VietNamNet Bridge – Policies in Viet Nam should ensure women equal access to benefits, said experts at a workshop on gender and social protection held on Friday in Ha Noi.

Research fellow Dr. Nicola Jones from the Social Development Programme under the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) said that policy makers should use a gendered lens, taking into account women's domestic responsibilities and their impact on time, economic potential and self-identity.

Jones said that programme organisers were not sufficiently aware of gender as a shaping force in society, which made it difficult to promote gender-sensitive social protection schemes.

A recent study by Nicola Jones and Dr. Tran Thi Van Anh from the Institute for Family and Gender Studies found that women earned approximately 25 per cent less than their male counterparts, but they spent much more time each week on housework in both rural and urban areas.

The report also revealed that 44 per cent of men do not contribute to housework at all compared to just 21 per cent of women.

Van Anh also pointed out that there was still significant resistance to women entering public leadership positions, which was highlighted by persistently low female representation in the Communist Party Executive Committees.

Between 2006 and 2010, the rate of female participation on these committees was 8 per cent at the central level, 11.8 per cent at the provincial level and 15 per cent at the commune level, according to the World Bank's 2011 Vietnam Country Gender Assessment Report.

Despite these alarming statistics, experts still recognised the country's efforts to promote equality over the past years, especially in education, employment and health.

As a result, Viet Nam's United Nations Development Programme Gender Inequality Index ratings improved significantly between 1999 and 2008.

The Government's family planning programme helped ease women's domestic burdens by promoting the use of contraceptives, supporting their choice to have fewer children, and providing better education.

According to UNICEF 2010 statistics, high percentages of both girls and boys attend secondary school among the majority Kinh group, at 80 and 82.6 per cent, respectively. Fewer ethnic minority girls than boys attend school, at 61.6 per cent versus 88 per cent.

The promoted role of women in domestic life was also reflected in land certification trends. There has been a gradual increase in female and joint holders of land-use titles for agricultural and residential plots.

The percentage of male-only holders has fallen from 66 per cent in 2004 to 62 per cent in 2011, whereas the percentage of female-only and joint holders has increased slightly from 19 per cent to 20 per cent and from 15 per cent to 18 per cent, respectively, according to the World Bank's 2011 Vietnam Country Gender Assessment Report.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News