Economic growth helps narrow gender gap in Vietnam
VOV.VN - Perhaps surprisingly, Vietnam has emerged better than many developed countries around the globe in bridging the gender gap over recent years, said speakers at a recent conference in Hanoi.
Speaking at the seminar, Dao Hong Lan, deputy minister of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said the rapid economic growth of the nation’s economy has greatly increased the opportunities for women in business.
“Women now constitute 48.3% of the nation’s total workforce,” said Deputy Minister Lan, and the rate of women in key management positions within the business community has risen to a record high 24.9%.
With the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the start of this year, Mr Lan said he fully expects increased opportunities in business for women to open throughout the nation.
He said he believes that the country will become a trailblazer for reducing the gender gap over the next decade and outperform their counterparts in the more developed countries over the next decade.
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One of the solutions to making further reductions in closing the gender gap lies in agriculture, said Bui Sy Loi, deputy chairman of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee.
Mr Loi, noted 47% of women currently in the workforce are employed in agricultural related trades— where earnings and productivity have historically been low relative to other industries such as construction and manufacturing.
Vu Sy Cuong, associate professor from the Academy of Finance, in turn, said gender equality for workers in parallel labour markets where the government has little influence represent the greatest challenge for the national economy.
Parallel markets – also sometimes referred to as ‘gray markets’ – refer to markets the government has little control to regulate. Typically, genuinely branded goods produced for one market are surreptitiously imported into another market and sold at a below market price.
Along with the below market sales prices of goods goes below market wages for, in particular, women, which in Vietnam contributes significantly to the gender gap in pay between women and men.
They should not be confused with black markets where counterfeit goods are illegally sold. In gray markets, the products are genuine – it’s just that they are not sold through regulated markets but through unregulated markets without the consent of the owner of the trademark.
The answer to eliminating gray markets, said Mr Cuong, is to strengthen enforcement of trademark and tariff laws. If third parties can be prevented from importing unauthorized shipments of product, then the entire unregulated market can be eradicated.
Presently, workers in the gray market and agriculture account for roughly one-third of the nation’s total gross domestic product, said Mr Cuong, and this shows the magnitude of the problem is vast.
Most importantly, said Associate Professor Cuong, is that equal access to education is vitally important to winning the fight for equality— and women in Vietnam are graduating from universities at rates that match and often outstrip those of men.
