Propaganda on gender equality: Involvement of women’s unions at all levels

In order to raise the awareness of women’s union (WU) members, women and people about gender equality (GE), creating conditions for women to rise to affirm their position in society, over the past time, women’s unions in the province has promoted propaganda on GE in a variety of contents and forms.

WU Members in Tan Minh commune, Trang Dinh district participate in GE propaganda

Ms. Nong Thanh Hai, Chairman of the Provincial Women’s Union, said: “Determining that GE is one of the important tasks, the Provincial Women’s Union has asked the WU at district-level to promote propaganda activities on GE, focusing on content directly related to women’s rights and interests.”

Regarding propaganda, every year, WU at all levels have actively coordinated with relevant units to organize seminars, workshops sharing experiences associated with propaganda, raising capacity and awareness of target groups, especially officials in charge of GE and those serving the advancement of women at all levels on GE.

In order to effectively popularize the information about GE, WU at all levels regularly innovate and apply various forms of propaganda such as by words of mouth, leaflets; videos, photo slideshows, communication activities; forums, contests, dialogues, exchanges… Since 2020, WU at all levels have organized more than 10,000 meetings attracting 500,000 people on topics such as the Law on Gender Equality, domestic violence prevention and control, improving women’s power and position…

Ms. Lang Thi Le Thuy, Vice President of Lang Son City Women’s Union said: “Lang Son City Women’s Union currently has more than 12,000 members. Every year, we introduce about GE in many forms such as distributing leaflets, hanging banners, slogans, mentioning it in meetings, seminars, etc., especially, we carry out activities responding to the peak month of action for GE and domestic violence prevention and control attracting a large number of WU members, women and people. Currently, in the city, more than 50 happy family clubs and domestic violence prevention groups have been created.”

Moreover, WU at all levels focus on improving women’s knowledge about gender equality through diversifying methods of implementing programs to support women in starting a business, training to improve their capacity, knowledge, skills for leaders and core members of WU, helping women promote their own roles, building equal, progressive, happy families and actively participating in social work. Additionally, WU at all levels actively support women to comprehensively develop and build happy families; WU at all levels actively participate in monitoring the implementation of policies related to women and GE. Activities contribute to raising awareness, eliminating gender stereotypes  and enhancing the role of women in all fields.

Ms. Vy Thi Hien, Khac Deng village, Dai Dong commune, Trang Dinh district said: “Participating in GE activities of the Women’s Union, I get to know more about women’s rights and interests in all fields. In the family, I actively divide the farm work and housework with my husband. We now have 2 daughters, my husband and I understand each other and do not bias men over women, so my husband and I decided not to have more children, we will raise our two daughters well.”

Determining that one of the important factors in GE is the economic independence of women, WU at all levels have strengthened activities to support poor women with job creation and instruct them to apply scientific techniques and technologies into production to increase income; support women in difficult circumstances, women with disabilities…. Since then, they have been deeply aware of their position in the family and in society and affirmed it, contributing to building an equal, progressive and happy family. Accordingly, the projects, movements and campaigns of the WU such as “Women help each other to reduce poverty “; “Supporting Women in Start-up”… receive great attention of WU at all levels. For example, in the first 6 months of 2023, the whole province had 23,928 WU member households borrowing loans from the Bank for Social Policies with a total amount of over 45.6 billion VND; mobilized nearly 46.9 billion VND from more than 25,000 members of savings and loan groups, up more than 2.5 billion VND compared to the beginning of the year.

In order to improve the spiritual life of members, all levels of WU have created conditions for women to participate in cultural activities, physical training and sports. Currently, the WU has over 800 cultural and sports teams, groups and clubs, attracting over 16,000 female members. Every year, WU at all levels regularly organize physical training and sports activities, cooking contests, and art and craft competitions on International Women’s Day (March 8), and Vietnamese Women’s Day (October 20). … attracting a large number of women. The above activities has contributed to raising women’s awareness about GE, eliminating gender stereotypes, raising the status of women, contributing to realizing the goal of ensuring GE in politics, economy, culture and society.

The active participation of WU at all levels has contributed to the positive transformation on GE, affirming the role and position of women. Currently, the number of women members who own businesses, cooperatives and cooperative groups in the province accounts for 30%; the percentage of female officials participating in the Party committee and government for the 2020-2025 term is 26.69% (5.25% higher than that of the previous term)…