Over the past years, being fully aware of the position and role of the work of women progress and gender equality in the military, the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense, Party committees, commanders, political agencies at all levels have focused on directing and implementing their action plans in the 2016-2020 period. All-level committees for women progress and gender equality have well performed their functions and tasks, promptly counselled and undertaken plenty of practical and effective activities to encourage women’s study, progress and development. Simultaneously, Women Unions at all levels always bring into play the solidarity and their representative role in protecting women’s rights and interests, etc. As a result, the work of women progress and gender equality in the military has made significant achievements as follows.
Women’s equality in political field is effectively guaranteed. The construction, development and planning of female cadres in quantity, quality and structure have always been commended by Party committees and commanders, which have initially met the set-out goals and requirements. The number of women holding managerial and commanding appointments has grown by degrees. The work of female resource planning and female Party membership initiation has been concentrated on (with an average of 9.13%). The rate of female Party members in the Party committees is 2.57%, many of whom are secretaries or members of the standing committees. Besides, women’s interests in the policies on salary increases and professional servicemen transformation are tightly taken out. Civilian women enlisted into the army, after their military training, are basically assigned appropriate professions in accordance with their duties.
Working environment for women keeps improving. Working conditions, facilities, equipment and environment as well as labor regime for women develop gradually. At the same time, attention is also paid to women in difficulty. Military women carry on with the movement "women help each other boost family economy", "women to be good at doing business" and saving models to maintain and supplement union funds. All members bring into their play to the improvement in living standards.
The enhancement of women resource’s quality is always brought into focus at all levels, ensuring gender equality in education and training. Party committees and unit commanders have closely followed the demands for structure and practical requirements to send female cadres, professional servicemen, national defense workers and long-term laborers to professional training centers inside and outside the army for the sake of their assignment in accordance with right qualifications. Simultaneously, contests, sport events and the movement “Creative Youth” are effectively held with the aim of sharing and learning experience among women so that they can meet the criteria in their own tasks and appointments.
Gender equality in health care services is increasingly in good control. Committees for women progress and gender equality at all levels in cooperation with the Committee for Population, Family and Children properly conducts the campaign "women implement food safety and hygiene for family and community health” in the whole army. Besides, they closely cooperate with the military medical units in giving periodic medical examination and advisement on reproductive health care and parenting knowledge to women. The Ministry of National Defense and units keep encouraging families of infertile soldiers to persistently fulfill their tasks.
The aforementioned results reflect the concerns and efforts of all levels devoted to the advancement of military women. However, during its implementation, some emerging issues need to be addressed. First of all, a small number of units have paid scant attention to this work. Secondly, the coordination between the functional agencies in the implementation has been insufficient. In addition, the inspection and supervision haven’t been conducted on a regular basis.
In the coming time, military missions continue to develop with new and high requirements. The organizational structure adjustments and enterprises equitization will affect a part of military women’s awareness and feelings, etc. Therefore, the work of women progress and gender equality in the military should be aimed at thoroughly popularizing and implementing all Party's views, the directives and resolutions of the Central Military Commission on women in line with the Directive 5 of the Politburo (12th tenure) and the campaign “Promoting traditions and devoting talents to be worthy of Uncle Ho’s Soldiers”. In particular, it is necessary to focus on the following points.
Firstly, strengthen the leadership of Party committees and commanders at all levels over the work of women progress and gender equality. To this end, this work needs to be elaborated in their leading resolutions so that it is regularly consolidated. Concurrently, it is necessary to strengthen the inspection and supervision of the law enforcement on gender equality, especially the regimes and policies for women. The collectives and individuals with great achievements must be promptly rewarded and duplicated. Besides, violations of gender equality also need to be pushed back. At the same time, favourable conditions should be created for women to improve their capacity to possibly participate in units’ leadership and management, gradually bridging the gender gap in this area. All levels in the army must control the ratio of female cadres as prescribed in every agency and unit. Moreover, the percentage of female Party members joining the Party committees should be raised to 3.7% up and that of newly-joined Party members be over 9.5%.
Secondly, broadcast propaganda on women progress and gender equality widely in the mass media inside and outside the military. Commanders at all levels should pay attention to effective dissemination, education of laws and policies (on health insurance, social insurance, population and family planning, prevention of family violence and social evils, etc.) and actively combat women underestimation in all of its manifestations. Meanwhile, effective communications should be combined on the occasion of "Action Month for Gender Equality and Gender-based Violence Prevention and Control" (November 15th to December 15th annually) with appropriate forms and content. By 2020, over 50% of military academies and schools are expected to integrate "gender awareness" into their curricula. Thereby, it helps raise awareness of gender equality and eliminate stereotypes and inappropriate conceptions of men and women’s role in the fields of social life.
Thirdly, bring into full play the role of the Committees for women progress and gender equality at all levels, especially in their coordination with functional agencies to carry out key tasks. Party committees should review and assess accurately female cadres to propose the planning of women arrangement and training in line with their units’ circumstances. The Standing Offices of the Committees for the advancement of women actively coordinate in dealing with issues affecting women and children (employment of female workers after the post-restructuring, violence against women, etc.). All-level units need to fully participate in movements and campaigns launched by the Party, the State, the army, localities and mass organizations such as the "Companions to frontierswomen", "gratitude", humanitarian and charity activities, prevention of social evils, traffic order and safety, food hygiene and safety, etc. In the meantime, it is important to closely associate the military women’s emulation movements with those of the units and mass organizations, contributing to their successful completion of key political tasks.
Promoting creativity and solidarity, steadily raising female status as well as ensuring gender equality become the overall objectives and tasks in the work of women progress and gender equality in the military. It is also the responsibility of the Party committees, commanders and cadres at all levels to contribute to the course of building a revolutionary, regular, elite and gradually modern army, meeting the requirements of national construction and protection.
Colonel Phung Thi Phu, Head of the Committee for Military Women