Increased Women in Leadership
The current Vietnam National Assembly (2011-2016) has only 24 percent women members, a decline of nearly 3 percent since 2002. Meanwhile, women account for approximately 25 percent in elected bodies at the provincial and district levels and only 21 percent at the commune level. This information was released at a recent conference which focused on how to increase women’s representation in elected positions to 35 percent in 2016.
The seminar, held following the celebration of the 20th founding anniversary of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women (NCFAW), was chaired by Ms Pham Thi Hai Chuyen, Chairwoman of NCFAW and Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Development Programme and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She put forward questions for discussion at the seminar: While there are strong laws and strategies in place for women’s representation, what are the reasons for the unstable and low representation rate; for the lower rate in the delta compared to that of the mountainous areas; and for the higher rate in provincial and district levels compared to that of the central and commune levels? She noted that the shortage of female leaders and managers in a number of important areas has led to under-representation of women in policy making process, thus making it difficult to achieve gender equality goals in all aspects.
The National Strategy on Gender Equality for the period of 2011-2020 set a target of a minimum of 35 percent women’s representation for the 2016 election. Participants in the seminar sought break-through as well as long-term solutions to achieve the target, particularly through the activities for the Elections for the National Assembly and People’s Council at all levels for the 2016-2021 period.
Ms Louise Chamberlain, UNDP Country Director in Vietnam, said, in the previous three elections, only 32 - 34 percent of the candidates were women. One of the concrete steps is to ensure that a minimum of 50 percent of the candidates are highly qualified women. Having gender parity on the ballot is an integral part of achieving the government target.
She suggested having a clear human resources plan in place with the intention of increasing the number of women in senior level government positions and removing the differential retirement age to ensure the same employment opportunities, training, promotion and job security for women. She also highlighted the need for men to share household work and childcare to improve women’s ability to engage in political office and public service.
Quynh Anh
Vietnamese
