Associate Prof Dr Tran Quang Tien, Director of Vietnam Women’s Academy, said that many professions had been labeled as “only for men” for a long time. 

This prejudice stemmed from the fact that technical, technological, or high-level management fields were associated with men, while women were often guided toward caregiving or support roles.

These patterns have been reinforced through education, media and career guidance activities, causing many female students to limit their own choices, he said.

This also stemmed from a lack of successful female role models in "non-traditional" industries. When there is no specific visualization of a development path, many female students tend to choose safe options instead of pursuing fields that suit their abilities and long-term potential.

However, amid digital transformation and the knowledge-based economy, Tien said that gender differences and prejudices in career choices are gradually being blurred.

A typical example is the information technology industry, including software development, data science, or game design and development. 

This industry has long been viewed through a technical lens, but currently is interdisciplinary in nature, requiring a combination of technological thinking, applied arts, and deep understanding of user behavior.

“The strengths of women are the ability to maintain accuracy, discipline, and persistence during the working process, especially in fields such as technology, data analysis, or digital product development,” Tien said. 

“This is exactly the space for women to promote their strengths in developing products aimed at experience,” he added.

Other majors related to economics and management industries such as business administration and digital brand management also have seen increasingly strong participation from women. 

In many training environments, female students not only account for a high proportion but also demonstrate outstanding academic results. This is because these fields not only require analytical capacity but also demand strategic thinking, global adaptability, and the capacity to combine expertise with digital capabilities and AI, Tien said.

Fields such as law, economic law, or fields related to public policy are no longer male-dominated. “Women are performing well in analyzing problems, logical reasoning, and multi-dimensional approaches. These are all core elements of the legal profession in the context of integration,” he said.

He noted that modern occupations no longer tend to be distinguished by gender thanks to adjustments in approaches and academic content toward interdisciplinarity, with the support of digital technology, especially AI.

Opportunities expand 

Amid a rapidly changing labor market under the impact of technology and globalization, Tien said that choosing a major needs to be approached carefully and for the long term.

“Female students need to clearly realize that no occupation is defined by gender. Fields such as information technology, game design and development, marketing, law, and multimedia communication are all opening up vast opportunities if learners have the capacity and appropriate preparation,” he said.

Learners should prioritize majors with high application linked to the practical needs of the market. Most importantly, learners need to focus on building core competencies, including critical thinking, digital skills, foreign languages, interdisciplinary working ability, and lifelong learning capacity. 

This is the flexible foundation that helps each individual adapt to many different professional environments in the future.

“When career choices are built on the foundation of individual capacity, values and aspirations, development opportunities are expanded, contributing to forming a fair, diverse and effective labor market,” he said.

At a recent workshop, Chu Cam Tho, deputy general director of Phenikaa University mentioned a series of majors female students can choose, including the ones related to social sciences and humanity, business and management, education and teacher training, and healthcare. Particularly, she put emphasis on STEM, saying that this is a group of industries given special priority by the Government, with a forecast that there will be many jobs in this field in the future. 

Phenikaa University, along with many other major universities, is implementing STEM Talent Programs. Vietnam is setting a goal to reach 1 million STEM personnel by 2030 to "catch the wave" of semiconductor chips and AI.

Le Huyen