What lies behind Vietnam's falling birth rates?

What lies behind Vietnam's falling birth rates?

Dr Catherine Earl, Senior Lecturer in Communication at RMIT Vietnam, discusses low fertility rates in Vietnam.

Factors influencing delayed childbearing

Among the reasons why women are delaying childbirth is gender inequality, particularly unequal caregiving. 

The burden of unpaid workplaces extra pressure on women as family homes are larger but there are fewer members to help. 

The UN Women country report for Vietnam shows in the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) indicator 5.1.1 ‘Legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality’, the domain of ‘marriage and family’ falls short of the other areas at a modest 60 per cent. It is far lower than ‘employment and economic benefits’ at more than 90 per cent. 

This indicates an unconscious bias towards income generating productive labour that displaces attention from the unequal burden of unpaid and reproductive labour placed on women. 

Dr Catherine Earl, Senior Lecturer in Communication, RMIT Vietnam Dr Catherine Earl, Senior Lecturer in Communication, RMIT Vietnam

A lack of recognition of unpaid work is one of the main barriers that prevents women from fully participating in society. If Vietnam could achieve equal caregiving, women’s wellbeing and life satisfaction would improve and the country would be able to make a leap forward in closing the gender gap.  

Unpaid work is not the only area to consider. In paid employment, women face barriers also. 

In employment and career advancement, women are typically working at lower levels in organisations and for lower pay than their male colleagues with the same experience and same qualifications.  

The UN Women country report for Vietnam shows women’s opportunities for leadership are modest, with the SDG indicator 5.5.2 ‘Proportion of women in managerial positions’ at 26.3 per cent and ‘Proportion of women in senior and middle management positions’ at 16.3 per cent. 

For pay, the SDG indicator 8.5.1 ‘Average hourly earnings of employees’ shows that women’s incomes are increasing but they fall short of men’s incomes. 

These two issues of women’s leadership and gender pay gap are worthy of attention from policymakers who are concerned about achieving gender equality.  

Financial autonomy is another issue that compounds women’s advancement. The SDG indicator 8.10.2 ‘Proportion of adults (15 years and older) with an account at a financial institution or mobile-money-service provider’ shows women’s financial autonomy is lower than men’s and is falling further behind. Without control over their own financial resources women would remain dependent on men. 

Top issues in Vietnam

Gender equality can be achieved with progressive ‘gender transformative’ policies that address the root causes of inequalities and tackle pervasive gender norms and power dynamics. 

On a practical level, policymakers may benefit from capacity building workshops to develop existing approaches that are ‘gender neutral’ (treating women and men the same) and ‘gender sensitive’ (recognising women and men face different challenges) into ‘gender transformative’ policies.  

A narrow focus on economic participation appears to be a risk that undermines achieving gender equality since its success masks other areas where more policy solutions would be beneficial. 

Globally the gender gap is 68.5 per cent closed, although the World Economic Forum estimates it will take 134 years more to fully close the gender gap. For economic participation and opportunity, Vietnam scores highly in 29th place, but ranks 76th for education, and health, including sex ratio at birth, which is very low in 144th place.  

Women’s leadership, gender pay gap, and equal caregiving have been and continue to be among the top issues for Vietnam to address.  

Next, Vietnam needs to take action on the emerging priority of women in STEM to build a technological driven inclusive future for all.  

Vietnam can draw on the experiences of other countries to address its low fertility challenge. Vietnam can draw on the experiences of other countries to address its low fertility challenge.

Policies framework to consider

Vietnam can learn from other countries' experiences in addressing the low fertility issue.

Many nations around the world offer paid maternity leave or paid parental leave, which can be taken by women or men for biological and adopted children. 

Among the best are policies from Spain, which offers equal rights to 16 weeks of paid parental leave for two parents, including same-sex couples, in the baby’s first year at 100 per cent pay. 

Germany’s policies favour mothers, who are entitled to 14 weeks of paid parental leave and up to three years of parenting leave for biological and adopted children. 

Japan’s policies support fathers, with one year of paid parental leave for the father plus the mother’s leave entitlements. 

The factors that countries consider in building their parental policies are the length of leave, the level of payment, for instance, 100 per cent of salary, and inclusion regardless of the parents’ status as women, men, same sex, divorced, single parent, and the baby’s status as biological, stepchild, or adopted. 

Story: Dr Catherine Earl, Senior Lecturer in Communication at RMIT Vietnam

28 August 2024

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