A different take on work/life balance
by Vincent Ciccarello
Tran
Phi Phuong finds work/life balance has unique pressures in Vietnam.
For North Vietnamese women, "even the women must fight" wasn’t just an official slogan calling on them to fight alongside men against the South Vietnamese and Americans - it was another civic duty.
The Women of Two Goods campaign has dominated Vietnamese culture since it was proposed in 1960 by the Vietnamese Women’s Union to recognise the role of women in the Vietnam’s development through "two goods" - production and reproduction.
More than 40 years on, Women of Two Goods is
now burdening Vietnamese women trying to meet society’s high
expectations of them while balancing career and family life.
This dilemma is the subject of UniSA President Scholarship recipient Tran Phi Phuong’s recently submitted PhD thesis.
"In my field trip interviews, women said they felt the policy was an added pressure," Tran said. "They’re expected to have a happy, stable family, and at the workplace they must be very good career women as well. It’s a double burden for women."
It could also be construed as an invasion of privacy. Tran said
women are judged by their workplaces on a regular basis as
succeeding or failing as Women of Two Goods.
As the mother of Ma Chi Thong, a UniSA Bachelor of Commerce student,
and a professional woman whose career has taken her away from her
home and family for extended periods, Tran keenly feels the
pressure.
"The education, management and wellbeing of the family is the woman’s responsibility. A woman with a ‘spoilt’ child – one who may have dropped out of their studies, or who has a drug problem – is seen as failing her role as a mother," she said.
"As a university lecturer in Vietnam, it is expected that I will not only do my teaching, deliver papers and carry out research, but that student feedback reflects that I am a good teacher."
Tran said it was ironic that women play such a submissive role in Vietnamese society when, until the 10th century, Vietnam had been a matriarchal society.
"Historically, women had a very high position in Vietnamese society. But since Chinese domination and the arrival of Confucianism, and then French colonisation, the male has been seen as the breadwinner and the female as the housewife."
The influence of socialism and the introduction of gender equity
legislation after the unification of Vietnam in
1975 did little to change the status quo.
And even the economic reforms of the 1986 Doi Moi policy, which took Vietnam from a state-subsidised to a market economy, have conspired against women.
"During the transition period to a fully-fledged market economy, people endured a lot of hardship," Tran said.
"Wages were low, but people had to pay for childcare, health, education and aged care which previously had been subsidised. That put an extra burden on women in their domestic life and compelled them to work hard."
As the Vietnamese economy and job market grew, there were improved opportunities for women to study and to develop careers. But with this came increased competition and the need to fulfil their domestic "duty".
Tran’s thesis also explores how the gender-specific Confucian notion of dam dang, or resourcefulness, affects women who have high profile careers.
"The dam dang virtues of being a ‘good woman’ mean being skilful – being able to sew and cook and clean – but also being submissive to males in the family structure."
Her research suggests there is greater gender equity in marriages where the couple is highly educated.
"These women have higher bargaining power at home. But women in rural areas are still subjected to violence and abuse."
Tran said there are a number of measures that can be taken to improve the situation for Vietnamese women.
"The Women of Two Goods campaign should be replaced with one which stresses the wellbeing of the family is the responsibility of both partners, that the home is built on two pillars" she said.
"The ideal husband and wife relationship used to be described as being in ‘harmony’. But that harmony needs to be based on love and understanding.
"And we need to educate young boys about the role they can and should play in families."
Tran recently returned to Vietnam to continue research on how household structure and the role of women has changed in transnational Vietnamese families.