Role of Women in Vietnam
THE ROLE OF WOMEN:
The role of women is an important part of family life and society, as women– to quote chairman Mao– “are carrying half the Heaven”. The changing role of Vietnamese women through the historical ages has been a study in the merging of many cultures: lndigenous Vietnamese culture, Chinese civilization , French and other Western influences . These influences still leave vestiges at the present time, whether inside Vietnam or among the Vietnamese diaspora outside Vietnam. In Vietnamese history, there are two great ladies known as, the Trung ladies, who threw out the Chinese colonial overlords and won independence for Vietnam in 40-43 A.D., or the Lady Trieu (249A.D.) who also fought the Chinese, or the revolutionaries Co Giang and Co Bac who were active against the French, even though these heroines might give us the hint at the role of Vietnamese women in public life which antedated the movement for equal rights for women in the modern world . Rather, we are concerned here with the economic and social role and legal status of the “ordinary” Vietnamese women throughout history, in Vietnam as well as abroad.
We have found that there is a CENTRAL THEME in the odyssey of Vietnamese women: official moral rules might have been advocated and state laws might have been promulgated to impose inequality on women, but THE REAL POPULAR CUSTOMS, nourished by the reality-imposed functions of women, HAVE CONSISTENTLY SUPPORTED AN EQUAL ROLE FOR VIETNAMESE WOMEN, THUS DEFEATING THE MAN-INSPIRED STEREOTYPES, AND THE LAW EVENTUALLY HAS ALSO TO ADAPT TO THIS EGALITARIAN DRIVE AND GRANTED EQUAL STATUS TO WOMEN.
1. THE VIETNAMESE WOMAN IN TRADITIONAL VIETNAM : INDIGENEOUS AND CHINESE FAMILY VALUES
Traditional Vietnam was dominated by Chinese culture, with the Confucian moral rules of three bonds (tam cÜÖng) and three dependencies (tam tòng): the three bonds being the (i)the subject’s loyalty to the emperor, (ii)the children’s piety toward their parents,
The role of women is an important part of family life and society, as women– to quote chairman Mao– “are carrying half the Heaven”. The changing role of Vietnamese women through the historical ages has been a study in the merging of many cultures: lndigenous Vietnamese culture, Chinese civilization , French and other Western influences . These influences still leave vestiges at the present time, whether inside Vietnam or among the Vietnamese diaspora outside Vietnam. In Vietnamese history, there are two great ladies known as, the Trung ladies, who threw out the Chinese colonial overlords and won independence for Vietnam in 40-43 A.D., or the Lady Trieu (249A.D.) who also fought the Chinese, or the revolutionaries Co Giang and Co Bac who were active against the French, even though these heroines might give us the hint at the role of Vietnamese women in public life which antedated the movement for equal rights for women in the modern world . Rather, we are concerned here with the economic and social role and legal status of the “ordinary” Vietnamese women throughout history, in Vietnam as well as abroad.
We have found that there is a CENTRAL THEME in the odyssey of Vietnamese women: official moral rules might have been advocated and state laws might have been promulgated to impose inequality on women, but THE REAL POPULAR CUSTOMS, nourished by the reality-imposed functions of women, HAVE CONSISTENTLY SUPPORTED AN EQUAL ROLE FOR VIETNAMESE WOMEN, THUS DEFEATING THE MAN-INSPIRED STEREOTYPES, AND THE LAW EVENTUALLY HAS ALSO TO ADAPT TO THIS EGALITARIAN DRIVE AND GRANTED EQUAL STATUS TO WOMEN.
1. THE VIETNAMESE WOMAN IN TRADITIONAL VIETNAM : INDIGENEOUS AND CHINESE FAMILY VALUES
Traditional Vietnam was dominated by Chinese culture, with the Confucian moral rules of three bonds (tam cÜÖng) and three dependencies (tam tòng): the three bonds being the (i)the subject’s loyalty to the emperor, (ii)the children’s piety toward their parents,