Rising Gender Inequality in Vietnam Since Reunification

Two general schools of thought offer contrasting visions concerning which kinds of social systems may best ameliorate social inequalities based on class, race, or gender. The modernization perspective holds that development results in the creation of laws, institutions, and opportunities that are conducive to the erosion of such inequalities. The opposing Marxian viewpoint maintains that inequality is rooted in private ownership, the elimination of which requires a complete transformation in the social relations of production. In regard to gender inequality, the latter socialist vision has long been favored by feminists as offering the better agenda for social advancement. Revolutionary socialist movements offered promises of social advances for and openly sought their support, and the receipt of such support was often pivotal in the establishment of such regimes. Despite some evidence that revolutionary socialist states may have ameliorated social inequality, the current consensus is that gender inequality may be entrenched in various ways that transcend political economy. Recent commentators have noted the unpaid promissory notes issued to by socialist regimes and have analyzed their default under the rubric of women in the transition to socialism.' However, by the end of the 1980s this political context had changed considerably. After becoming disillusioned with the shared poverty that resulted from the inefficiencies inherent in socialist agricultural and industrial production, many societies in the ex-socialist bloc (including those