Usually the patriarchal narratives ignore the women’s existence in political and revolutionary history. Accounting for half of its population, the Vietnamese women are respectful for their virtue, characters of hard working and courageous. In the modern history of Vietnam, the Vietnamese people, including Vietnamese women undertook arduous struggle for the national independence. The Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh once said: "With their heartfelt efforts, our women- both young and old-have built and woven the country of Vietnam to make it even more beautiful". The former general secretary of the communist party of Vietnam, Le Duan also said: "Women own more sense of ethnic than anyone else, the greatness and beauty of Vietnamese nation first belong to Vietnamese Women".
What is Vietnam women’s patriotic contribution in the process of Vietnam’s nation-building and nation-defending? As my doctoral dissertation research and writing topic, I am going to explore Vietnamese women’s existence in the history of Vietnam’s nation-building and nation-defending from the beginning of 20th century to 1975. To re-examine Vietnam women’s role with perspective of gender studies will help us get further understanding of gender equality under Vietnamese circumstances. All kinds of women’s organizations of the Vietnam Women’s Union had undertaken the common task of mobilizing nationwide women to take part in the anti-feudalism and anti-imperialism movements. Printing materials like newspapers, journals at that time and memoirs of people who lived during that period can help us reconstruct the image of women’s involvement in the nation-building and nation-defending process. Considering personal factors like origin, career, marriage and external factors like the revolution need at that time, various mobilization propaganda from different regimes in Vietnam and so on, I am going to analyze Vietnamese women’s view on nation-building and nation-defending during that period.
IIAS offers me a wonderful opportunity to collect more source materials and do my research in Leiden and in a global context. This research has been made possible with the financial support from the China Scholarship Council.