Impacts of Divorce on Women with Child Custody from the Cultural and Gender Perspectives (case Vietnam)

The divorce rate in Vietnam is increasing rapidly, which raises questions related to ways individuals can recover socially, economically, and emotionally after stressful divorces. The dissolution of marriage disrupts all areas of individuals' lives, including residence, child custody, finances, willingness to work, and transformation in social integration, social support, and social networking. Accordingly, divorce may have long-term effects on various aspects of individuals' lives because it often leads to economic hardship and added childcare responsibilities for those who retain custody of the children. Using the statistics on divorces at the Vietnam Supreme Court, this study recoded information from the profiles of the entire population of divorcees recorded during a 10-year period and examined recent surveys from 2018 on the effects of divorces among divorced people. In particular, this paper analyzed the social perception of child custody and explored the implications of child custody upon gender equality and post-divorce life of individuals, especially women, from gender and cultural perspectives.