Gender differentiated impacts of the changing agricultural policies in the North of Vietnam

Abstract

Throughout the history of Vietnam, rural women have suffered greatly from either the feudal or colonialist regime. After August 1945, the role and position of women changed radically. With agricultural collectivization in the North in the 1960s, rural women became cooperative members on equal footing with men in almost all collective work and with respect to income. However, the collective production mechanism could not satisfy their basic needs. Then came the agricultural renovation officially initiated in 1987. The results of the changing agricultural policies were spectacular and immediate; Vietnam, hitherto a chronic food-deficit country, became the third largest exporter of rice in the world; and other social and economic indicators also showed positive signs. However, these improvements have not come without cost.

This study, based on a case study in Trung Mon commune, Yen Son district, Tuyen Quang province in the North of Vietnam has demonstrated that although the agricultural changing policies have increased agricultural productivity and in general, improved the living standard of a great number of peasant households, rural women have not benefitted from these outcomes to the same extent as men. A powerful gender stratification system has reemerged in the countryside. It is reflected in the increase in the work load of women, the significant decline of the position of many women in the family and in the rural society. The problems experienced by women living without husbands were greater than in the collective system. It is also noted that these gender inequalities are traced, on the one hand to some inappropriate agricultural policies of the current agricultural household production system and on the other hand to the reemergence of the male-dominant attitude and culture.