Gender, empowerment and development gender relations from the perspective of ethnic minorities in vietnam

Institute of Social Studies, Economics and Environment

Pham Quynh Phuong
----------------------------

Gender, Empowerment and Development
Gender relations from the perspective of ethnic
minorities in Vietnam

TRAO QUYỀN HAYTRAO CHIA SẺ?
Suh
ĩ lại về GALFKgagjlquaười dân tộc thiểu số ở Việt
Nam
Phạm Quỳnh P
Hanoi, 01/2012


Abbreviations:
ADB

Asian Development Bank

GE

Gender Equality

MOLISA

Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs

CEMA

Committee of Ethnic Minorities

EM

Ethnic Minorities

GAD

Gender And Development

GDI

Gender Development Index

IDRC

International Development Research Centre of Canada

iSEE

Institute for Social Studies, Economics and Environment

UN

United Nations

NG

National Goal

NGO

Non-Governmental Organization

VWU

Vietnam Women’s Union

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO
Organization

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

WB

World Bank

WID

Women in Development

2


Acknowledgements

The author expresses her gratitude for the sincere contribution and hospitality of
people in EM communities that have been mentioned in the report. Without their help,
this report certainly would not have been completed. The author would also like to
thank the field assistance from colleagues Hoang Cam, Le Kim Sa, Nguyen Quang
Thuong and Nguyen Thu Huong at different times and locations within iSEE’s research
programs on ethnic stereotypes, the consequences of prejudice, surveillance evaluation
for program 30A, and research on cacao trees. In particular, the author acknowledges
the valuable suggestions from Le Quang Binh and Luong Minh Ngoc to help complete
this report.
This report is the initial result of research on gender concepts in a number of ehnic
minority groups in 2011, implemented by the Institute of Social Studies, Economics and
Environment, with funding from Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).
Even though the author has put in great efforts to accomplish the research objectives,
this report might still exhibit limitations and shortcomings. The author looks forward
to receiving your suggestions in order to improve further researches in the future.

3


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I. RESEARCH BACKGROUND……………...………………………………………6
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….6
Gender access and discourse on gender inequality in ethnic minority areas.……………..6
Analytical framework………………..…………………………………………………..11
Areas and research methods……………………………………………………………..13
Chapter II. PERSPECTIVES AND GENDER RELATIONS OF EM………………………16
1. Gender roles and division of labor ……………………………………………….16
Perception on “Equality”………………………………………………………………...16

Labor distribution: women do many light chores, men do a few heavy works……….....19
Following natural and common sense……………………………………………………22
2. Accessing and increasing income………..……………..………………………..25
Income increase does not necessarily change positions ………...………………………25
“A good husband gets to manage the money”……...........................................................31
3. Participation and decision-making ……………………………………………….33
Not attending meetings does not mean not having rights.……………………………….33
Nobody makes decisions on his own…......……………………………………………...35
Administrative role does not reflect the actual role……………………………………...36
Chapter III. EMPOWERMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WOMEN’S SELFDETERMINATION AND POSITION……………………………………………………….…38
The topic of self-determination: selecting and making decisions……………………….39
Status of EM women in traditional practices and contemporary society.………………..45
CONCLUSION………….………………………………………………………………………49
APPENDIX……………………..…………………………………..…………………………….51
REFERENCES…………………….……………………………...……………………………...54
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………..56

4


Page
List of box titles
Box 1: The total population of related EM groups………………………………………14
Box 2: The population of EM groups in the inspected provinces……………………….14
Box 3: The perception of equality…………………………………...…………………..16
Box 4: Leaving wife the light chores (men’s point of view)…………...………………..19
Box 5: Husband does heavy works so less is fine (women’s point of view)………..…...21
Box 6: The standards for gender roles…………………..……………………………….22
Box 7: Overview of the Dao ethnic group…….…………………………………………27
Box 8: The tradition of living at the wife’s house……...………………………………..29

Box 9: Who manages the household’s expenses………………………………………...31
Box 10: Not participating but still discussing…………………………………………...34
Box 11: Nobody makes decisions on his own..………………………………………….35
Box 12: Overview of the M’nong ethnic group…………………...…………………….40
Box 13: The Lu people in Sin Ho……….……….………………………………………41

5


CHAPTER 1
RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Introduction
In recent years, the issue of gender equality has been a particularly interested
and intergrated topic in the socio-economic development strategies in EM areas.
Besides the lack of resources and the limited access to education, health care, services,
markets, the phenomenon of gender inequality is considered as one of the causes of
poverty (World Bank 2009). However, several reports also reveal that development
programs do not pay adequate attention to the issue of gender inequality (ADB 2006),
or make assumptions that poverty reduction and income growth can increase the
status for women. The Gender and Development approach (GAD) proposed by
developmental organizations often puts the concept of empowerment, increasing
power or enhancing position in the center, associating the gender and empowerment
issues to poverty reduction. The efforts for “empowerment,” “increased power,”
“enhancing position” show the developers’ belief that if women are more involved and
have better ability to access, they will be able to reach equality and the burden will be
lifted off their shoulders. Empowerment, therefore, has become a common term and
also a measure of success for a development program (CCIHP & Oxfam Novib 2011).
This effort, however, is based on outsiders’ assumptions as well as the existing
analytical framework for rights and equality from the West (see Appendix).

From a development point of view, it is obvious that behind the gender
approaches and interventions, there are implications that women should be considered
as the ones needing help to reduce poverty, they have no rights, no gender equality, no
opportunities and no choices. Helping the women out of poverty, generating and
improving incomes, empowering, and putting a woman on the same level with her
husband, as well as liberating her from all social constraints become the goals for
gender equality issues. This is demonstrated clearly in the discourse on poverty and
gender equality.
Being aware of the limitations of imposed interpretation, many development
organizations see the need to understand the EM’s perception on gender inequality,
then build programs that are more gender sensitive (CEMA và UNICEF 2009). Our
study aims to, through an anthropological approach, start discovering the EM’s
perception on gender practice, as well as the criteria for empowerment and equality
for women, and explain the cultural basis for these perspectives.
Gender access and discourse on gender inequality in EM areas
Among social and cultural issues, gender and gender equality are two of the
most interesting topics even though “gender,” “gender approach” “feminism” are new
concepts that Vietnamese policy makers and researchers just started to approach in
the 80s of the last century. From the theory which originated in the West, based on the
popularity and characteristics of society in Vietnam, after thirty years, the Gender
6


studies in our country have had an extensive progress of formation and development,
greatly influencing not only the views and policies of the Party and the State but also
the entire social practices.
Starting from the basic points of view: liberating women was one of the most
important objectives of the Vietnamese revolution, the right to gender equality was
affirmed in the first Constitution in 1946, and also in 1980, Vietnam became the 6 th
country in the world to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Along with the promulgation of the legal
system on family related to gender (Marriage and Family Law of 1959, 1986, 2000 and
the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence of 2007), the State has legislated the
Right to Gender Equality, and this law has officially taken effect since 2006 .1 The
National Committee for the Advancement of Women from State to local levels has been
established and consolidated by Decision 1855/QĐ-TTg (11/11/2009). The National
Strategy on Gender Equality 2 with specific program objectives for each period of 5
years, 10 years, along with the clearly formed Gender Development Index on State and
local levels hold important roles in directing activities towards gender equality
practices. For example, the National Target Programme for the period 2011-2015
mentions: creating strong shift in awareness, striving to significantly tighten the
gender gap, improving the position of women in a number of key sections and areas
with an existing gender inequality problem or high risk of gender inequality. Also in
2009, the Government implemented the regulations on presenting annual reports to
National Assembly on the status of executing the NG of gender equality.3 In conclusion,
in recent years, the issue of gender equality has been considered as a thoroughly
understood content and goal under the leadership of the Party, National Assembly’s
legislation as well as the direction of the Government structure.
In the scientific aspect, there is a growing number of research and education
centers on gender in our country. The Vietnamese Government’s commitment to the
international community towards the goal of Gender equality has attracted significant
supports from international organizations, not only in terms of financial and technical
means through projects, but also a whole system of modern knowledge and scientific
analysis tools in gender approach.4
1

03 Decrees guiding the implementation of the Gender Equality Law was also launched in 2008 and
2009 (Decree No. 70/2008/NĐ-CP (4/6/2008); Decree No. 48/2009/NĐ-CP (19/5/2009); Decree No.
55/2009/NĐ-CP (10/6/2009)).
2

National Strategy on Gender Equality 2011-2012 has been approved by the Prime Minister on
24/12/2010.
3
On 8/5/2009, the Government issued Report No. 63/BC-CP on the implementation of gender equality
objectives to send the National Assenly delegates at the 5th National Assembly session XII.
4

Supporting and coorperating with the Vietnamese government, UN organizations also conducted a
number of studies on various aspects of gender equality in Vietnam. Some reent reports and research
projects of the UN include: Report on Vietnam Job Trends in 2010 (ILO), showing the increasing situation
of gender inequality in employment in Vietnam; Summary analysis of gender indicators in the
population and housing census of Vietnam in 2009 (UNFPA), indicating the alarming status of growing
gender imbalance in Vietnam; Gender issues in migration (IOM) pointing out the differences in the
amount of money sent home by migrants, male and female, as well as measures to reduce the risk of
money deposits, strengthen financial management information and improve remittance services to be
7


In the Political thesis of 1930, the first official document of the Communist Party
of Vietnam to discuss gender issues, gender was addressed from the perspective of
women’s liberation. With the recognition that women were being imprisoned by the
“three cangues and stocks or chains, which were Confucianism, colonialism and
patriarchalism” (VWU, 1989), the Party advocated to fight for liberating them from the
oppression of the feudal society, bourgeois ideology and the patriarchy system. This
point of view dominated a relatively long historical period of the national liberation
war and the country’s recovery after the war. During the Doi moi period, Vietnam
begun to reach out to new gender approach models derived from the Western
movements and theories of feminism, notably the Women in Development (WID), and
Gender and Development (GAD).5 These approaches emphasize gender equality,
poverty reduction, bring benefits to women, and empower them.

Gender equality and gender inequality in Vietnam are considered the universal
problems, not related to religion and ethnicity, reflected in the fact that in 1981, the
civil rights of ethnic minorities were included in the law, but until now, there have not
been any mention of decrees or laws specifically to gender issues in the minority
community. Instead, there are only some indexes of percentage of women in several
areas of life. In the recently published National Gender Development Statistics Quota,
all quotas calculated in numbers are combined without analyzing specific problems of
different ethnic groups.6
The approaches to gender issues in EM areas in Vietnam, however, are exhibited
quite clearly through the discourse on gender inequality of ethnic minorities. Several
researches, the media, and the reports of development often present the images of EM
women as the victims of inequality, of being undervalued, of having “a low status,” and
therefore, “if we cannot raise the inferior position of women nowadays in the family
and community, the objective of sustainable rural development in our country will not
succeed” (Dang Canh Khanh and Le Thi Quy 2007:464). Researches on gender in a
deveopment point of view also reason “minimal access to resourses, poor ability to
generate income as well as no decision-making voice in important aspects of family life
lead to the women’s lower social and economic status comparing to men’s (Do Thi
Binh, 1996, Do Thi Binh and Tran Thi Van Anh 2003…). Follow is one specific study on
more effective for migrants, increase access to finance for rural workers, especially women; Tourism,
gender and ethnic minorities (UNESCO) presenting opportunities and challenges for sustainable
development in the ethnic-diverse highlands, promoting the increase of cultural sensitivity and the
awareness of decision makers and policy implementators of all levels, strengthening the voice and
representation of the community, especially of women at a local level; Project VIE/90/W01 (UNIFEM &
Institute for Family and Gender): Approach in the study of gender-responsive policies; Project Improving
research ability on gender, aiming to a sustainable development (IDRC)
5

While WID puts the issues for women in a relatively isolated position, the GAD approach pays more
attention to the social relationship between men and women, emphasizing the development model and

the benefits of both sexes.
6

The Quota system was issued on 14/10/2011, signed by the Prime Minister, with effect from
1/12/2011. There are 105 targets in this National Quota, but only one target (number 30) mentions the
ethnic minority area (percentage of women in poor rural areas, EM groups have needs to borrow
preferential loans from employment and poverty alleviation programs and formal sources of credit).
8


this issue.
From one case study of gender relations in Son La and Lai Chau, researchers
suggest that gender inequality is tightly associated with underdevelopment: “in
parallel with the underdevelopment of economic situation comes the
underdevelopment of society including gender inequality,” which exhibits through “the
unreasonable division of labor between men and women,” “women almost never get to
attend festivals or weddings and funerals in their mountain villages” (while the men
“do nothing for the whole month but attending weddings and funerals”), “the women
are not allowed to join guests for a meal but have to eat in the kitchen,” “victims of
many forms of domestic violence…, are beaten and abused,” “women are those who get
more access to resources than men, but own less control over these resources,” etc. With
the stereotypes on ethnic groups’ culture, the authors believe that the policies on
gender equality in Son La and Lai Chau meet many difficulties because “there exists a
greater barrier combined of a closed subsistence economy and long preserved
traditions”. The ideology, according to the authors, is due to the strong influence of
Confucianism on EM groups, and “the level of dependency of women relies on the level
of development as well as the traditions of each ethnic group,” therefore, “the social
status of the H’Mong women is much more inferior than the status of the Thai women”
(Dang Canh Khanh and Le Thi Quy, 2007:435-439).
The discourse on development also identifies gender inequality as the key issue

for poverty and other problems of inequaly. Over the last two decades, a number of
international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations and other
development organizations, etc. emphasize the relationship between gender inequality
and poverty and violence. The gender inequalities for women when it comes down to
opportunity, the right to express oneself, and the entitlement to make decisions at
home and in society are also considered as the reasons exacerbating their poverty.
(Schech, Susanne and Vas Dev 2007).7 The World Bank report even highlights the
differences in property access, the capability and the voice of EM women compared to
their men’s along with the language and culture barriers as main factors for the
existing gender inequality situation in EM areas nowadays (WB 2009). The discourse
on poverty by World Bank has established its own fulcrum by presenting two main
attributes of poor women: “voiceless” and “powerless,” in addition to “vulnerability”
(related to illness, material exhaustion, natural disaster, violence, etc.).
The report by the Poverty Alleviation Active Group of the Government, donors
and NGOs (2000) emphasizes that the major problems of EM women include “a heavy
workload, limited right to make decisions in the family… domestic violence stays at a
high level while the ability to access education and knowledge continues to be at a low
level.” The document Review of World Situation (2002) by the United Nations in
Vietnam confirms that “EM women often suffer from the effects of poverty more than
men because women do not have the right to decide, achieve lower level of education,
receive fewer opportunities, and all of these factors make them the poorest of the poor.”
Although even accounted for 13% of the population, the poverty rate among ethnic
7

IThe process of identifying poverty, according to WB, does not only rely on income, the amount of foods consumed,
and the illiteration situation, but also the factors of vulnerability and powerless (WDR 2000/01).
9


minorities is much greater than that of the Kinh and Hoa people.8 The Analysis report

of gender situation in Vietnam pays attention to the issue of EM women and young
girls lagging behind EM men in the fields of accessing health care services, education
and economic opportunities (ADB 2006). The report Analyzing National Society:
Ethnicity and Development in Vietnam points out that: “Cultural rules continue to put
EM women in a secondary position in the community and the women maintain to be
disadvantaged in all areas, from accessing sources of production and agriculturestimulative services to health care and education” (WB 2009:47). Examining gender
from a tourism point of view, a recent study by UNESCO (Tourism, gender and ethnic
minorities) on the Dao, H’Mong and Giay people in Sapa, confirms: “The signs of gender
inequality among ethnic groups can be seen in the continuous practice of wedding
challenge, demonstrating the inferior position of women in the family and in the
community, as well as the importance of having sons.”
Being fully aware of the women’s “low status” and the gender inequality in the
EM community, in general, development programs have the tendency to create
equality for women by giving them the chance to participate, to receive the
opportunity to access, and to improve incomes. Reports by the Committee of Ethnic
Minorities, UN organizations, the World Bank (WB 2000/01, WB 2009) all show that
the issue of gener inequality has been intergrated into development programs for the
purpose of removing and reducing poverty. There have been hundreds of training
sessions on spreading gender knowledge; hundreds of development programs aiming
for the goal of gender equality, or intergrating gender elements by both Vietnamese
and international NGOs (UNDP 2009). Over the years, the Government has invested
heavily in EM areas through a lot of poverty reduction programs (Care 2009), and
some other programs such as 135, 30A with an intergrated gender interest. 9 Women
Associations of all levels also have their own programs and activities (for instance, love
and shelter program, etc.) in order to enhance the standard of living and the equality
for women.
In reality, many studies have observed that even when the woman makes a
living and provides the main source of contribution to the family’s economy (husband
only makes as much as half of his wife), the women still do not achieve the “gender
equality” as understood in its conventional sense (Berk 1985, Unesco 2010). The microcredit programs or preferential loans for women do not make them more powerful, but

only increase the burden on women. The study in Sa Pa and Ky Son, Nghe An indicates
that for the H’Mong women, selling goods is only considered as the “extension” of doing
housework. Interview at Sin Ho (Lai Chau) reveals that the Dao women, inspite of
being the main income earners of the families, are still regarded at a more inferior
position than the men, and any income increase will not change their position in the
family.
As a result, the discourse on gender inequality among ethnic minority groups
8

According to the household living level census of 2008, the average poverty rate in EM groups is 49.8%,
while for the Kinh and Hoa people, it’s 8.5% (Statistic Bureau, 2008).
9
CEMA, Guideline to integrate gender into Program 135.

10


nowadays seems to present an one-way description and tragedize the position of EM
women: the women have an inferior status, they are the victims of domestic violence
and an irrational division of labor, they have no rights and cannot make any decision,
they only have a few opportunities to access and thus always sink in poverty. In other
words, the women are seen as a group of disadvantaged, underpriviledged people who
always need help. Such descriptions, on the one hand, identify all EM women in a
homogeneous and inactive category without portraying all of their diverse, dynamic
and self-determinable aspects. On the other hand, the evaluation on the status of EM
women are often based on the gender analysis lens which are heavily influenced by the
point of view of outsiders (especially Westerners) on equality and human rights with a
different value system instead of depriving from the perspective of the EM people
themselves. Therefore, the solutions to change the current situation of gender
inequality seem to be more than just an increase in income and economics. Before

developing appropriate strategies and policies to the problem of gender inequality in
EM areas, we need to set out to explore the EM people’s own thoughts on gender
relations in the context of ethnic culture.
Analytical framework
This report utilizes an anthropological approach to the study of gender issues in
EM areas. As an interdisciplinary science, anthropology studies the human nature and
human society as a whole (holistic approach). According to the overall and relative
culture perspective, with the inside out and the bottom up approach, anthropology will
help to discover insider’s perspective and the interpretation of some cultural practices.
The most fundamental method of anthropology is fieldwork with skills such as
participant observation, listening to the people’s points of view, understanding the
culture, their needs, their aspirations as they explain it instead of using the perspective
imposed from the outside. Moreover, this approach does not treat the people as passive
beneficiaries of development programs but as active subjects fully capable of selfdetermination. Using the gender analysis anthropological approach, we want to utilize
the EM people’s own stories and thoughts to discuss gender equality in three key
principles: relative culture, the people are avtive subjects, and always using insiders’
perspective.
Gender equality and empowerment are two tightly associated concepts. On the
one hand, the meter that measures equality between men and women is based on
defining tools: who has the rights and what he/she can do, on the other hand, the
empowerment efforts for women generate from the implications of inequality in
gender relations, women are at an inferior and powerless position comparing to men.
Empowerment is a concept that emerged from the 1970s, and has become
especially popular over the last two decades, but in reality, its comprehension has
changed. During the 1970s, women’s empowerment involved Feminist movements and
organizations which were developed with a clear implication on promoting the
struggle for social justice and equality for women through the transformation of
political, economic and social structures (Mosedale 2005). But by the 1990s, many
development organizations had associated this concept with a series of concentrated

11


strategies in order to increase options for women at an individual level, in the context
of State’s withdrawal from this responsibility to focus on greater social and economic
issues (Bisnath 2001, trích lại trong Misadale 2005:247). One example was providing
the micro-credit activity for women. It brought many women the opportunity to access
and control the money, however, there was evidence showing that these women, in
spite of being beneficiaries, were operating without a full support network. Therefore,
instead of proving effective, according to some evaluations, “empowerment strategy by
development organizations only managed to push the burden of maintaining a family
and paying the household’s debts on the woman’s shoulders” (Mayoux, 2002 (1),
requoted in Misadale 2005:248).
According to Oakley (2001:43), participation is the most important factor out
of the five frequently used aspects of empowerment in development study:
empowerment through participation, empowerment through democracy,
empowerment through building capability, empowerment through increasing income,
and empowerment through individuality. Sara Hlupekile Longwe, an expert on gender
in Zambia, has developed Women’s Empowerment Framework (WEF).10 This
framework implies that women’s poverty is a consequence of exploitation and
oppression (rather than a lack of products), and that women can only reduce poverty
by the method of empowerment. This analytical framework sets out five levels to
achieve equality (from low to high):
1.
Equality in decision-making for production factors
2.
Equality in participating in the decision-making process related to
management, planning and policy-making
3.
Concensus perception of gender roles and division of labor by gender

4.
Equality in accessing production factors
5.
Equality in accessing benefits (food, income, health care).
Therefore, from the perspective of empowerment – which is considered to be the
most useful mean of bringing gender equality, the evaluation criteria are usually
divided into three issue groups: i) Gender roles and division of labor; ii) Accessing
resources and increading income; iii) Participation and Decision-making. This report,
therefore, using the principles of anthropology to illuminate a number of evaluation
criteria for empowerment:
* Gender roles and division of labor: In the gender analysises, this is
considered as a core element in the maintenance of gender inequality. In the
report, we will analyze the EM people’s perspective and try to answer questions
such as: according to EM people (both men and women), what is gender
equality? How is their conception of gender roles and gender norms? What
problems in ethnic culture are exhibited through the issue of “who do what?”
* Assessing and increasing income: It is assumed that if women have the
ability to access and increase income, the control over money sources in the
family as her husband, their position and “rights” will improve accordingly.
10

The interpretation of empowerment in development study is different from the interpretation in academic study.
Besides this framework, there are many other access frameworks on empowerment.
12


What do the EM people think about this? Is there any evidence proving that
there is a parallel relationship between poverty reduction and women’s
empowerment?
* Participation and decision-making: Whether or not women are allowed to

participate and have the ability to make decisions are still considered as
indicators of women’s status and gender equality. Does this index reflect the
perspectives of EM groups, or the EM people have their own interpretation?
By emphasizing the active subject role of research objects and insider’s voice, this
report applies the following analysis framework model:
Labor
distribu
tion

Positiv
e
subject

Decision
-making
and
particip
ation

Insiders’
perspectiv
e

Diver
sity

Approa
ch and
Income

In addition to the three analysis aspects as mentioned above, through a number
of case studies, the report also presents an empowerment aspect from the perspective
of self-determination or self-entity (agency) for women. Here the concept of
entitlement does not bear the meaning of legal rights, but holds the implication of
social status, power và capability of the women in the specific context of ethnic culture.
Here, we support the view that women’s empowerment is a process in which women
define themselves and extend what makes them who they are, what they can do in the
stuations that they are limited comparing to men (Misadale 2005:252). In other words,
empowerment can be interpreted as “the women are in control of their lives: by
themselves, they establish daily practices, learn skills, build self-confidence, solve
problems and gain self-control in life”(UNESCO Action Plan 2008-2013).
General description of areas and research methods
According to official figures, although accounted for only 13% of Vietnam’s
population, the EM people are belong to 53 different ethnic groups, and in each ethnic
group, there exist many sub-groups with diverse languages, cultural practices,
customs, religions, livelihood activities in association with the different contexts of

13


natural environment and culture. All ethnic groups are divided into the patriarchy
group (eg, Tay, Nung, Thai, Dao, H’Mong, etc.), matriarchy group (E de, Bana, M’nong,
Cham Ninh Thuan, etc.) and duarchy group (eg, Xo-dang, Brau, Xtieng, etc.) with
diverse gender relations. With this diversity, we simply cannot make generalized
conclusions about gender issues within the EM communities in Vietnam.
With the approach of multi-sited ethnography, focusing on participant
observation and listening to insiders’ points of view, as well as learning about the
homogeneous and different relations between locations, we have conducted interviews
with many ethnic groups at different times during the year 2011. The communities
include: Muong people (Lang Chanh, Thanh Hoa), H’Mong people (Ky Son, Nghe An),

White Thai and Black Thai people (Que Phong and Ky Son, Nghe An), Red Dao people
(Cho Moi, Bac Kan), Dao Ten and Dao Khau people (Sin Ho, Lai Chau), Kho-mu people
(Ky Son, Nghe An), Lu people (Sin Ho, Lai Chau), and two matriarchial groups of
Raglay people (Bac Ai, Ninh Thuan) and Mnong people (Lak district, Dak Lak). The
examples presented in this report mainly derived from stories of the Lu and Thai
people in Sin Ho, the Dao people in Bac Kan, and the Mnong R’lam in Dak Lak. Some
examples from other communities are also included in this report when necessary. We
selected these survey ethnic groups because of their diversity in culture, customs and
livelihood practices. Some groups belong to the largest groups of EM (such as the Thai
people), while others belong to the smallest groups (for example, the Lu ethnicity is one
of the 15 smallest ethnic minority groups in Vietnam). Some groups incline to
matriarchy (Mnong) while others follow the patriarchy tradition.
According to the problem “interface” approach (not using “points” of research),
in the report, we do not have the ambition to continue further and explain thoroughly
from the cultural perspective of each individual ethnic group, but only set a goal to
attain an objective overview of some aspects of gender relations among EM groups.
The research findings in this report, thus, are only a referential point of view on several
issues of gender relations through a number of research areas.
Box 1: The total population of related EM groups (unit: person)
Ethnic
group
Thai
Muong
Dao
H’Mong

Population

Male

Female

1,550,423
1,268,963
751,067
1,068,189

772,605
630,983
377,185
537,423

777,818
637,980
373,882
530,766

Ethnic
group
Kho-mu
Lu
Raglai
Mnong

Populati
on
72,926
5,601
122,245
102,741

Male

Female

36,515
2,825
59,916
50,021

36,414
2,776
62,329
52,720

Source: Census of population and housing in 2009
person)

Box 2: The population of EM groups in the inspected provinces (unit:

Ethnic group
Thai

Province
Nghe An

Populatio
n
295,132

Ethnic group
Lu

Province
Lai Chau

Populatio
n
5,487

14


Dao
Muong
H’Mong

Bac Kan
Thanh Hoa
Nghe An

51,801
341,359
28,992

Mnong
Raglai
Kho-mu

Dak Lak

Ninh Thuan
Nghe An

40,344
58,911
35,670

Source: Census of population and housing in 2009

Recognizing that the perspective on gender and gender relations need to be
viewed from both sides, we decide to conduct interviews with both men and women in
community groups. The interviewees are selected randomly from different age groups
(with the youngest being 17, the oldest being 65 years old). The main research methods
include semi-structured qualitative interviews, group discussions, and real life
observation. Each interview lasts from 1 to 2 hours with questions surrounding the
research problems. We are interested in such problems as: What are the perceptions of
EM men and women on gender equality, gender roles and gender standards? What are
the problems for ethnic culture behind “gender inequality”? Is the position of EM
women really as “inferior” as emphasized in many gender discources, and can that be
treated as the basis for empowerment efforts? Is the common approach on gender and
gender inequality really relevant to the social and cultural contexts of ethnic
minorities? Without capturing the answers from EM people themselves on these issues,
the general assessment of gender inequality among EM groups will only reflect the
perspective of an outsider, with a referential value system from the outside and men as
the center, hence the prejudice. Development programs to empower or improve
women’s status, therefore, will not be able to achieve the desired effect.
The interviews are usually carried out at the house in order to create the most
comfortable atmosphere for the correspondents, and also to allow us to observe the
gender relations in their daily practices. The deeper interviews were recorded,
removed from the tapes, and the correspondents’ names have been changed to ensure

the principle of anonymity.

15


CHAPTER 2

PERSPECTIVES AND GENDER RELATIONS OF EM

1. GENDER ROLES AND DIVISION OF LABOR
•
•

•

The EM communities do not share the same concept of “equality” as the media and
current law. Instead, their perspective of an ideal family is “being together” and
caring for each other.
To a family, figuring out “who does what” bears the meaning of sharing labor
rather than distributing labor. Their roles are carried out to support each other,
while depending on each other; each person does the works that suit them the
most. The husband believes he takes over the responsibility of doing heavy
housework so that his wife only has to do the light chores. As a result, the husband
can do little but has to handle all of the big tasks, or the woman has to do many
things but mostly light duties around the house, the women consider this as an
obvious fact.
If there exists recognition of the women’s burden, then it is regarded as common
sense, and the women feel that they should and need to follow in order to achieve
the goal of a harmonious family.

Perception on “Equality”
The EM communities live in different cultural contexts, but we can easily
recognize that the concept of “gender equality” is not an endogenous concept of their
own culture. Gender equality, which emphasizes the equal right to participate and
benefit,11 is just a concept that EM people hear from the media and the propaganda
system of the local Women’s Union officials. As a result, the issue of gender equality is
only often mentioned during the interviews with women’s union officials of all levels,
but when discussing with men and women of ethnic minority groups (specifically in
this study they are the Thai, Muong, H’Mong, Dao, Lu, Kho-mu, Mnong, Raglai), we
usually come across such answer as not understanding, or an explanation of the
concept completely different from the implication of “gender equality” as mentioned in
the law.
Box 3: Perception on equality

…”Don’t know what equality is. As husband and wife, we do everything together, discuss everything
together” (Dao ethnicity, female, 41 years old, Nong Thinh commune, Cho Moi district)
11

The GE law clarifies: “Gender equality means that the men and women both share an equal position
and role, they are both offered the conditions and opportunities to promote their full capacity for the
development of the community and family while benefitting equally from the results of such
development (Gender Equality Law 2006)
16


…”Equality? It’s that nowadays people from different ethnic groups can get married with each other”
(Dao ethnicity, female, 47 years old, Nhu Co commune, Cho Moi district)
…“Equality means men and women are the same, work the same, if wife is busy then she asks
husband to work together. When husband brings guests back home, he asks the wife to prepare
together, if it’s a full meal then guests, husband and wife all sit and eat together” (Lu ethnicity,

female, 56 years old, female activist, Nam Tam, Sin Ho)
… “I’ve heard about equality, meaning we respect them then they respect us” (H’Mong ethnicity,
male, 27 years old, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district)
…Equality means that when having guests, both husband and wife sit down to eat and drink wine
with guests (Black Thai ethnicity, female, 25 years old, Ma Quai commune, Sin Ho)

As an alternative, the EM people often mention the words caring for each other,
working together, and sharing. The caring for each other, the working together and the
sharing between husband and wife have seemed to become a standard in gender
behavior, as well as the ideal family model in all the ethnic groups that we met.
Therefore, when asking about the ideal husband and wife version in different ethnic
groups, we receive very similar answers, that the wife (or husband) does not need to be
beautiful, does not have to be of a certain age, as long as he/she cares for his/her
partner, the husband does not drink too much (but still should know how to drink,
because if he does not then he is considered “stupid” or “dull” 12), he is gentle (to the
wife), and know how to share the workload:
“We prefer to marry hard-working men rather than handsome, as long as they care for us, as long
as they help with everything we do. Working at the rice fields then working at the slope fields… in
general they need to care for us”
(Thai ethnicity, female, 18 years old, Cam village, Tri Le commune, Que Phong)
”On selecting a wife, I do not need the pretty, in general she has to be gentle, obedient, hardworking, diligent, and helpful in supporting the family’s economics. And if she’s beautiful but cannot
talk to, cannot work with, does not help me at work, then it’s a pity…”
(H’Mong ethnicity, male, 27 years old, Son Ha village, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son)
“A good wife has to be hard-working, dutiful to the parents, capable of weaving, and not wandering
around the whole day. A good husband does not drink alcohol, does not have a filthy mouth, is not
lazy, and can do just about anything”
(Dao ethnicity, female, 75 years old, Khe Lac village, Nong Thinh commune, Cho Moi)

Accordingly, to the EM people, “equality” – a quite alien word to the concept of
their values – does not necessarily imply that husband and wife have equal rights to

make decisions or gain benefits, but is interpreted as both people working hard and
sharing the workload. In other words, for women, the part of “being together” is more
meaningful than “the right to make decision” and “the right to gain benefits.” In order
to explain why “being together” is so significant to the EM people, it has to be placed in
the livelihood context of the ethnic people.
Most people from EM groups reside in the mountainous areas. Each community
12

According to group discussion with Dao women, Cho Moi, Bac Kan
17


group usually ranges from a few dozen to a few hundred of households. Even though
many ethnic groups live together in a region or a town, within the scope of a village,
people are often from the same ethnic group, and in many cases, they are from the
same family clan. In a way, they live closely together in a social network, in which each
individual is an intersection. People in the community are brought together by the
livelihood activities (with a mutual-help procedure, assisting one another by rotation),
cultural and religious activities, which are often set by rules and regulations. Dry-crop
livelihood activities in the mountainous areas as well as paddy-field plantation
activities by some lowland resident groups are all associated with nature, plants and
heavily dependent on the weather. Both dry-crop activities and paddy-field cultivation
contain heavy works (hoeing up the ground, cutting branches, tilling in the field…) and
tedious tasks (pricking holes in the ground, transplanting rice seedlings, plucking up
weeds…), and also require concentrated labor energy towards the end of the crop (the
harvest season). For example, having to change wasteland into cultivated areas and
guiding water from the stream to the field altogether, several Lu families in Sin Ho with
adjacent fields often dig a shared ditch and conduct an annual dredging together. Such
cohesion for a common interest makes people become more interdependent. They
always help one another in a fair position: everyone trades their own labor efforts to

help one another in agriculture, because nobody can manage all the workload himself
(harvesting rice, harvesting coffee, harvesting tea leaves, etc.). Livelihood to do
agriculture forces them to depend on one another and stick together to survive. In the
family, husband and wife rely on each other in productional relationship and daily
activities, and in the community, every household volunteers to trade labor, helping
one another in such rotation method has led relationships within the community
become closer. If there is something going on at one family, the whole village has to
come, so that when it is their turn, the other families will come to help (such as
assisting at weddings and lifting coffin at funerals; one individual family generally
does not have enough people to manage). Building a house also requires much help
from a few dozen people in the village (not for hire) and then the family has to prepare
a big meal with rice wine as a treat to show gratitude.

18


The Kho-mu people at Tri Le commune (Que Phong, Nghe An) building a house

The majority of the ethnic groups that we interviewed has a history of farming
and/or settlement (either spontaneously or following the State’s policies) and is often
closely associated with their clans. Difficult livelihood conditions, limited land and
forest for livelihood, a lack of capital for production, etc., all these factors have forced
the communities to unite closely and rely on one another to survive. Such attachment
helps them to share and develop, to gather indigenous knowledge as well as
experiences in labor and production. The settlement history factor, along with the
prejudice that other ethnic groups label on them also make the EM people develop the
psychology of living closely together. The relationships are always in a continuous
circle that cannot be broken. They are connected together by the contexts of culture,
society, migration and livelihood, while exhibiting the EM people’s psychology of
always being in due fair, their efforts to avoid debts, to avoid owning a meal. In such

tendency to stick together and help one another to survive, the interaction between
women and men in the family is a two-way interaction, an interdependence, the men
will assume all works labeled “heavy” and “big,” while the women do things that are
considered “light” and “tedious.” Of course, the definition of heavy or light works
depends on the perception of gender standards in each community.
Labor distribution: women do many light chores, men do a few heavy works
In some EM groups, such as the Lu or Raglai people, they often do not
distinguish between a man’s jobs or a woman’s jobs. There are two main aspects in the
perception of community groups regarding gender roles. On the one hand, it is the
expectation in working together. With works that anyone can do, there is no
transparent division, if one person is free then he/she can help the other (sowing rice
seeds, transplanting rice seedlings, harvesting…), and with heavier workload then the
men often arrange time to on their own (farming, sawing wood…).
“…My wife and I are pretty much the same, generally we are exactly similar. For labor tasks, if she
goes to work or does not do it then I’ll do it, if she does it then I’ll go to work, generally we both
work. Cooking, washing dishes, working in the fields…”
(Raglay ethnicity, male, 31 years old, Bac Ai district, Ninh Thuan)

On the other hand, EM people do not conceive the issue of “who does what” in
the family as a “division of labor” that we often mention. For them, it is as simple as
each person does one thing, whoever does something better from their experience
should stick with it, since women are physically weaker, they should do housework
(“women cannot even lift an ax”), and therefore, they should stay at home rather than
going in search of work somewhere else; men are stronger so they can do heavy work,
big/important jobs. As a result, deriving from this point of view, EM men often leave
the women the light jobs (doing “housework” and “owning a small business” are
consider light jobs):
Box 4: Leaving wife the light chores (men’s point of view)
…”The husband has to do big works, heavy works, such as harvesting during this season, harvesting
and doing heavy jobs are for the husband, the wife stays at home so she prepares meals and cleans

19


the house, that’s all. The women shouldn’t be doing heavy works or big jobs because they are
women, the health is not guaranteed…”
(Lu ethnicity, male, 29 years old, Pau village, Nam Tam commune, Sin Ho)
…”Here the men do more, as the wife is slightly weaker, it means the man has to do more. The man
has to carry the firewoods home. If the pile is small then his wife can carry it, if it’s big then he has to
carry it home, when arriving at home, we have to do housework together, do not relax until after
dinner. If there’s a movie on TV then we watch it, if not then it’s okay. My wife pampers me
sometimes, she takes care of me, or when I get a little bit drunk then she asks where you went, why
you drank, next time don’t drink too much, just drink a little. Seeing that I’m drunk means that my wife
still cares for me. But if there is work then she will complain. I can only drink when there’s no work…”
(Kho-mu ethnicity, male, 41 years old, Binh Son 1 village, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district)
…”The light works such as trading small goods, and doing housework are for the wife, bigger jobs
are for the husband. Working in the field is for husband, tilling the mountain slope field is for
husband. But for transplanting the seedlings, it’s the wife’s job. And for heavy farming and stuff,
husband has to do more because that’s the big job. Because here, in the mountains, because of the
special terrain that big machines cannot be brought in, we can only use buffalos for plowing, and
women cannot work the buffalo cart, so men have to… And there are small tasks such as I go into
the forest to pick up natural fruits, then my wife bring them to the market to sell. Or while working in
the slope field I plant some mustard greens, then my wife bring them to the market to sell, we men
don’t do such things…”
(H’Mong ethnicity, male, 27 years old, Son Ha village, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district)
…”Generally in the house, the light chores are for women, the slightly heavier stuffs are for men.
Light chores such as washing dishes. For cooking we help each other. Getting home from work,
everybody is tired, but if I just sit there for my wife to cook then it’s not okay, we have to help each
other. When my wife cooks dinner, I go to get water from the well. Washing laundry is for the wife, but
if the wife doesn’t do it then the husband can do it, the husband will do the wife’s laundry too…”

(Kho-mu ethnicity, male, 45 years old, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district)

Light chores and heavy works are usually placed in specific relationships.
Compared to the production outside of the home, housework is much lighter, but
compared to making good money, working in the fields is “lighter.” In one discussion, a
group of Muong women in Thanh Hoa does not seem to accept the men’s explainations,
therefore they complain about the men in the village being very “lazy” (“there are no
sight of men working in the fields at all”). The women share that in the past, men from
their village did often go to work in the field, but recently they have all become
unreasonable, saying that men working in the field are “inferior,” so none of the young
men wants to work in the fields anymore:
”Men said that transplanting rice seedlings is the work for women, they only want to do the big
stuffs, to make big money, for example, working in the forest, sawing woods, sawing timbers

20


and selling them for big money, so that is best left for women to do at home...”
“…The Muong women work harder, everything comes down to our hands. Transplanting rice
seedlings is for women, harvesting is also for women… But men handle hard works and earn
money. In the morning, the men sharpen their knives to prepare for chopping bamboo, finding
woods, chopping down acacia trees, working for other families, men are in charge of all heavy
works. During the harvest month, men have to carry the rice back home in the afternoon…”
(group discussion with Muong women, Giao An commune, Lang Chanh district)

In other ethnic groups such as Thai, H’Mong, Dao, Lu, Mnong, Kho-mu, Raglai,
we all get to listen to their opinions on different works for men and women in the sense
of figuring out reasonable labor division. Men from EM groups are all defined to do
“the big stuffs,” “the slightly heavy works” such as chopping down trees, clearing the
fields for cultivation, plowing the fields, digging ponds, sawing timbers for building

house, carrying big stacks of fireworks, working the buffalo cart, selling buffalos and
cows, socializing with others… Women do “light chores,” “small tasks,” such as growing
pigs, growing chickens, picking up firewoods, picking weeds from vegetable fields, bean
fields, mustard green fields, selling vegetables, etc. Since the livelihood circumstance in
the mountainous areas requires more “heavy works,” many EM groups prefer to have
sons so that they can use more labors for the family (in addition to maintaining the
family names and worshipping). For the Lu and Thai communities in Nam Tam
commune and Mai Quai commune in Sin Ho, Lai Chau, having a son to work in the
fields and to live with during old age is very important. As a result, it is not rare to find
cases of “buying a son” if all of the children are girls. 13 And when there are no sons in
the family, the woman’s parents would desperate to get a son-in-law who can live with
the woman’s family for the rest of his life. Even for the matriarchial groups, such as the
Mnong people, even though it is required to have a daughter to take care of old age
(“because your son is actually other people’s son”), but according to Y Plen, for the
Mnong people in Lak, “everyone loves to have a son, because the son would become the
main labor for the family.”
For women, labor is shared according to each person’s ability, one should do
what he/she does best. As a result, since the women cannot do heavy works and such
responsibilities belong to the man, it is only reasonable and fair if the men do not do as
much:
Box 5: Husband does heavy works so less is fine (women’s point of view)
…”The husband does not have to do much because he already does all the heavy stuffs. For
example, why do we have to build house, to carry woods? Such heavy jobs are more suitable for
our husbands, and even heavier jobs, such as farming in the slop field, carry big things, our
13

The price for a child depends on his age; the older the child is, the more expensive he is going to be as
the biological parents must have put a lot of efforts into raising him. As a common practice, the children
that are bought into the family generally are accepted by the whole community, this is considered
normal and the child does not suffer from prejudice or pressure. The child grows up considering his

foster family as his biological family, and usually does not try to go back to his biological parents’ house.
21


husbands will carry all. I just have to cook and wait, or grind rice, or dry rice, or pick vegetables.
When gathering firewoods, both husband and wife would go… Sometimes when the husband
wakes up late, sometimes not until I finish cooking. Sometimes my husband wakes up earlier, if I
have too many chores to do then he will help carry water home so that I can shower the kids…”.
(H’Mong ethnicity, female, 25 years old, Dong hamlet, Tay Son commune, Ky Son)
…”Women have to do more work, but the men do “bigger” works, so it’s all the same”
(Thai ethnicity, female, 38 years old, Tan Thanh hamlet, Tan Phuc commune, Lang Chanh district)
…”The husband works for other people, the wife stays at home with the children. If the wife leaves
then who is going to take care of the children, the husband is not as good as the wife. And for
housework it’s all the same, husband and wife both have to work together, everyone is the same. If
it’s the heavy task then the husband does more, if it’s light chore then it’s the wife’s turn. Heavy
tasks are something that the women cannot do then better leave it to the men. If it’s not too hard
then both men and women do it… As for hardship, the husband is worn-out, the wife is worn out
the same… Working in the slope field together. Going together, coming back together.”
(Kho-mu ethnicity, female, 56 years old, Binh Son 1 village, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district)
…”The girls make scarves, make dresses, so many dresses, wash dishes, feed the chickens, pick
vegetables, grow pigs, pick firewoods, pick vegetables, do laundry. The boys often do the main
jobs, such as working at the field, plowing the field, in the evening, they go fishing, casting net,
hunting…”
(Lu ethnicity, female, 24 years old, Mai Quai commune, Sin Ho)

As a result, the perception of “heavy” work and “light” work, “main” job and
“petty” job has determined the division of labor in the household. The men are
conscious that they are leaving all the light chores to his wife while they take over the
burden of hard works in the family. As for the women, even though they would hope
their husbands could share more of the housework in the family as they realize they

have too many things to do, they still consider it to be fair. 14 Thus, in reality, rather
than believing that the division of labor has shed the burden on the women’s
shoulders, from the point of view of EM people, the issue of “who does what” originates
from the perspective of helping each other out (within the standard of being
together), whoever is stronger does the heavier tasks, and whoever does something
better stays in charge of it. The roles of different family members are interdependent;
one person’s role will help the other accomplish other roles. Division of labor in this
circumstance does not originate from the perception of gender rights, but it is
associated with a common goal of maintaining life and co-existing
Following natural and common sense
14

However, by living closely together, women of different ethnic groups often make comparison for the
men’s ability to work hard, for example, the Thai women in Sin Ho think that their Thai men are not as
diligent as the Lu men, or the Dao women’s union official from Ta Phin, Sin Ho believe that the H’Mong
women are luckier as the relationship between a H’Mong husband and wife is very close, something that
the Dao people do not have.

22


Gender standards are established by the social traditions in the community, and
then expand from specific contexts. They are popular values and behaviors, accepted by
the community and thus become the powerful conventions for behavioral and cultural
practices of both men and women. Therefore, gender standards play an important role
in maintaining social order, have the ability to control and limit the behaviors of both
men and women. Gender standards are expressed at many levels, from the family to the
neighborhood, to the village community, and also the society.
Some of the women we met fully recognize the hardship for women (“women
keep working, working, working”) because despite the fact that housework is quite

simple, it repeats day after day, the women are busy from early morning to late at
night, but the traditional perception on gender standards still dominates their
behaviors. People in each community all believe that if they do not follow the
traditional practices – the gender standards that have been developed and preserved
over so many generations – it will be such a shame, and they will not be respected by
the community. Like women, the men are expected to follow gender standards, they
need to do heavy works instead of petty chores. For example, a young H’Mong man in
Ky Son claims that it is a shame to sell little things such as vegetables or fruits, but
when it comes to selling buffalos, it is then something that the man has to do, because if
he lets his wife sell their buffalos, it will be equally embarrassing for them. The Dao
men from two communities in Khe Lac and Lang Dao in Cho Moi district (Bac Kan) all
share a common perception of leaving the women to do small tasks such as planting
tea trees, growing rice, while they handle the big responsibilities such as chopping
down bamboos, building wooden products. The Lu people in Sin Ho has a folk song that
goes: “the men knit fishing nets, the women weave clothing” as the men’s
responsibilities include knowing how to travel along the river and catch fish, while the
women need to know how to weave fabrics. Men from Mnong ethnic group are in
charge of more hard works, but the women are still expected to partivipate in all
activities of agricultural production (crops and livestock). For craft jobs, the women
are the main labor in the weaving business while men practice carpentry, operate
metal workshop, and weave products from rattan and bamboo. In the exploitation of
natural resources, the men go hunting, fishing, while the women are mainly fruit
gatherers. A Thai woman in Nghe An shares:
…Here the women weave clothing, the men do work outside, in the field. Women have
to work in the slope field, for the men, if he is hard-working then he will help, if not
then he will pass. Older women often sell vegetables at the market. We don’t go
because we are embarrassed… We often try to find cassava to make wine and then
sell for money…
(White Thai ethnicity, female, 18 years old, Cam village, Tri Le commune, Que
Phong district)

Box 6: The standards for gender roles
“I also struggle but that’s what women do; we shall be laughed at if we are lazy… In the evening,
even if I’m very tired, if my husband wants me to wash his feet then I would… But if he’s not nice
to me then I will ignore him. If I leave my husband to do housework then our neighbor would say

23


why you are doing this instead of your wife. Then I would feel ashamed too as they say why the
wife is so lazy, making the husband do everything.”
(H’Mong, female, 25 years old, Ky Son)
“Lazy women are those who only stay at home, cook and feed the pigs and chickens, hardworking women are those who go to pick firewoods since early in the morning…”
(Lu ethnicity, female, 53 years old, Nam Tam commune, Sin Ho)
“Those women who do not work on the field are lazy, staying at home and selling stuff is lazy…”
(Kho-mu ethnicity, male, 37 years old, Ky Son)
“Men do not do petty tasks”
(Lu ethnicity, female, 53 years old, Nam Tam, Sin Ho)
“It’s embarrassing for men to sell little things, but selling cattle is okay. Moreover, men only want
to finish the stock quickly so that they can go home so sometimes they sell for really cheap, but
the women only sell for the right price as she works very hard on this, thus she can stay at the
market for a long time. Therefore, I only drive my wife to the market to sell our own fruits, and
pick her up when it’s time to go home…”
(H’Mong ethnicity, male, Ta Ca commune, Ky Son)
“Men can do plowing, but transplanting rice seedlings is too embarrassing”
(Muong ethnicity, male, 45 years old, Lang Chanh)
“We often say that it’s better to be a man, then we say ‘it’s our own fault for being women’ and ‘if
there is a next life then I would try to be a man’, but the guys say that ‘it’s better to be women
because men always have to do heavy tasks such as building house, plowing, making weaving
loom…”
(Thai ethnicity, female, 17 years old, Cam village, Tri Le commune, Que Phong district)

A Thai woman by the weaving loom (Que Phong, Nghe An)

Each ethnic group has its own criteria on the expectations for women, for
example, the ability to weave fabrics for Thai or Lu women, the ability to embroider for
24


H’Mong and Dao women. In the Lu ethnic group’s opinion, once a person dies and
returns to the Earth, that person has to be enshrouded in the special cloth that a
woman from the family has woven. As a result, the Lu women are required to know and
master the art of weaving. If a woman does not know how to weave and apply related
techniques (coloring, threading), she will be laughed at by villagers and find it difficult
to get married. In the naming ceremony for girls, the Lu people often bring a shuttle to
put on the protective goddess’ table, in hope that the baby will become hard working
and skillful in weaving fabrics. Therefore, at a very young age, little girls are taught the
techniques of weaving, pulling, spinning, dyeing (with the most common color being
indigo). The hands of H’Mong women are always busy with embroidery. From an early
age, the girls are taught to embroider. As a young H’Mong explains:
“Embroidery is an ordinary work for the H’Mong people. It is the traditional characteristics of
H’Mong women for thousands of years; they start embroidering since 6-7 years old and continue
until they reach old age. They continue to embroider as they do it partly for themselves, partly for
their daughters who will use this as their dowry when getting married, or for their relatives. The
H’Mong women do not see it as hard work as they just want to have the most beautiful dress.”

Therefore, the works that outsiders might consider too tough or unfair for
women could be perceived by the insiders as the essential daily tasks of life. Even if the
women sense the hardship in their life, they would still follow the framework of
traditional practices in order to achieve harmony in the family. In case there is no
labor division, they still have the tendency to avoid breaking the ideal model of the

community, which they have been deeply influenced since early childhood.
A Kinh women’s union official in Ky Son, Nghe An shares that during her one
year living in a H’Mong village as part of her duty, she felt frustrated as the H’Mong
women worked too hard, yet they did not feel miserable at all:
“During the day she clears the field with her husband, and their family, but in the evening, she
always has to boil water and wash her husband’s feet, she can only start doing her own work
once the husband is in bed. But they never complain, they do not feel miserable, to them this
is just the ancient tradition, they are still satisfied with their work, they are happy with their
work… They do not understand the concept of equality, they just feel that this is what their
mothers’ job, their mothers also do this, their daughters also do this, their daughters-in-law
also do this, they are consent with what their parents leave them, they are satisfied with the
ongoing traditions…”

Such orservations from outsiders motivate the local women’s union staffs to feel
the need to “conduct trainings in order to change the women’s perception,” and
therefore “We (the agency) work so hard in the trainings, now we implement so many
classes of equality, so many classes of women liberation also, we have been very
determined, very open-minded, for right now, they start to be more conscious, but it is
still very difficult.”
The “inequality” sometimes is just simple faith that they heard about rather
than the reality observation nowadays, or a feeling influenced by outsiders’
perspective. Many ethnic groups share with us that the H’Mong women have to endure
much hardship, and always “have to eat in the kitchen,” “when there are guests coming,
they have to stick around and serve their husbands’ guests instead of having the meal

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