|
| |
Vietnam Creating A Serious
Gender Imbalance
http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2010/10/vietnam-creating-serious-gender.html
Modern technology, medicine and growing wealth
for a country can be wonderful things. They can lead to a better way
of life for all the citizens in that country. But they can also lead
to unforeseen and undesirable consequences, especially when combined with
ancient social structures and values. Vietnam is now finding that
out.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is warning that the ratio of male
births to female births is quickly getting out of whack in the
country. The natural ratio in the country is 105 male births for
every 100 female births. But in just the last five years the ratio
has grown to 110.6 males for every 100 females, and the problem could escalate
even further.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan says this gender imbalance could lead to
more than 3 million men being unable to find a wife by the year 2030.
Clearly something must be done to encourage a more stable and sustainable gender
balance. Vietnam has banned fetal sex selection, but passing a law
and enforcing that law are two different things. The practice
continues.
The problem has been exacerbated by growing family wealth, which makes families
want to have fewer children, and medical technology, which lets families know
early in a pregnancy the gender of an unborn fetus. This gives
families the opportunity not only to have fewer children, but to determine the
gender of those children (or child).
I know some on the right would just say the answer would be to ban all abortions
in the country. I disagree. You cannot solve one social
problem by creating another. That would just take away a woman's
right to control her own body and result in unwanted and unloved children.
That cannot be the answer.
Western countries also have growing family wealth and the early ability to know
the sex of a fetus, and yet those countries are not developing a gender
imbalance. That means that while these may be exacerbating the
Vietnamese problem, they are not the cause of it. What then can be
done to solve the problem.
First, the real cause of the problem must be understood, and that cause is not
abortion, modern medicine and technology, or growing family wealth.
The root cause is gender inequality. The simple fact is that men are
considered to be more important in the society. Social custom, law,
tradition and even religion combine to give men a superior status in society
than women.
Until at least a significant degree of gender equality is achieved in the
society at large, prospective parents will opt to have boys over girls.
Like it or not, this is only natural. Given a choice, wouldn't
nearly any parent want their children (especially if they're having only one or
two children) to have the best chance to succeed (higher status, legal benefits,
societal and religious acceptance, job opportunities, higher pay and promotion
opportunities, etc.)?
Other countries in that part of the world have had this problem.
China's gender imbalance was even worse (130 males to 100 females), although it
happened over a longer period of time. They are now restoring a
proper gender ratio, done largely through the increase in gender equality in
that country (women were given more rights and opportunities).
It is not easy to change centuries of tradition and thinking, but it is the only
real solution to the problem of gender imbalance. The modern world
requires a modern way of thinking and living, regardless of where a country is
or what kind of traditions they have. Gender equality is not just
the right thing to do, it is imperative for a modern society to exist.
The only alternative is a country with growing problems caused by a growing
gender imbalance.
Even in Western countries there are those who whine about "feminism",
but they just don't realize the truth. Gender equality (feminism) is
not a bad thing. In this modern world, it is just common sense.
|
FOODOFVIETNAM.COM