Draft Law on Gender Equality Attracts Attention of Community

The VCCI Businesswomen’s Council, Ho Chi Minh City branch, and the International Labour Organisation on December 20, 2005, held a seminar to gather inputs and comments to the Law on Gender Equality.

 

With the building of the Law on Gender Equality, Vietnam is showing efforts to build a progressive society, ensuring equality between men and women in social interests and responsibilities. However, it is very important for the law to take effect and become a useful tool to protect gender equality.

 

How will women – the centre of the gender equality issue – be treated in the family and society? Today women can study and work in many of the same fields as men, but have they received the support and favourable conditions from their families and the community to enjoy their interests and complete their responsibilities? Therefore, from a point of view of the family, the draft law has progressive points, including the equality between men and women in income generation. It is gender inequality when men are considered as the main person in the family to generate income and women are considered to be in charge of housework.

At present, women can find good jobs with high incomes. To that end, they need family responsibility share from men. Taking care of the family and children is the responsibility of both men and women. Men are entitled to have 15 paternity leave. This is a progressive point. In the society and workplace, women should be treated as equally as men. They should receive favourable conditions to study to improve their skills and knowledge, and to get promotion. Women should not be dismissed because of reasons relating to their pregnancy and delivery. The number of women in the labour structure and management apparatus should be increased. And women’s retirement age should be equal to men’s. The draft law stipulates the interests for enterprises and organisations, which have many women, to provide good interests for women. These include capital support.

 

At the seminar, participants discussed and analysed in-depth issues raised in the draft law. Huynh Kim Hoang, vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City Co-operative Alliance, said that there should be mechanisms for the law’s enforcement and the settlement of any gender inequality. Also, other laws and regulations should be adjusted in accordance with the law. Dang Thi Ngoc Lan from the Vietnam Rubber Corporation said that there should be mechanisms to settle when enterprise leaders did not observe the law.

Lam Thi Minh Hien from the Vietnam Rubber Corporation said that simpler support measures were needed to encourage enterprises to use more women as their staff members and workers. In effect, procedures for get loans and capital support should be simpler. Also, women labourers in rural areas should be also provided with care and attention with suitable mechanisms and policies. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong from the Hoc Mon Businesswomen’s Club said that guidelines and dissemination should be provided so the society would promote the law enforcement.

Thuy Tien