THE ADVANCEMENT OF GENDER EQUALITY (LGBT) IN VIETNAM

The younger generation is proud of the improved gender equality situation and considers this an important thing to mention. When surveyed, four in ten (39%) of the respondents ranked gender equality among the top five priority issues. When given 13 options, young people ranked gender equality sixth in the most important issues, behind only stable work (70%), access to education (44%), living conditions adequate (58%), food security (70%), clean water and sanitation (58%). These data are taken from the results of “Results of the research about Vietnamese young generation” of the British Council.

Mrs.Ramla Khalidi, Chief Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Vietnam has stated in the article "The road to gender equality in politics in Vietnam" on the occasion of Vietnamese Women's Day 20/10:

“When it comes to the role of women in participating in the process of giving political decisions, Vietnam has a full legal framework to ensure gender equality in political life and social activities”.

The Chief Representative of UNDP also stated that gender equality, especially the participation and the role of leaders of women, has become more essential during the situation where lots of crises that affect the world, such as climate change, COVID-19 pandemic, other humanitarian and development challenges pose a serious threat by reverse the achievements and cause imbalanced effects to women.

In fact, Vietnam has achieved praiseworthy advancements compared to nations in the region, and according to the latest report of the World Economic Forum on the gender gap in the year 2022, Vietnam reached 0.705 on the score scale from 0 to 1 in terms of gender disparity index, ranked 83rd out of 146 countries.

In the office world, in the research about genders, Vietnamese young adults agree that women are not being forced to get married, depend on men or just do the chores at home. Women are recognized to have abilities to give their own decisions in life and be more independent. A woman, of the age group of 20-24 in Ho Chi Minh City said: “Women nowadays are more independent in terms of financial stuff. We have more voice when talking about marriage. Before, when we got married, we have to stay at home to take care of the family.” (Research of Vietnamese young generation of British Council.)

In a survey, a 25-year-old man answered a question about LGBT that recently, more and more TV shows have the purpose of gender education to bring out positive attitudes toward the LGBT community. Those young LGBT people who joined the survey said that they admire and follow well-known celebrities, in Vietnam and internationally, that have the same gender identity as them, like Thien Minh, Gil Le, Tome Daley, and Neil Patrick Harris.