Abstract
Vietnamese women have been playing a key important role in economic development for a long time. Due to the social and cultural constraints of a patriarchal society, rural women were excluded from some kinds of work, especially those which consist of cultural meanings, for instance, art woodcarving industry. Under the changes of economic and social conditions, women are increasingly engaging in traditional occupations. Further, by negotiating with patriarchal idea of gender discrimination of work, women can take part in the so-called “male works”, e.g. woodcarving industry not only as direct workers, but also as business owners, entrepreneurs and managers. Even though, the empirical data from Kim Thieu village witnesses that rural women have not totally overcome the domination of male authorities at both family and community levels yet. Thus, gender policies which pay attention to both economic and social empowerment of women are necessary in the context of patriarchal society like Vietnam.
Highlights
Information and data which were collected that focused on the ways in which gender division of labor was carried out in the households and in the workplace
Gender division of labor in farming at that time reflected the physical and psychological qualities attributed to respective sexes - the strength of men, the dexterity and patience of women (Elson and Pearson 1997)
The reality of craft village development witnesses the fact that livelihood diversification forces women in most craft villages in northern Vietnam to experience the triple-burden when they are responsible for on-farm, off-farm and domestic works because they don’t want to entirely give up farming for off-farm jobs
Summary
As gender relations in general, gender relations of production are socially, culturally and historically constructed and re-constructed. Arrangement of gender relations of production is not static but it is a changing process and situated in particular context. Reorganization of gender relations of production cannot be seen as a process of reversing economic roles of male and female labors within a household and a village. According to Agarwal’s conceptualization (1994), gender relations of production should be viewed as power relations and analyzed at multiple levels including household, community, and local labor market. A variety of contemporary literatures have witnessed that rural women have to negotiate for their livelihood diversification Through negotiation process, they get more advantages in gender relations at different levels. In off-farm sectors, rural women occupy the lower position with poorer wage of labor markets
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