Women’s Struggles in Gender Equality and Workforce

Women's Struggles in Gender Equality and Workforce

Over the years, although there has been a significant increase in the number of women in the workforce, gender inequality has made it difficult for females to find well-paying unconventional jobs in the workforce. Overtime, women has increased their numbers significantly in the workforce. Coming from a Vietnamese and Chinese background in Vietnam, there were not very many opportunities for my ancestors many years ago. Global factors such as war helped contribute to more women in the workforce. Gender should not limit a person's opportunity to work nor should it have an effect on a person's wage. Women have fought hard to rid oppressing gender roles. Societies should have equal opportunities for both men and women.

Research on women and war shows war increases opportunities for women to take up roles originally reserved for men (Werner, 1981).

Women became the majority of workers in many villages, as more men enlisted into the armed forces in the mid-1960s (Tetreault 2000: 51-52). Women began taking over men's jobs such as working on farms and in factories. In 1981, 74 percent of Vietnamese women worked in either the process work or the trades occupations (Alcorso 1989: 2). During the renovation era, women dominate in the industry groups of restaurants, fisheries, forestry, manufacturing, agriculture, trade, and non-productive activities (Fahey 2002: 239). Women plays a significant role in society and the workforce. Women did heavy manual labor where one tenth of the construction workers and one fifth of the mining industry were women. More opportunities became available to women with the expansion of the service sector and income differentials (Ibid 2002: 239). Approximately 39 percent of women work in trade and restaurants, 25 percent work in manufacturing and 20 percent work in...