This gender inequality originates from centuries-old preconceptions about work allocation in a family, and it remains popular in some mountain communes in Lào Cai Province.

Because of this, men have become accustomed to handling family affairs and are able to communicate better, having learnt to speak the Kinh ethnic majority language. Women, meanwhile, have customarily been in charge of home and farming chores. Most of them have little if any opportunities to attend school, causing them to become introverted when appearing outside their own communities.

Phạm Thị Bình, an official at the Lào Cai Province Agriculture Extension Centre, said although the contents of training classes were varied. male participants usually made up 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the total number of learners.

This was beside the fact that women were doing up to 70 per cent of all farm work, Bình added.

In the lowlying areas, however, training courses organized by women's unions and agriculture promotion centres have attracted 100 per cent female attendance.

Phạm Trần Luyện, who specialises in presenting agriculture promotion classes to ethnic people in Lào Cai Province, said despite female learners being pro- vided with new knowledge, they had to depend o­n their husbands' decisions o­n what kind of trees or animals they should farm with. "It doesn't solve any problems even when women learn" he said.

Married men, o­n the contrary, do not engage in doing farm work and passively rely o­n their wives. Therefore, they fail to apply properly what they had been taught in class, Thành said.

Finding solutions

This problem is now being solved in Lào Cai Province, through some communes taking action to rectify the situation.

Through organising meetings in different hamlets with the participation of both husbands and wives, training courses o­n agriculture development have helped ethnic families change from ineffective production methods to applying advanced scientific farming technology.

The province is also implementing a plan to train staff with expertise in either professional skills or who are proficient in ethnic minority languages. Priority is also given to the compilation and preparation of documents which are easy for illiterate or semi-literate farmers to understand.

Favourable conditions are being created for women not o­nly. through training courses o­n farming, but also by having them participate in a variety of social activities to help them attain a better awareness of their rights and duties in life. Many believe these measures will do a lot to promote gender quality and also help women to increasingly hold leadership roles in their localities and master new production techniques.