Rising gender inequality in Vietnam since reunification

This paper documents increases in gender inequality in Vietnam since reunification of the country in 1975. That contention is based upon an analysis of census and other survey data, a review of secondary source materials, and fieldwork. The rise in inequality has entailed the following: declines in relative survival probabilities for female children, worsened marriage prospects, greater occupational segregation, and increased female representation among the elderly and impoverished. At least four factors have contributed to these changes. The first is that wartime mobilization before 1975 had artificially inflated women's social position to an unsustainably high level. The second concerns the demographic outcome of the war of reunification which resulted in a relative surplus of women. The third is the free market reforms of the 1980s which signaled a diminished governmental commitment to social equity and contributed to a reemergence of patriarchal Confucian patterns. The fourth is a set of other policy measures and historical circumstances which have enhanced preferences for bearing sons. The paper also assesses contrary and ambiguous evidence, such as the absence of a large gender gap in education, and suggests the possibility of future improvements in gender equality.