Vietnamese Women

Vietnamese women are known and appreciated all over the world for their courage as well as other qualities associated with heroism and patriotism. They have played significant roles in several wars against foreign domination.

They also played no small part in the Vietnamese revolution. Vietnamese women have made more contributions towards nation building than their counterparts in other South East Asian countries. Their names have been written in gold in the chequered Vietnamese history and marks left on the sand of time.

Vietnamese has a long history of women soldiers. Vietnamese recall with relish the epoch-enacting trung sisters who fought the Chinese Army to a stand still in 40 C.E. women have also at the later date fought the Japanese invaders, French colonialists and later the American intruders.

During the second world war, the women played indelible roles in defeating the Japanese and gaining Independence from the French. During the Vietnamese civil war in the sixties, women in the communist North fought the South and Americans alongside men.

Many young girls were trained as fighters. The young ones were not difficult to train as they were not hindered by family roles of motherhood. Young girls recruited as guerilla fighters inflicted heavy damages on the American forces.

There were the "long - haired warriors" who fought bravely against the Americans. Vietnamese women also showed creativity during the war by making war weapons of their own. Up till date, the Vietnam women's union has been training women in new technologies. They have been championing women causes in the country.

Moreover, despite the contribution of the women to the development of Vietnam, the government has not made adequate programmes for the women. The war had its effects on the female population adversely. Most were separated from their families and young girls could not marry early because of their preoccupation with war.

Some of the women were killed in the battle and some others sustained serious injuries or physical disabilities. Those women that fought on the side of the south were detained in camps after the war. Some of them sustained various types of diseases such as rheumatism, cancer, high blood pressure and other complications among others.

Some other challenges facing the Vietnamese women include gender inequality, discrimination, lack of economic power as well as inadequate social amenities among others.

The women tend to be very submissive to their fathers, husbands and male children, unlike the Lao women. This is because of the influence of the Confucius teachings in the country. Some of the women soldiers that fought on the side of the South Vietnamese have migrated to the United States and other western countries such as France, Denmark etc.

In the states, there is a large number of Ex-Vietnamese women veterans. In the state of Arizona for example, they usually come together under the auspices of the Vietnamese seniors Association. Dam Trang, a ged 86, is a very important member, who was trained in the women's Army Corps School and assisted in taking care of the families of 250,000 fighters who lost their lives in the war and 750,000 injured combatants recovering in hospitals.