Gender Practices in Contemporary Vietnam

Lisa Drummond and Helle Rydstrom (Editors)

Confucianism, colonialism and socialism have all contributed significantly to gender relations in Vietnam. More recently, political and social change associated with modernization and globalization have also had an impact.

How do the Vietnamese display their social positions and their identities as male or female? This volume examines negotiations, and transgressions, of gender within Vietnamese society, looking at gender, family, social and work relations, bodily displays, body language and occupation of space. Of special interest is a discussion of sexual harassment in schools and the workplace, and the strategies women adopt to deal with it, the first discussion of this issue by a Vietnamese scholar.

The essays reflect a wide range of scholarly viewpoints (American, Vietnamese-American, Australian, Scandinavian, Canadian and Vietnamese), as well as analytical perspectives as diverse as those offered by Simone de Beauvoir and the second wave of Western feminism.

«... Gender-related studies on contemporary Vietnam are few in number, and most literature deals with socio-economic affairs. This book's focus on the fundamental issues of gender roles is a significant contribution.»
-Bruce M. Lockhart, Department of History, National University of Singapore

Lisa DRUMMOND is Associate Professor of Urban Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada.
Helle RYDSTROM is Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University, Sweden. She is also Associate Professor at the Institute of Thematic Research, Linkoping University, Sweden.

publication year: 2004
286 pages
ISBN: 978-9971-69-282-7  Paperback  US$34.00  S$42.00

Our edition is available worldwide except Europe.