2 - Career Building with Others: Life Course Choices of Highly Educated Women in the Northern Region of Vietnam

While women's social advancement and success in contemporary Asia are attracting attention, the lack of examination from the perspective of women-centered life-work balance has become an issue. In this presentation, I would like to examine how women themselves proactively view their own career and life course choices, through the highly educated women in Vietnam as a case study.

In Vietnam, the transition to a market economy has been marked by rapid economic development and the emergence of a new middle class. In the process, government-led measures were taken to reduce the birthrate, and the educational gap between men and women narrowed. Women who have received higher education and become highly educated are now in their 30s and 40s and participating in society as white-collar workers. At the same time, they are still expected to fulfill social norms such as marriage and childbearing, as well as family roles such as wife and daughter. In particular, women in the northern regions, where Confucian patriarchy is ideologically emphasized, are expected to play the role of wife in their husbands' families after marriage, and at the same time play the role of daughter in their parents' homes, taking care of both families.

This presentation will show how highly educated women continue their careers against a backdrop of women who are overburdened between work and family and choose to change jobs or leave their jobs, the family relationships that encourage them to do so, and the work ethic of Vietnamese society that condones these choices.