Women's advocate: Nguyen Nguyet Nga (left) says nations must implement UN sustainable development goals. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Ambassador Nguyen Nguyet Nga, honourary president of ASEAN Women's Circle and senior advisor to APEC 2017 National Secretariat, spoke of gender equality issues that Vietnam as a country still needs to face and improve.
"One of our priorities in enhancing gender equality is to work with other countries to implement the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
"Secondly, we wish to contribute to the enhancement of women's empowerment in Asia - Pacific, and we need to help them integrate in the region."
Vietnam will host APEC meetings in 2017 and one of the Ministerial Meetings to be organized in 2017 would be the High-level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy.
She made her comments at a recent talk among diplomatic and business leaders in Hanoi moderated by Nguyen Viet Loan, a Hanoi native and noted cultural advocate for Vietnam in the past 25 years in international business circles.
Also present at the meeting were high-profile women of the diplomatic corps including Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank country director in Vietnam.
"Vietnam's gender equality has been performing well in the primary and secondary education level," she said. "But in terms of payment, women do not receive the same pay level as men. Or some jobs are reserved for men, women come after."
Kwakwa also said that she had worked with many talented women from the Ministry of Finance, but they eventually did not rise to the top level.
Women in developing countries tend to usually look up at the level of equality, government support and liberation of their developed sisters. But hear what the Ambassadors of Sweden, the Netherlands and France have to say.
"There's a term in Sweden that's quite popular called ‘leaning in'," said Camilla Mellander, Swedish Ambassador in Vietnam.
"After a 10-hour work day everyday, you cannot be a perfect host at home or play with your children at weekend sports. But you need to keep your femininity and cherish it."
Indian Ambassador Preeti Saran said that the gender issue in India had been a complex one. She said that the same 2,000-year-old tradition that honours female gods also holds today's women back.
"My first impression of Vietnam," she said, "was on my way from the airport to the city, I saw women wearing skirts riding their motorbikes around. Women can wear what they want and set out to do what they need."
Dutch Ambassador Nienke Trooster said, "There are human things that need to be done. When women go to work, who would replace them to raise the children and do housework?"
"My husband is a full-time home maker. There are some trade-offs. How would you take in the fact that when my children are sick, the first person they call is my husband, not me."
To present the other side of socially successful women, who make more than their husbands, that they can be bosses at their companies, but when they go home, they still have to behave, or even pretend they make less.
The gender issue in developed countries seems to receive a backlash these days. All the women agree that women need to show support for each other, feel self-confident and treasure their values.-VNA
