TAILIEUCHUNG - Women’s unpaid labor in Vietnam

Housework is viewed as “an obligation” of women and “suitable” for women. This labor is neither paid nor recognized by society. The inequality has caused a lot of impacts on the current social progressive goals that aim at achieving social justice for women, executing gender equality and women’s liberation. The paper focuses on clarifying opinions on home-based unpaid labor of women in Vietnam at present and suggesting several solutions. | Women’s Unpaid Labor in Vietnam Women’s Unpaid Labor in Vietnam Nguyen Thi Nga * Pham Anh Hung ** Abstract: Housework is viewed as “an obligation” of women and “suitable” for women. This labor is neither paid nor recognized by society. The inequality has caused a lot of impacts on the current social progressive goals that aim at achieving social justice for women, executing gender equality and women’s liberation. The paper focuses on clarifying opinions on home-based unpaid labor of women in Vietnam at present and suggesting several solutions. Key words: Female laborer, women’s rights, unpaid, Vietnam, gender inequality. 1. Opinions on women’s unpaid labor Unpaid labor can be defined as activities and tasks that require people to spend time and energy, but they are not paid for the work. Furthermore, those non-market activities and tasks are not included in the calculation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the International Labour Organization, services produced by a household and used only within the household are not considered a job and are not included in any measure of GDP as well. As a result, many economic activities are not measured and they are excluded from the GDP. In the meanwhile, productive services made and used within households (such as self-sufficient livelihood activities, housework, caring for the ill, elderly and children etc.) are mainly done by women and considered as a duty of women. Home-based unpaid labor of women, therefore, includes activities and work in the home, which aim at human reproduction and labor-force reproduction. This type of labor requires women to spend time and energy, but they get no payment and the labor outcome is not taken into account in estimation of the household income. Although home-based activities are done without payment and they are not included in the GDP, it does not mean that those activities neither bring any interest nor produce commodity.(*)On the contrary, all unpaid work is very .

• Xã hội học
• Women’s unpaid labor in Vietnam
• Women’s unpaid labor
• Female laborer Vietnam
• Women’s rights Vietnam
• Gender inequality Vietnam
• Summary of Doctoral thesis
• Gender inequality
• Access formal credit
• Vietnam’s rural household
• Formal credit access