Female diplomats in international integration

 According to Ms. Ngo Thi Hoa, women’s work at MOFA has undergone prosperous changes. Most notably, the percentage of female employees now accounts for approximately 43% of the Ministry’s total workforce. Women’s participation in management positions in the Ministry is as follows: 1 vice minister, 8 director generals and 50 deputy director generals of departmental level, 21 managers and 37 deputy managers of division level. The promotion of female cadres has been paid due attention. For example, in 2013, o­ne female diplomat was appointed to be ambassador in a total of 21 new ambassadors and consul generals. In addition, during the current 2012-2015 term of the Party Committee, the rate of female members is 22.9%, the rate of female members of the Party committee is 28.6%.

Resulting from the special attention paid by the Ministry, women’s work is now considered important. CFAW and the Women’s Affairs Section – Trade Union of the Ministry are two machineries that are directly involved in this work.

Gender Equality Law has come to life and been implemented by units and individuals. Gender has been mainstreamed effectively in various areas in order to improve both the material and spiritual life of female cadres.

To further concretize the National Strategy o­n Gender Equality (2011-2020), the Ministry has developed a Plan of Action concerning Gender Equality for the period 2011-2015, focusing o­n such areas as: recruitment, training, planning, promotion, appointment, healthcare and enhancing efficiency for women’s performance. Accordingly, CFAW and the Women’s Affairs Section – Trade Union of the Ministry have collaborated to develop the yearly Programme o­n women’s work which includes specific activities to improve gender equality o­n a quarterly and monthly basis.

According to Resolution N^o. 22- NQ/TW of the Politburo o­n international integration, in order to strengthen women’s work, the Ministry hasadvocated to build a staff of female diplomats with the aim to serve the international integration of the country.

Since 2012, along with usual activities, the Ministry has also focused o­n organizing official diplomatic activities, diplomatic skill improvement classes and thematic talks about women diplomat attitudes and manner. Moreover, the Ministry has continued taking part in the National Project “Enhancing management capacity of female cadres to implement international integration” sponsored by UNDP, chaired by the Multilateral Economic Cooperation Department. The Project has been implemented for five years and received positive assessment from UNDP. It now continues Phase II. Female diplomats have greatly benefited from this project, particularly from the training courses. Despite many positive results, the proportion of senior women cadres in domestic and international agencies is still low. Objectively, female cadres have not received encouragement to participate in management positions and have also faced obstacles in work-life balance due to the job rotation mechanism for diplomats. Subjectively, a part of female cadres have not overcome the sense of “the weaker sex”.

Another aspect that negatively affects the psychology of female staff is the prejudice by male colleagues in the workplace. To improve this, along with changing perceptions, female cadres of the Ministry should receive further support and encouragement from their male colleagues.