In order to celebrate 81st Anniversary of Vietnam Women’s Union (October 20, 1930- October 20, 2011), on October 18, TVU organized a workshop on Gender-Gender Equality presented by Ashley J. Laracy- a Canadian Gender Specialist, working as a volunteer at Gender and Ethnic Office of TVU. Ms. Ashley shared some knowledge about Gender and Gender Equality in her country with TVU staff.
Ms. Laracy explained some information of the CEDAW. It is the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women which entered into force as an international treaty on 3 September, 1981. The convention was formed based on three principles: no discrimination, true equality and national responsibility. Vietnam signed to be bounded by the Convention on 29 September, 1980 and ratified on 19 March, 1982. It was the turning point, marking the progress of mankind on human rights.
The workshop helped TVU staff distinguish the difference between gender and sex, understand the importance of gender equality.
Talking about Gender equality, Ms. Ashley gave a few illustrations in Canada such as the number of women who has Bachelor and Master degree is more than the number of men but the number of men who gets Doctor Degree is more than the number of women. The reason for that unequal statistic number is women have to do chores at home, take care of their children, so the opportunities to study higher are much harder than men. For other things, women’s opportunities are also limited such as women’s salary is lower than men’s.
Ms. Ashley also shared three targets of Canadian International Development Agency ( abbreviated as CIDA) as following: promoting equal participation of women with men in making decisions; supporting women have full awareness of human rights; reducing inequality of gender to help women have more opportunities to access and manage human resources.
Coming to Tra Vinh university, Ms. Ashley has learned about Tra Vinh culture, especially Khmer culture in Tra Cu and Chau Thanh districts. She made a survey to know clearly about Gender and gender education, gender and labor market, gender and health services, gender and family relationships in Khmer families in Tra Vinh province. After collecting data, she will make a report and a plan to propose the Rector board about gender. She also guided TVU staff some methods to implement social work about gender. She hopes that Tra Vinh university will be one of the leading units which implements effectively about Gender and gender equality, contributing to sustainable social development.
Written by Tran Hong.
