Opportunities and Constraints for Women’s Empowerment in Vietnam’s Rural WASH: 5 Case Studies of WOBA Communes

By ChiQLe On 9 Nov, 2022 61

This research study was implemented from April to September 2022 with the aim of capturing the gender experiences of women in WOBA from different perspectives: political, WASH work and entrepreneurship, community, households. The study also surmised that women must have the opportunities to engage and empowered as users, managers and change agents in their households, communities, political forums, and businesses.

The study used the mixed methods multiple case study approach, in which the quantitative and
qualitative data collection, results, and integration are used to provide in-depth evidence for comparative analysis between and within the five cases of communes. The quantitative survey was conducted from May to June 2022, whilst the qualitative data and secondary data for five case studies was collected in July, 2022.

The findings suggest that women’s personality traits such as carefulness and responsibility (from an individual perspective), having supportive husbands and in-law families as well as good economic conditions (from a family perspective), and support from superiors (from a social perspective) are opportunities for the participation of women in social activities and leadership positions and women’s empowerment. On the other hand, women still face many constraints such as internalised gender stereotypes (from a personal perspective), motherhood as well as opinions of husbands and in-law families (from a family perspective), and social pressure on women to take sole responsibility for housework or to be the main caretakers in their families (from a social perspective).

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