Kiddo calls me up last night (20 October) asking if I knew what day it was? Her hook was simple, it was National Woman’s Day in Vietnam and she wanted Daddy to contribute to her partying. I told her that although I’m a bit of a soft touch, trying to pull another woman’s day on me was stretching it a bit too far – International Woman’s Day is March 8. Anyway, got away with not contributing to the party but Kiddo is correct. Vietnam stands out as a place that celebrates women not once but twice. There’s the International Day of Women and the National Day for Women in October – and well Vietnam should celebrate its women.
In the 13-years I was married to a Vietnamese girl, I
made about five trips back to visit. I saw Hanoi (twice), Ho Chi Minh (twice)
and Hai Phong (once). What becomes clear is that women are essential to economy.
Walk on the streets of the three cities I’ve mentioned and you will notice that
it’s the women who have turned every corner and every hole in the street into
an enterprise of sorts (mainly selling food).
This wasn’t just my observation. A nephew by marriage
at the time mentioned that the bank he worked for once hired a girl and a couple
of guys. At the end of the month, they had to fire the guys and they kept the girl
– she was the one who showed up consistently.
In South East Asia, Vietnam has the second highest
rate of women participating in the work force, even ahead of Singapore, which
is famous for its high level of female participation in the work force:
https://seasia.co/infographic/women-workforce-rates-in-southeast-asia-2023
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.FE.ZS
Given that I could be a person of limited
intelligence, I can’t tell you why the correlation between development and female
participation in the workforce exists but I will point out to the James Bond
movie “Die Another Day” when an Admiral tells M, played by Judy Dench “You
haven’t got the balls for this” and M replies “I don’t think with them.”
This quip from a movie, is reflected in Covid statistics.
If you look at the Covid statistics, you’ll find that the three countries where
the most people died from Covid were at the time led by the “wannabe macho men,”
namely Donald Trump of the USA, Narendra Modi of India and Jair Bolsonaro of
Brazil. By contrast, places led by women did better. Germany, led by Angela
Merkel at the time, had a similar number of reported cases to Brazil (both
around 38,000) but significantly less deaths (183,000 vs 711,000).
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Women, also tend to be a little more law abiding. I
make this argument as someone who has crossed the Causeway on a number of occasions.
Once in a while, Singaporeans get shaken down for bribes. It’s inevitably the
men who shake you down – never the women.
What does this mean for Vietnam? Well, it would
indicate that while Vietnam faces many challenges in the area of physical and
legal infrastructure, it’s got the most basic element of development in place –
namely the type of culture where most people are not afraid to go out and
making a living for themselves. Then, there’s the case to be made that when
women earn the money, it gets spent on things like education, which in turn
uplifts family incomes and on the national level, it means the quality of
future workers improves.
Vietnam is a country that has made huge progress. Vietnam
only moved into its current economic development phase in 1986 and today is in
the top 15 of Asia’s largest economies, making it larger than even Malaysia,
which has had the advantage of a longer development period and rule under
British Common Law:
https://vietnamlawmagazine.vn/vietnam-among-asias-15-largest-economies-73213.html
A good part of this success comes from a culture that
allows women to play a very active role in making things happen.
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