GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION:

LOOKING BEYOND
PARITY

An IIEP evidence-based Policy Forum 3-4 October 2011, Paris

VIETNAM CASE STUDY (PRELIMINARY FINDINGS): WOMEN IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

KRISTY KELLY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

This document, not published by IIEP, has been presented on the occasion of the IIEP Policy Forum on Gender Equality in Education held on the 3-4 October, 2011 in Paris, France. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UNESCO or IIEP. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this review do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or IIEP concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.

International Institute for Educational Planning 79 rue Eugne Delacroix, 75116 Paris, France info@iiep.unesco.org www.iiep.unesco.org UNESCO 2011

1. BACKGROUND: GENDER EQUALITY IN VIETNAM

Vietnam provides an interesting case for studying womens access to and participation in national educational planning and management. Vietnam is a post-colonial, socialist country which claims a long history of promoting womens equality vis--vis men. With one of the fastest growing national economies in the world, Vietnam receives substantial donor support aimed at transitioning the country from a centrally-planned command economy to one operating on market mechanisms and integrated into the global economy. At the same time, the Vietnamese government is committed to preserving many of its socialist goals for equality, and so continues to expand the legal and policy framework aimed at supporting womens rights. Vietnamese women are guaranteed a system of rights, including affirmative action policies for political participation, property rights, generous maternity benefits and the right to make reproductive decisions (Asian Development Bank 2005). In addition to having high labor force participation (83 percent of working-age women are in the formal labor force compared to 85 percent of men), Vietnam has one of the highest percentages of women in national parliament in the Asia-Pacific region (25 percent), and there is no meaningful difference in boys and girls enrollment rates in primary school (Asian Development Bank 2005, Vietnam Government Statistics Office 2005). In 2006 and 2007 respectively, a gender equality law and anti-domestic violence law were ratified by the National Assembly, making Vietnam one in only a handful of countries in the world with both. Vietnam, in fact, holds a reputation throughout Asia for relative gender equality and has been cited as a model for being able to close gender gaps in education, access to health care, and many aspects of employment since the early 1990s (World Bank 2006, 2011). Such a commitment to gender equality and womens rights, not to mention the institutionalization of a national-level machinery for the advancement of women, are often cited by the development community as essential foundations for continued progress in meeting globally agreed upon gender equality goals (Rai 2008). 1 However, there is growing concern among the leadership of Vietnamese womens organizations that as the country continues to integrate into the global economy, women lose out. In fact, research shows that many of the states socialist-era affirmative action programs are being dismantled. Men now have more opportunities to capitalize assets; they are more often selected to attend advanced training opportunities, which lead to promotions to jobs with decision-making power and status; they earn more than women when holding the same position; and women continue to shoulder the majority of unremunerated housework and care-work despite contributing equal time to income-generating work (Asian Development Bank 2005, Kabeer et al 2005, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences 2006, World Bank 2006, 2011). In 2001, in an effort to address womens concerns and to demonstrate its continued commitment to gender equality, the government adopted gender mainstreaming as part of its national development strategy (NCFAW 2004). Since then, and with considerable donor support, particularly from the United Nations, a core group of gender experts has been trained to teach, research, evaluate and consult on gender equality issues. They are located within ministries, universities, research institutes, national and provincial branches of the national Vietnam Womens Union and in non-government organizations. One of their first tasks as a group was to design a national curriculum for teaching state actors how to recognize the gender implications of their
1 By globally agreed upon gender equality goals, the author refers to those agreed upon policies, treaties, agreements and conventions that have been ratified by and/or adopted by a majority of UN member states, including the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Millennium Development Goals and the Beijing Platform of Action from the 1995 World Conference on Women.

decision-making. In addition, they lobbied for gender equity courses to be a required part of the curriculum at all four national academies responsible for providing targeted post-graduate training to Communist Party officials and government leaders. In the education sector, the government will soon announce a new aggressive gender equality action plan aimed at increasing the number of women in national educational planning and management. It is in the context of supporting the governments goals, and to inform policy implementation, that this study takes place.

2.

WOMEN IN STATE LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

The highest ranking female leader currently is the Vice President of Vietnam. In the government cabinet for the service term 2002-2007, the Prime Minister and all 5 Vice Prime Ministers were men. Among 34 persons who had served as ministers or in ministerial rank, including those who were replaced in the middle of the term, there were only 3 women. In the government cabinet for the current service term (2007-2012), again the Prime Minister and all 5 Vice Prime Ministers are men. Among the 22 persons who are serving as ministers or in ministerial rank, there is only one woman (Vietnam Government Website http://www.chinhphu.vn/). There are 18 female Vice Ministers or ministerial-rank officers, who account for 7.76% of all Vice Ministers/ministerialrank officers (Vietnam Womens Union 2007). Although sex-disaggregated data about leaders of all government sectors is not readily available, a recent internet study of government websites (Institute of Sociology 2009) found that in 2009, among 18 ministers, there was only one female minister (MOLISA). Among 82 vice ministers of the 18 ministries, there were only 5 female vice ministers (in MOLISA, MARD, MOET, and MOH). MOET currently has four vice-ministers, one of whom is female. Among the two National Academies, there have never been and currently are no female presidents or vice presidents. As of 2009 (UNDP 2009), at the sub-national level, women make up approximately 12.7 percent of provincial level sectoral directorships (N:63), which are directly in line with ministerial posts. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs had the highest female representation (22.2 percent). At the vice-director level, women made up 22.5 percent of MOETs 178 provincial level vice-director positions. Only the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice had higher proportions of female leadership at this level (24.4 percent and 23.4 percent respectively). In most sectors, except the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defense, which has no female representation in leadership at any level, the proportion of women among leadership positions remains far lower than their proportion among employees in the sectors. For example, although the proportion of women in leadership positions in MOET are better than average, it is considerably less than the proportion of the female workforce in the sector. Seventy percent of public school teachers, including primary, lower secondary, and higher secondary levels are women, 49% of lecturers of two-year colleges are women, and 43% of university lecturers are women (statistics for 2007-2008: http://www.moet.gov.vn/). Related to MOETs work in education and training, it is important to consider how women fare as leaders in the two national academies, the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) and Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), as each provides a potential pipeline to MOET administration and leadership. VASS has 31 national-level institutes and VAST has 24 national-level institutes, with the directors of all these institutes for both VASS and VAST being men. Among the 36 Vice Directors of VASS institutes, only 8 are women, accounting for 22.2% of the leadership positions. Among the 59 Vice Directors of VAST, only 8 are women, accounting for only 13.6% of the leadership. Both VAST and VASS producing leading professional journal. However, in VASS there are 25 nationallevel professional journals and only one of the 25 Editors-in-Chief is a woman.

3.

NATIONAL LEADERSHIP GOALS

The government of Vietnam recognizes the need to have a greater representation of women in national and subnational levels of leadership in all sectors the Communist Party, government agencies and ministries, and national academies. To this end, the Prime Minister approved a National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2011-2020, which lays out clear goals for increasing womens leadership (see on the Decision No. 2351/2010/QD-TTg in the box below). In addition, and most important for this study, the Ministry of Education and Training is also in the process of drafting a comprehensive and aggressive plan to increase womens leadership at all levels of national, subnational, and school level leadership. 2 This paper serves both the National Strategy on Gender Equality and MOET by providing empirical data at the national and institutional level which can be used to inform policy and implementation strategies.

Decision No.: 2351/2010/QD-TTg from the Prime Minister, 24 December 2010 On Approval of the National Strategy on Gender Equality 2011-2020.
Objective 1: Strengthen womens representation in leadership and management positions in order to gradually reduce a gender gap in politics. Target 1: Efforts to be made so that the rate of women representing in the Partys committees at different levels will reach 25% and above for the term of office between 2016 and 2020; the rates of female members of the National Assembly and Peoples Councils at different levels will reach 30% and above for the term of office between 2011 and 2015 and more than 35% for the term of office between 2016 and 2020. Target 2: Efforts to be made so that by 2015, 80% of Ministries, the ministeriallevel agencies, the agencies attached to the Government, the Peoples Committees at different levels must have women among their leaders and by 2020, 95%. Target 3: Efforts to be made so that by 2015, 70% of the Partys and State agencies and socio-political organizations with women making up 30 per cent and above of their labour force must have women among their leaders and by 2020, 100%.

4.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS OF THE RESEARCH

The Vietnam Case Study started with a general assessment of published literature, unpublished internal government and development agency reports, websites and background interviews with relevant stakeholders interested in issues of gender and leadership or gender and education in Vietnam. Through this background data collection, the research team was able to identify 30 key senior managers including the Minister of Education and Training, four Vice-Ministers (one female and 24 department directors and vice-directors). 12 women were included at the department level, and a female vice-rector of a leading national university was also interviewed, but time did not permit other interviews at this level. A total of 14 women were interviewed. All interviews were conducted by either the lead researcher, or the head of the national team, with one
This strategy is still in the drafting stage, and while the authors have seen copies and can attest to their progressive goals, it would be premature to publish them in this draft document. Final data will be available by the time this draft goes to print, and will be included then.
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additional team member observing. An attempt was made to record and transcribe all interviews, and when this was not possible, the two interviewers prepared detailed notes and cross-checked relevant quotes. Three interviews were conducted in English, the remainder in Vietnamese.

5.

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

Findings can be divided into three categories of conditions that enable and constrain womens access to, participation in and valuation (i.e, how they are valued) as leaders. These include (1) body politics, (2) socio-cultural values and attitudes, and (3) institutional conditions. Body politics affects what women can and should do (this is closely linked to assumptions about biological differences between men and women, and between women of different ages). Socio-cultural values and attitudes affect how women (and men) are valued for performing appropriate body politics and what happens when they step outside societal norms. Institutional conditions includes those laws, policies, organizational guidelines or institutional structures that enable or hinder womens (and mens) ability to translate body politics and socio-cultural values and attitudes into the social, political or economic capital they need to advance their careers. While these findings are still preliminary, it should be noted that there was rarely consensus among those interviewed, men or women, as to which were the most enabling or the most constraining factors. In addition, there was rarely consensus as to how identified barriers might be overcome. This will be contextualized further following the descriptive summary of the preliminary findings. Despite wide discursive commitment to equality, in government policy and programs, as well as among those interviewed here, gender equality has come to mean different things to different people. This is a time of highly publicized debate in Vietnam about womens appropriate duties and obligations to their families, markets and the state. Government leaders are dealing with tensions between needing to meet national goals for economic, technological and cultural modernization while cultivating traditional domestic virtues and national identity. Domestic roles for women are being promoted in the state-controlled media as the countrys best defense again the social evils of a capitalist global economy (Pettus 2003). To this end, the Vietnam Womens Union, which operates directly under the umbrella of the Communist Party, has been charged with conveying official norms for gender relations into the private, domestic sphere. These official norms prioritize the role of women in promoting family harmony and improving household production. As might be expected, promoting womens equality and leadership vis--vis men often, but not always, is in conflict with the task of empowering women in their roles as wives and mothers. It is therefore important to consider how body politics, and more specifically the politics of womens bodies, shape their opportunities in leadership. While there is clearly more research that needs to be done, two issues have emerged and are described in this section: womens double burden as careworkers, and the increasing sexualization of womens bodies. THE DOUBLE BURDEN OF CAREWORK Neo-traditional discourse positions women as care givers within Vietnamese society. The government recognizes the role of women in the home through awards and certificates, but does not recognize or encourage mens contributions. Under the Labor Code of 2002 and associated regulations, leave to care for a newborn baby or a sick child is only available to mothers. The state, in other words, has done little to offset the constraints imposed on women by traditional norms. This adds to differences in contributions to housework, which starts early in life. Data from the 2008 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) suggest that men worked an average of 38 weeks a year while women worked 37. However, 44% of men did not contribute to housework

5.1

BODY POLITICS

at all compared to just 21% of women. The patterns show little change compared to the 2004 and 2006 VHLSS and are also roughly similar in rural and urban areas. Of those that had contributed, men worked an average of 1.5 hours per day while women contributed 2.2 hours. The fact of womens labor at home has both discouraged some women from seeking leadership positions, which they feared would affect their ability to provide effective carework at home, and affected male supervisors decisions regarding the promotion of women. It doesnt [matter] how much we work at the office, after work we still go home to be wives and mothers! Men have lots of free time to go out with friends, build their networks, study, and just relax, female vice-director. Many male supervisors might not want to promote women because it would put an unequal burden on them. Women are already the generals of the interior [referring to their position as primary caregiver], to ask them to take on more would be too much, male director. The burden to contribute to household labor starts early. The VHLSS 2008 showed that while 85% of boys in the 6-10 groups had not contributed to housework compared to 80% of girls, the differences had widened to 58% and 41% in the 11-14 age group. The survey definition of housework excludes child care which is largely performed by women and hence the measures documented above are likely to be under-estimates. The continued high percent of men across age groups who perform no housework at all, and the relatively few hours of housework reported by those men who do some housework, indicate the persistence of long-standing norms that relegate this unvalued work to women and constrain their capacity to participate in public life. SEXUALIZED AND SEXED BODIES While few men or women stated the importance of physical beauty directly, it was noted in interviews that both men and women made regular comments about a womans looks as either appropriate or not for leadership. Young, unmarried women experienced teasing about whether or not they would date anyone in the office, and women who had attained leadership status were also discussed in physical terms. While no single body type was idealized, women in general were critiqued more if they were not considered beautiful enough. Alternatively when discussed in positive ways, it was often said that the female leader was beautiful, too. As if her beauty solidified her status as having earned the position; she was not only intelligent, skilled, experienced and therefore qualified, but she was beautiful too. Physical appearances and sexualized bodies appeared to be an important part of mens socialization to the workforce and to leadership. Men discussed feeling pressure to objectify womens bodies and engage in playboy like behavior with their male colleagues (and more importantly their superiors) if they hoped to climb the social career ladder. While these activities were never discussed in terms of harassment, either by men or women, many found it to be stressful, and could lead to both men and women choosing not to apply for certain leadership positions. This is an area that needs further research and assessment, and should be considered in the second round of interviews among lower-ranked officials. It will be particularly important to examine how going out with the boys affects mens networking strategies and opportunities to apply for positions with more prestige.

5.2

SOCIO-CULTURAL VALUES AND ATTITUDES

Another major obstacle relates to the values and attitudes that women encounter in public life from those in positions of seniority, colleagues, families and from the public at large as well as

the values and attitudes they hold themselves. There is considerable resistance on the part of many men to the idea of women taking up leadership positions (Vo Thi Mai, 2003). This is partly an issue of face and partly the result of taken-for-granted beliefs that men have superior qualities. Male civil servants are three times more likely than women to express lack of faith in womens capacity for leadership. The research here attributes this to two related issues: ideals of masculinity and femininity, and assumptions of what makes a good leader. HEGEMONIC MASCULINE AND FEMININE IDEALS As noted in the section above, idealized femininity is discussed in terms of womens roles as wives and mothers. Unmarried women are idealized as potential wives and mothers. This translates into practice in the office as women are assigned office roles presumably associated with caretaking tasks such as organizing meetings, serving tea to guests, arranging holiday parties and purchasing office gifts for New Year celebrations, retirements, for the ill or for new parents. While lip service is paid to equality of work in the office, interviews reveal that the types of work assigned, and the leadership skills they are associated with, lead men and women down different promotion tracks. The attitudes of those in senior positions can make an enormous difference to countering these prejudices, whether they are leaders of organizations, party units or administrative personnel. It will also determine how effectively policy commitments to gender equality are carried out. In practice, research suggests that it is at the level of in-office distribution of work assignments that leaders can hinder womens opportunities for advancement. However, stereotypes of idealized femininity can also lead to preconceptions when assessing the performance of male and female staff. Very often these, rather than impersonal professional criteria, form the basis on which staff are judged. Female staff note feeling more harshly judged and criticized than their male colleagues. LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND EXPECTATIONS Expectations for male and female leaders are signified in several aspects, ranging from appearance/clothes to manner and speech, both of which intersect with body politics (above). For instance, men were described as not needing to be soft when exerting power, while women were expected to be gentle and flexible in manner and leadership style. Table 1: Expectations for Male and Female Leaders Male Clothes Not important Manner of leadership - Determined - Gentle - Authoritarian - Caring Presenting at public - Suitable - Not necessary - Not influence much - Not important - Be listened attentively Female Very important, often assessed at the first appearance - Considered hard, manly - An expected quality - Dislike, not supportive - Absolutely necessary - Attract less attention

Stemming from those gender-based expectations, many respondents (both male and female) described evaluating superiors, peers and those they supervise based how much they believed them to embody these qualities. For instance, one female vice director described her observation that staff who were hard working were usually women, while men were observed as having good social relationships.

Table 2: Perceived Qualities of Male and Female Leaders 3 Quality Reponses of men out of total male respondents 5/5 3/5 5/5 3/5 3/5 2/5 3/5 2/5 5/5 3/5 4/5 3/5 2/5 2/5 Reponses of women out of total female respondents 21/22 18/22 16/22 15/22 14/22 15/22 15/22 15/22 10/22 11/22 15/22 15/22 15/22 14/22 Respondents of men and women out of total respondents 26/27 21/27 21/27 18/27 17/27 17/27 18/27 17/27 15/27 14/27 19/27 18/27 17/27 16/27 %

6 qualities labeled for women Hard working Caring Emotional Ability of achievement attainment Responsible Communication skills 4 qualities labeled for men Good interpersonal relationships Ambitious Determined Clear-sighted 4 qualities of both men and women Intelligent Knowledgeable of profession Creative Good governance

96 78 78 67 63 63 67 63 56 52 70 67 63 59

The difference in expectations makes female leaders appear to need more training, capacity or experience in order to be good leaders. In fact, when asked what new policies or programs the Ministry might implement to help promote women leaders, most often mentioned by men was either (1) on-site childcare, and (2) more training. Women rarely mentioned childcare, but were just as likely to mention training, perhaps demonstrating an internalized assumption that women lack capacity.

5.3

INSTITUTIONAL CONDITIONS

There remain many rules and regulations at the national and institutional level that limit womens opportunities to compete on par with men for leadership opportunities. These rules and regulations can be understood as both explicitly or implicitly gender biased in favor of mens career advancement. They intersect with issues of body politics and with socio-cultural values and attitudes. In fact they were developed and are implemented with both in mind. ANNUAL EMULATION MERITS The annual emulation merit system, which counts towards career prospects in public service, can be regarded as an example of implicit gender bias in institutional arrangements that affect womens leadership opportunities. Women who take institutional maternal leaves (4-6 months) do not gain recognized merits, such as lao dong tien tien (good laborer), lao dong xuat sac (excellent laborer) for the entire year period. If their maternity leave spans a two year period
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The total respondents of this question is 27

(from October of one year to February of the next), they are not entitled to recognized merits for the full two years. Not surprisingly, many women will not have earned recognition of excellence and are likely to be passed over for promotion. While these generous benefits were implemented at the height of socialism to recognize womens dual burden at home and in the public sphere, they are working against women in a capitalist context. As women work to meet their familial responsibilities and conform to feminine ideals, they are simultaneously being devalued at the office for doing so. DIFFERENTIAL AGE OF RETIREMENT Men and women start at the same point. They spend the same period of education and working but men retire later than women five years. Women lose five years or equivalent to a term of service to participate in the leadership position. Hence, women not only compete with men in terms of capacity but they also have to mature before men for five years. Obviously, women lose opportunities (Female leader). The regulation regarded retirement age, on the other hand, is an example of explicit gender bias since it clearly differentiates the age at which men and women can retire. The requirement that women retire at 55 while men retire at 60 not only terminates womens careers at an earlier age than men, but also has discriminatory effects on other aspects of their careers. The discriminatory effects of this law on womens human resource development opportunities are three-fold. First, because women retire earlier than men, their opportunities to apply for senior positions, or to serve in multiple terms (usually five years) in one position is reduced. Several of the women interviewed for this project described getting ready to retire in the next year or two, thus passing up opportunities to apply for positions as directors in their offices. Men have an additional five years to work, and are therefore privileged in the selection process. Second, ones promotion is contingent on having adequate training for senior positions. To be able to study abroad or to study for post-graduate degrees, one must be able to document their ability to work at least 20 years in public service following the completion of their degrees. For women, this generally means finishing by age 35, while for men, it is 40. This gives men an additional five years to study and make themselves competitive for promotion. Thirdly, a Communist Party regulation requires first-time applicants to hold the position for at least two successive terms, hence excluding a far larger percentage of women than men.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Interviews suggest that women are less likely to participate in activities considered critical to their future promotion prospects. Work rotation, for instance, is considered essential for gaining hands-on experiences. The rate of rotation of female officials at provincial and central levels (shown in separate studies) is 0.8 and 0.9 time in five years, respectively. The rate of male officials is 1.3 and 1.2 times, respectively. Women are also less likely than men to participate in refresher and training courses. For instance, women accounted for just 10-20 percent of all participants of political theory and administration courses so far at the central level (VWU 2009). Only 39% of female officials attended 1-2 training courses compared to 42.3 % of men. Only 2.9% of female officials had attended three training courses compared to 8.7% male. 58.6% female officials had never attended a training course compared to 49% of male (National Administrative Academy, AusAID, pp. 25, 29). There are a variety of reasons why women lose out on opportunities for developing their professional capacity through short and long-term courses. Gender differences in the age of retirement contribute strongly to this outcome. Given womens shorter working life, investments in training male civil servants are generally considered a more efficient use of resources than that of

training females. There are also explicit regulations that reinforce this bias. There are regulations, for instance, that stipulate that men should not exceed 40 years and women 35 years in order to qualify for training courses on administrative and political refresher courses or study abroad. There are also apparently gender-neutral regulations which impact men and women very differently. For instance, while women face a shorter working life than men, both men and women are only eligible to be sent to training and refresher courses after at least 3-5 years of uninterrupted work in an office. If women take off their legally authorized maternity leave, they are less likely to qualify. In addition, the level of educational attainment and field of expertise are considered important for leadership. While gender parity has been achieved at undergraduate levels, only 30.5 percent of Masters degrees and 17.1 percent of PhDs were awarded to women in 2007 (MOLISA 2010).

6.

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

It should be noted that the three categories described here are not mutually exclusive, but should be understood in relation to each other. They are flexible, fluid, negotiable, co-constructed and always in flux. They shift and change over time, and have different meanings for those working at the intersections to affect change. It is at the intersection of these three categories that different men and women included in this study have found opportunities to open doors for themselves, or for others, to move up the ranks. But it is also at these intersections that many find themselves encouraged to choose to opt out. Therefore, in Vietnam, it is clear that more attention needs to be paid to these intersections, and that it should not be assumed that one policy will have the same affect on all women, or all women in education. However, it does seem that it is at these intersections that new policies can be mobilized in ways that can provide more support to future women leaders. While this study has focused primarily on cultural capital, political (primarily in terms of Party membership) and economic capital have also begun to emerge as important themes. These will need to be explored further in the second phase of the IIEP research into gender equality in educational leadership and management.

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REFERENCES
Asian Development Bank. 2005. Viet Nam Gender Situation Analysis. Hanoi: ADB. Gallagher, Elayne. 2009. Empowerment of Women: Final Report. Unplublished report for UNDP Vietnam. International Labour Office. 2003. Report of Survey on the School-to-Work Transition of Young Women and Men in Vietnam. Geneva: International Labour Organization. Institute of Family and Gender Studies. 2009. Report on Insights into Womens Leadership in Viet Nams Public Sector: Obstacles and Solution. Hanoi: United Nations Development Programme. Institute of Sociology. 2009. Empowerment of Women in Public Sector Project (EOWP): Quantitative Research on Womens Leadership in Viet Nams Public Sector (draft report). Hanoi: United Nations Development Programme. Kabeer, Naila and Tran Thi Van Anh. 2006. Globalization, Gender and Work in the Context of Economic Transition: The Case of Viet Nam. UNDP Viet Nam Policy Dialogue paper 2006/2. Hanoi: UNDP. Kabeer, Naila, Tran Thi Van Anh and Vu Manh Loi. 2005. Preparing for the Future: Forward Looking Strategies to Promote Gender Equity in Viet Nam. Hanoi: World Bank and UNDP. Lee, Sunhwa. 2006. A Gender Analysis of the 2004 Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey. Unpublished paper. National Academy of Public Administration, AusAID. 2005. Research on Gender Impacts on Career Paths of Civil Servants in Vietnam. Hanoi: Vietnam Culture and Information Publishing House. Nguyen Thu Ha 2008. Gender Streotypes for female in the Leadership and Management Family and Gender Studies Journal, Volume 18 (1). Rai, Shirin 2008. Introduction, in Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives, edited by Shirin Rai and Georgina Waylen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. 2005. Gender issues through primary survey findings: Gender survey of households, paper presented at SEDP Conference. Hanoi, Vietnam. Vietnam Government Statistics Office. 2005. Viet Nam Gender Statistics in the Early Years of the 21st Century. Hanoi: GSO Gender Statistics Office. Vietnam Womens Union. 2007. Proceedings of the 10th Vietnam Womens Union Assembly Meeting. Hanoi: Womens Publishing House. World Bank. Forthcoming. Vietnam Country Gender Assessment (draft). Hanoi: World Bank. World Bank. 2009. Womens Retirement Age in Vietnam: Gender Equality and Sustainability of the Social Security Fund. Hanoi: Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs.

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World Bank. 2008. How do Women Fare in Education, Employment and Health? Gender Analysis of the 2006 Vietnam Living Household Standard Survey. Hanoi: World Bank. World Bank, ADB, DFID, CIDA. 2006. Vietnam Gender Assessment. Hanoi: World Bank.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
Resolution of Prime Minister No 57/NQ-CP dated 1st December 2009 on Governments Action Program to the year 2020 to implement the Resolution No11-NQ/TU dated 27th April 2007 by the Political Bureau on womens mobilization in the period of accelerating national industrialization and modernization.

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