I recently paid a visit to one of my favourite Hanoi museums, the Vietnam Women's Museum at 36 Ly Thuong Kiet Street. I have been there many times during my four years in Hanoi and I think it is one of the best and most relevant museums in the city.

The Museum is associated with the Vietnam Women's Union which, in my experience, is one of the outstanding organisations in Vietnam. I have had the honour to work with some of its members in other provinces and been very impressed by their energy, capability and commitment to improving the lives of people in Vietnam.

When I first moved here in 2007, the Women's Museum was undergoing renovations so it comprised only one small room near the entry gate and a couple rooms upstairs for temporary exhibitions, yet those simple spaces contained what I considered to be some of the most interesting displays and exhibitions in Hanoi. The museum's impressive new space opened in October 2010 and it is a fitting, modern showcase for its extensive collections honouring Vietnamese women.

The new museum has five floors, each focused on a different aspect of Vietnamese women's lives. There are permanent collections dedicated to marriage and childbirth, family life, women in history, and costume and fashion, as well as other rooms for temporary exhibitions.  

The collections and artefacts related to the daily lives of ethnic minority women are like a smaller version of those in the Museum of Ethnology which, I believe, played a role in advising the museum on its renovations, and the costume collection is varied and excellent. 

The 'Women in History' section is fascinating to me (and probably many other foreigners) because it illustrates the important role women played in the country's resistance wars against both the French and the Americans. It is interesting to learn that so many streets in Hanoi (and elsewhere in Vietnam), such as Ba Trieu, Hai Ba Trung, and Vo Thi Sau are named after female heroes from all eras of Vietnamese history. One of the most poignant displays is the small room dedicated to Vietnamese Heroic Mothers; the collage of their photographs always brings tears to my eyes. It is a moving tribute to the suffering and sacrifices made by so many mothers over the course of time.

In addition to its permanent collections, the Vietnam Women's Museum is unique because, to the best of my knowledge and to its immense credit, it is the only museum that actively addresses some current pressing issues in the country (and the world) such as human trafficking, the plight of single mothers, and the lives of street vendors (most of whom are women). With the assistance of various foreign organisations, the museum has hosted some of the best exhibitions on those topics that I've seen in Vietnam and, fortunately, they last for more than a week.

The exhibition on street vendors, held before the museum moved into its new space, was very enlightening and evidently well received because a portion of it is now a permanent display in the new premises.

The outstanding exhibition "Single Mothers' Voices" about single women in a village suburb of Hanoi closed earlier this year, but the catalogue is available at the museum shop and is well worth reading.

My favourite thing in the museum is its extensive collection of propaganda posters, most of them featuring women. They displayed a selection from their collection a couple years ago, before moving to the new building, and, in my opinion, it was one of the best exhibitions I've seen here. As an artist myself, I love the unique style of Vietnamese poster art that continues to this day. The museum has numerous examples of these posters displayed in the section on Women in History and I never tire of looking at them every time I visit.

The new Museum Shop sells a range of items including books and quality handicrafts, some produced by people featured in the Museum's temporary exhibitions. I also noticed there is now a "Discovery Room" for children on the ground floor which could be a great resource for educational activities.

The Museum provides an interesting educational experience for both locals and foreigners and is well worth a visit during your stay in Hanoi. You can also have a reasonably priced lunch at the trendy new café next door.

 By Perri Black