 4th wave, the
argument around this issue is getting fiercer. The concept of feminism has been increasingly
exaggerated and led to the formation of a new concept that is toxic feminism. To have the right
thinking, fight wisely, and get rid of toxic thoughts about feminism, salary facts offer a different
perspective. Besides that, there is education, violence, and some specific examples in Vietnam.

The salary discrepancy between men and women is a manifestation of a fundamental cultural
problem in the workplace. During the time of President Barack Obama, ‘Women are paid 77 cents

on the dollar for doing the same work as men’ (Obama for America TV Ad: “First Law”, 2012)
has become a rallying cry for those working to eradicate gender discrimination (Jacobson, 2012).
However, the ambiguity around salary statistics is aggravated when people misinterpret the nature
of the data. That figure does not relate to a specific group of workers, nor compare employees
doing identical work. Men and women work in a variety of industries and occupations, accounting
for up to 49.3 percent of the wage disparity (Glynn, 2014). According to the American Association
of University Women-a feminist organization, if the salary disparity is estimated using the same

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group of workers, education, and vocation, the wage gap is just approximately 7% (Corbett & Hill,
2012).

Moreover, women are still more likely to choose the least lucrative majors compared to men
(Carnevale et al., 2018). This is dependent on gender's innate tendencies; For example, women
tend to be better at housework, while men are better at construction. In addition, according to Foote
(2021), women make up 10% of portfolio managers, which is the highest-paying industry in the
US (Career One Stop, 2021). Whereas the current data reflects gender discrimination in the
workplace, it also indicates distinctions in gender, experience, education, competence, or career
choice gender-based. Therefore, merging all of the data to assess the pay gap distorts the actual
number and restricts the statistical value. To avoid deliberate misrepresentation of factual
information that does not accurately indicate workplace gender discrimination, the salary disparity
should be evaluated taking trends into account or the same factors.

Secondly, women may not be entirely restricted from educational attainment. A long time ago,
women probably got an education on par with men. For example, in Québec, Canada, since 1639,
there has been a school exclusively for girls, named L'école des Ursulines de Québec, established

to educate women and assist the poor. Besides, it was founded before the first wave of feminism
in 1848 (Rampton, 2020), so it is not a result of the feminist movement. Nevertheless, according
to UNICEF, 129 million girls are out of school throughout the world, with 32 million in elementary
school and 97 million in secondary education, or women accounting for about two-thirds of the
world's 781 million illiterate adults (Oxfam International, 2021). While this may be true, the male

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illiteracy rate is not mentioned in these reports. If the female illiteracy rate is 9%, the male illiteracy
rate has also accounted for 7% (Roser, 2021). Furthermore, in another UNICEF report in Vietnam
(2016), boys' out-of-school rates are higher than girls', with 8.2% and 7.6% in that order. Moreover,
young women currently make up 56.6 % of higher education participants, compared to only 44.1%
of young men (Hewitt, 2020).

On the other hand, poverty, such as poor family income, living in remote areas, having a handicap,
or belonging to a minority ethnolinguistic group, is one of the most significant determinants of a
girl's ability to obtain and complete education (World Bank Group, 2021). Furthermore, according
to a recent document published by UNESCO's EFA Global Monitoring Report (2013), half of the
57 million children out of school live in conflict-affected countries. In short, women's educational
opportunities are not completely limited. If there are a lot of girls out of school, lots of boys are
also out of school, and the predominance of female illiteracy is related to poverty and violence,
not to gender discrimination. Governments should pay attention to both genders and avoid
disseminating misinformation promoting one gender while demonizing the other.

Thirdly, when it comes to feminist movements, one of the most noteworthy issues is violence.
However, the proportions may be inflated, and the prevalence of male abuse is probably ignored.
According to Oxfam (2021), one out of every three women and girls will be subjected to violence

or abuse in their lifetime. There is no doubt that this is a concerning figure, but one out of every
four guys who have been victimized to some kind of physical violence is not mentioned (NCADV).
To be more specific, several statistics are demonstrating that the problem of violence or abuse

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affects both men and women. For instance, in total, 22% of people had been abused by a spouse
at least once in their lives including 23 % for females and 19.3 % for males; coercion was reported
by 41% of women and 43% of males (DV Research, 2016). There are, of course, views against
this issue. It is claimed that domestic abuse affects 22–35% of women who attend hospital
emergency rooms in the United States (Flitcraft et al., 1992). However, according to Sommers
(2016), the fact is that only 550,000 women are admitted to the emergency department each year
for violence-related reasons, out of a total of 40 million women, and only 37% of the 550,000
persons were assaulted by intimates, so the true figure is around 1%, not 22-35 % of women
hospitalized as a result of domestic violence. In short, the above cases illustrate that men's rates of
violence and abuse are as alarming as women's. Gender equality is what the world is aiming for,
consequently, let's give both genders equal attention while avoiding emphasizing erroneous
information and misdirecting the public’s opinion in a bad manner.

Last but not least, the fact that women in feudal Vietnam were treated unfairly is almost familiar.
Nonetheless, the following material could provide you with a different perspective on feminism in
Vietnam during the monarchy. The first is about marriage, the phrase ‘A girl must marry the young
man that her parents have selected ‘describes the injustice against women that literacies or movies
often refer to reinforce the idea that women had been trampled on. In fact, Nguyen's law stipulates
that marriage is freedom between two parties, if parents use oppressive power, they will be
punished (Minh, 2021). Besides that, article 167-Hong Duc Law also clearly stipulates the form
of consent for divorce as well as allowing women to divorce (LHPNVN, 2006). In terms of

property and labor, the fact that women are paid equally to males is also established in article 63

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of the ‘Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat’ and Le's law also does not discriminate against gender when it
comes to the inheritance of property from parents (LHPNVN, 2006). In addition, Kim Jong Ouk's
research on land ownership in Me Tri village (Tu Liem, Hanoi) before 1945 showed that the owner
is a woman in Me Tri village with 198 people, accounting for 85 acres (60.5%), of which the
number of women from other places coming to Me Tri to invade and also acknowledge ownership
is 14 people, accounting for 48 acres (33.8%) (Minh, 2021). It must be seen that the Vietnamese
feudal state has begun to realize the great role of women in production and life. The fact that the
law protecting women like in Vietnam since the nineteenth century is still long ahead of Western
society because the waves of ‘feminism’ have only really arisen in Western society at the end of
century XIX. That was the progress in the feudal dynasties of Vietnam.

To conclude, the merits of feminists who have fought to narrow the gender gap cannot be denied.
However, radical notions, variations, fabrications, and a propensity to eliminate men from many
elements of life are now accompanying the progress of the times. This is in direct opposition to
the original premise of feminist movements, which was to fight for human rights. It must be
understood that women are not completely confined to engage in sectors throughout the world as
long as they have the ability, as evidenced by the specific themes of salaries, education, violence,
and some evidence from Vietnam. Gender equality is what we're fighting for; the human rights
struggle may not be as clear-cut as the capitalist or socialist conflicts; genders don't cancel one
other out, but must be reconciled. Fight wisely and logically, without being misled by misleading
information and having warped ideas about feminism. As Emma Watson (2020) also said: ‘It is
time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.'

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REFERENCE LIST
15 Inspiring Gender Equality Quotes That Will Leave You Thinking. Women’s (2020, April 17).
Web: For Women Who Do. />Alao, L. C. (2021, October 5). “Toxic Femininity” Isn’t What You Think It Is. VICE.
/>Carnevale, A.P., Smith, N., & Gulish, A. (2018). Women can’t win. George Town University.
/>Cổng Thông Tin Hội Liên hiệp Phụ nữ Việt Nam. (2006, January 16). Vietnam Women’s Union.
/>Corbett, C., & Hill, C. (2012). Graduating to a Pay Gap-The Earnings of Women and Men One
Year after College Graduation. American Association of University Women.
/>Domestic Violence Facts and Statistics At A Glance – Domestic Violence Research. (2016). DV
Research. />Flitcraft, A. H., et al. Diagnostic and treatment guidelines on domestic violence. American
Medical Association, Chicago, IL, 1992.
/>
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Foote, A. (2021). Alpha Female 2021: Just 11.8% of portfolio managers are women. . . and
that’s an improvement. Citywire. />Gender justice and women’s rights. (2021, April 14). Oxfam International.
/>Girls’ Education. (2021). World Bank.
/>Girls’ education. (n.d.). UNICEF.
/>Glynn, S. J. (2014, May 19). Explaining the Gender Wage Gap. Center for American Progress.
/>Hewitt, R. (2020, March 6). Mind the gap: gender differences in higher education. HEPI.
/>Highest-Paying Industries. (2021). Career One Stop.
/>Jacobson, L. (2012, June 21). PolitiFact - Barack Obama ad says women are paid “77 cents on
the dollar for doing the same work as men.” POLITIFACT.

/>Minh, Q. (2021, May 13). Điều ít biết về nữ quyền trong xã hội Việt Nam dưới thời quân chủ. Trí
Thức VN. />
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NATIONAL STATISTICS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FACT. (n.d.). NCADV Organization.
/>Obama for America TV Ad: “First Law.” (2012, June 21). [Video]. YouTube.
/>Rampton, M. (2020, July 13). Four Waves of Feminism. Pacific University.
/>Roser, M. (2021). Access to basic education: Almost 60 million children in primary school age
are not in school. Our World in Data. />Sommers, C. H. (2021, April 28). 6 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die. Time.
/>UNICEF. (2016). OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN 2016 VIET NAM COUNTRY STUDY.
/>UNESCO: Half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries. (2013, July 12).
UNESCO. />
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