Viet Nam is a quickly changing nation; one employee at the U.S. Consulate told my class that the assessment of the country she was giving us was completely different than the assessment she had given to another group six months earlier. I intend my comments here, then, to be a snapshot of the nation, limited not only to the early months of 2009 but also limited by my experience as a monolingual American student. I intend what I write here to be merely descriptions of my experiences rather than positive or negative judgments (unless explicitly stated).

Confucianism and Gender Roles

Viet Nam is a nation influenced by Confucianism. There, I said it. Do you know what that means? ‘Cause I don’t. I don’t have a clue as to how “Confucian” values influence the way real people act in modern Viet Nam. To mention this fact as though it has any relevance to my observations is as intellectually lazy as saying the U.S. is a “Christian” nation, and then failing to clarify the definition of “Christianity.” It also fails to answer the question of how the U.S. is a different “Christian” nation from other “Christian” nations such as Brazil or England. So for those of you who have a grasp of the philosophical/historical underpinnings of Confucian thought, feel free to use your own knowledge in responding to my comments. For the rest of us, though: we aren’t missing anything.

Work

Gender differences in street vending is one of the most fascinating aspects of gender and work in contemporary Viet Nam. The kinds of products and services offered, as well as time, place in the city, and the age of the vendors are all fundamentally affected by gender. In street vending, there are clearly “gendered” products and services. Men exclusively dominate the motorbike transportation market; meanwhile I have seen a whopping two female taxi drivers. Moreover motorbike drivers are almost exclusively men over the age of 40 yet not older than about 70. Motorbike drivers in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) may sometimes be homeless, as I deduced from seeing them sleeping on their favorite corners, perched on their bikes. The drivers have a fairly low-effort job, as they usually wait for customers to come to them (they call out to potential customers walking by). Their market seems limited not only by age (presumably younger men are doing other work, perhaps work that requires relative physical fitness to the older men) but also knowledge. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I found that motorbike and tuk tuk drivers knew absolutely nothing about the layout of their city, while Vietnamese drivers in every city knew everything. This knowledge requirement created barriers to entry in the motorbike market, as customers would only choose drivers who knew where they wanted to go. These drivers tend to be on call the vast majority of the day with very few customers; however, if they do manage to drive someone, they may be able to get a lot of money quickly.

Particularly in HCMC, where everyone quickly has enough money to buy motorbikes (even the homeless), the motorbike market could be considered capital-weak and knowledge-rich. Women, in contrast, vastly prefer street vending markets that require some form of capital to start up. Whether that’s seasonal fruit, magazines, coffee, cigarettes, noodles, or any other number of items, women universally choose capital-rich markets. A hierarchy of income among female street vendors is easily visible. The most well-off street vendors are the ones that only work during peak hours, such as morning and evening rush hours. These women make enough money to spend the rest of their time in leisure, while less well-off street vendors must stay visible and working throughout the day (or night). The most well-off street vendors also sell items that are relatively rare, such as deep-fried bananas or a particular kind of sandwich. Vendors that sell common items like waterbottles and cigarettes cater to a lower demand and must increase sales by getting strategically good spots next to high traffic areas. Women in these spots probably do all right catering to people who don’t want to go out of their way to buy small things, but they are not so well off that they can make their own hours. Female street vendors, in contrast to the motorbike drivers, get a lot of customers but don’t make very much money at each interaction.

Some street vendors wander around, trying to find customers. Most often these are women selling fruit; they get them wholesale from markets and appeal to customers who want a snack, or who do not want to make a special trip to the market for some mangoes. Shoe shiners in Hanoi, who are exclusively male for some reason, also wander around, going up to potential customers. As with the more well-off street vendors, only the men initiate contact with customers. Women may gesture to their products if customers make eye contact, but rarely call out to them unless they seem very interested. If they just want to chat, though, both men and women will initiate conversation with strangers.

There seem to be some gender differences with work and age. Old people are supposedly supported by their families and have lots of time to relax, and I have observed this to be true – for old men. I often see old men, alone or in groups, enjoying cups of tea, chatting, and playing games. I have never seen old women do the same, and if I do see old women they are always alone or taking care of grandchildren. Perhaps old women only relax in the privacy of the home, or perhaps the mythology of taking care of old people only applies to old men.

Public displays of leisure, too, are highly gender and age-differentiated. Children in rural areas (read: poor children) mix work and play, and are often expected to contribute to the household labor force. Children in urban areas (read: not poor) aren’t expected to work, but they don’t have public leisure spaces like playgrounds or public swimming pools, and thus they don’t play in public. There are some exceptions, such as the courtyard in front of the statue of Ly Thai Tho in Hanoi, which is a playground/exercise area/skating rink. Young couples spend time together in public, but older couples only do if they bring their children. Young people of both genders can be seen socializing at karaoke or in coffeeshops, but after the age of 25 or so only men socialize in public. Walking by cheap restaurants and coffeeshops after dark, I have seen rows of them filled with all-male groups of customers, some still in work clothes, while the only women in sight are the ones working at the restaurants. Indeed, a group of social workers that talked about gender with my classmates and me said their female clients expressed frustration at having no leisure time. They had to work their regular jobs, and then they came home and did housework, so that they were too tired to visit their female friends at the end of the day. This increased their social isolation and limited them to the family sphere.

This is not to say that I never saw older groups of females socializing. I have – when they were working. Usually they chatted together during slow times at a store or on the street. But I have never observed women of a family age purely socializing in cities. Perhaps one exception is during exercise. This is a purely middle class phenomena, as the poor are too tired to voluntarily run around. Groups of women will gather in public areas, dressed in coordinated outfits, and wiggle. Really. They may walk, too, at about the pace one goes when one has somewhere to be nearby in five minutes. Let’s just say that intensive exercise is not very common here.

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