President Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa expressed her pleasure to greet Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Marina Sereni and wished her a fruitful and memorable visit in Vietnam. Vice President Marina Sereni thanked President Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa for taking the time to welcome the delegation.
During the meeting, the two sides exchanged general information on the current situation of women, their achievements in gender equality, the problems and challenges facing women and the efforts of both governments and sectors to promote gender equality, advancement and safety for women in the two countries.
According to the VWU President, Vietnam has achieved remarkable results on gender equality. Accounting for about 51% of the total population and 48% of the labor force, Vietnamese women participate in most sectors and occupations and are actively engaged in economic development activities that help improve societal wealth. Women’s participation in politics is as follows: representing 24.4% of the National Assembly deputies, 2 female Vice Presidents of the National Assembly, one female Vice President of the State, 2 female ministers and a number of deputy ministers. Furthermore, while the percentage of female students is higher than males, it should be noted that there are fewer women in higher levels of education. The rate of trained and certificated female workers is also lower than male workers, therefore, job opportunities and income for women are normally lower than men’s.
The VWU President also briefed Mrs. Marina Sereni on details of the VWU’s work, particularly the VWU’s representative function and their activities that support women through the VWU’s six key tasks. She also emphasized the VWU’s role in detecting, recommending and training qualified women to be candidates for the National Assembly and People's Councils at different levels and the Union’s function of participating in State management, supervising the implementation of women and gender equality related laws and policies, and providing social counter arguments in order to effectively represent women, thus ensuring and protecting the legal rights and legitimate interests of women.
Mrs. Marina Sereni expressed her interest in the VWU’s policy advocacy activities, their participation in politics and the living and working conditions of women in Vietnam. She also shared the problems facing Italian women today. She stated that Italy and Vietnam had many differences in terms of their political systems, as well as women’s participation in the social life. However, both countries found that the role of women in their countries has been increasingly asserted and their participation in different fields has continually increased. In Italy, 30 % of parliament members are women. The country has female President of the Chamber of Deputies and two female ministers of foreign affair and justice.
According to the Vice President of the Italian Champer of Deputies, many trade unions and associations in Italy are led by women, which is an impressive achievement for the country. Italian women can currently participate in all areas of society, including jobs that used to be exclusively for men, such as policing. However, women also face many difficulties in finding employment, and they typically receive a lower income and fewer benefits compared to men. Furthermore, their participation and contribution to Italian society is still limited, because they are too busy with household duties, including caring for their children and parents. Especially, many women have also suffered from domestic violence and more severely homicide that tends to rise. The VWU was informed that the Italian Parliament is currently discussing the Draft Law against women homicide. This could be considered a useful measure to protect women from violence.
Through sharing information, the two sides were thankful for the opportunity to meet and admitted that the meeting was a productive opportunity to exchange experiences relating to women of the two countries. This helped contribute to a better mutual understanding of gender equality as well as the advancement and development of women.
