MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE

ACADEMIC WRITING
REPORT

FINAL

Underrepresentation of women
in Vietnamese rail industry

Course Instructor: M.A Le Van Khanh

Student’s Name: Ma Nhật Anh

Class: TT45C

Student Code: TT45C-058-1822

Word count: 1287 words

Hanoi, 20th May 2021

INTRODUCTION

Gender equality and women's empowerment have long been top

priorities for many governments and international organizations around
the world, specifically in the context of jobs and income. During the
Transforming Transportation 2018 Conference, “Transport is not
gender-neutral” was the key message brought up from a high-level
gender discussion co-hosted by the World Bank and the World
Resources Institute. Women constitute more than half of public transport
users worldwide, yet transportation is regarded as “no place for
women”, they are often trapped in lower-paying or lower-status
employment with few career opportunities (ILO). In Vietnam, the
majority of transportation workers are men, with women accounting for
less than 10% of the workforce (GSO, 2015).

Among transport sectors in Vietnam, the rail industry has been

experiencing a significant gender gap in personnel, thus Vietnam
Railways has promulgated Gender Equality Action Plan 2011 - 2020
with the aim to fundamentally ensure gender equality. In 2015, after 5
years of implementing the National Goals and Action Plan, women still
occupied only 21,93% of the labour force overall in the industry,
whereas the percentage of female leaders was only 16 (The Ministry of
Transportation, 2015). In every industry, job demands, family needs, the
partner's occupation, and the possibility of low educational returns all
complicate women's careers (Haasler, 2014). Applying to the railway
workforce, women's underrepresentation is attributed to the industry's
overall masculine stereotypes, rough working conditions with security
issues, and challenges that women face in juggling work-family life
(Bekiaris, 2021). Old-fashioned preconception not only exists at
workplaces but it has also been formed since primary ages, which results
in a shortage of young girls interested in STEM majors (Rail
Technology Magazines, 2019).

Various gender equality education programs have been established,

however, according to European Commission (2018), to combat gender
inequality, rail companies should, for example, target women
recruitment, training campaigns, and career paths; encourage female role
models and build female networks to raise awareness of stereotypes in
the workplace; specialize policies such as maternity provisions, job
descriptions, social welfare systems for women,...

Based on the aforementioned reasons, the writer is going to focus on the

following questions:

1. Why are female workers underrepresented in the rail industry?

2. How effective was the Action Plan on improving gender inequality
in the rail industry?
3. What measures should be taken to tackle women’s disparity?

METHOD

Participants
There were 134 participants, all of whom worked for Vietnam Railways
or its subsidiaries and were between the ages of 18 and 55, with the
majority from 36 to 45. All of them answered the questionnaire in
Vietnamese.
Material
A Google online survey was handed out to every participant who were
about to answer 9 queries focusing on their experience and
understanding of the topic, such as causes of women’s disparity in the
rail industry, implemented contents of Vietnam Railways’ Gender
Equality Action Plan as well as staff’s perception about its effect and
reasonable solutions.
The survey was delineated using factual, yes/no and multiple choices in
both general and the core section of the survey.

Procedures
First, information and insights from industry professionals were used as
references for the subject. Then, an online survey was sent to 133
participants in the railway industry, who were willing to offer their
opinions on the topic just 3 hours after it was sent through Zalo,
Facebook. As soon as the filling was done by all the participants, the
author collected the forms in order to analyse the data.
DATA ANALYSIS

The survey results revealed some uncoverings about the

underrepresentation of women in Vietnamese rail industry. The
following analysis is based and developed from the collected data.

Graph 1: Reasons of women’s underrepresentation in the rail industry.

Based on the graph’s statistics, the reason that rough working conditions
with security concerns, such as night shifts and construction
supervisions, are unsuitable for women’s physique, leading to women’s
underrepresentation in railways was supported by 76,7% of the
participants and held the 1st position. Two other common choices of rail
workers were old-fashioned preconception formed since early ages
prevents girls from following STEM majors and women are unable to
strike a balance between work and family life because rail jobs entail
frequent relocation, with almost 44,4% and 53,4% respectively.
Noticeably, 4 peoples gave the contrast view with women’s
underrepresentation in the rail industry, and there were 2 new reasons
given namely women are better suited to office work, but the number of
office workers is limited and there are many other more suitable jobs.

Graph 2: Worker’s assessment on the effectiveness of the Action Plan.

The mixed chart illustrated the rail workers’ evaluation on the

effectiveness of the Action Plan on gender gap in railways overall and in
terms of each matter. It was shown in the first bar graph that female
employee’s dissatisfaction in leave, retirement, maternity benefits was
remarkably improved as 42,85% of the participants gave it the highest
score (5 scores). However, there were many people who thought that the
rail industry still lacked specialized and well-trained female labourers,
proven by 1, 2 or 3 scores coming from no less than 60% of the answers.
Generally, the percentage of people believing that Action Plan had not
improved women’s underrepresentation was 41,4%, which was slightly
more than that of whom strongly valued the effect of Action Plan
(39,1%).

Graph 3: Solutions to improve women’s disparity in the rail industry.

Regarding measures to narrow down the gender gap, help women

represent more in the industry, encourage female role models to inspire
and attract potential female employees was the solution selected the
most with 16,1%, which nearly doubled the figure of organizing or
cooperate with orientation, training campaign for high school and
university girls (8,9%). Upgrading required and adequate workplace
facilities to ensure women’s safety was much less appreciated with
11,7%, which accounted for third-fourth of the percentage of
specializing job descriptions for women, such as advertising, creativity,
office employment, and so on. Apart from given solutions, there is an
opinion which should be taken into account that only when
mechanization is modernized, the requirement for manual labor is lower
that those solutions can be tackled.
DISCUSSION

The discussion is based on the theory in the Introduction, the survey

results and the data analysis.

First, Bekiaris (2021, cited in ITF) concluded that main reasons behind
women’s underrepresentation in the rail industry are overall masculine
stereotypes, rough working conditions with security issues, and
challenges that women face in juggling work-family life. Similarly, the
participants seemed to agree with Bekiaris, especially 76,7% of them
accused rough working conditions with security concerns, such as night
shifts and construction supervisions, are unsuitable for women’s
physique of women’s disparity in the industry. However, masculine
stereotypes in workplaces was not one of the common causes, as only 11
participants chose this answer.

Second, the survey results clearly showed that, after the Action Plan had
been implemented to enhance gender equality in railway companies,
there still existed two controversial opinions among the rail workers as
half of them thought that the imbalanced situation remained unchanged.

Last, similar to solutions suggested by the European Commission

(2018), most participants believed that encouraging role models,
arranging suitable job descriptions for women and improving maternity
leave policies, social welfare systems would help raise the
representation of women in railways. Surprisingly, one of the
participants insisted that the women and men had already been equal,
thus selecting no methods.
LIMITATIONS

The industry mentioned in the report is one of the options coming up

first when people think of women’s underrepresentation, however, the
limitation of time did prevent the researcher from covering enough
samples and details to prove that the result matches every circumstance.

The researcher did want to dig deeper into the effectiveness of the
Action Plan on improving gender inequality and women’s disadvantages
in the rail industry, however, the answers of workers might not be fully
reliable, as they were given the form to fill from the boss.
REFERENCES

Bekiaris, E. (2021). Overcoming barriers to women’s employment in

transport. Transport Innovation for Sustainable Development A Gender
Perspective (pp. 45-46). OECD Publishing.
https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/transport-innovation-
sustainable-development-gender.pdf

Department of Population and Labour Statistics & GOS of Vietnam. (2016).

Labor Employment Survey Report. https://www.gso.gov.vn/wp-
content/uploads/2019/05/LDVL-2015.pdf

European Commission. (2018, December). Business case to increase female

employment in Transport. EU Publications.
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/

Haasler, S. (2014). The impact of learning on women’s labour market

transitions (No. 3). Research in Comparative and International
Education. http://www.wwords.co.uk/RCIE

Rail Technology Magazines. (2019, March 12). Women in rail - is the industry
on the right track?. Rail Technology Magazines (RTM).
https://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Interviews/women-in-rail-is-
the-industry-on-the-right-track-

The Ministry of Transportation. (2015, September 18). VNR Corporation:

Summary of 5 years of action on gender equality and population and
family planning. Electronic Portal of the Ministry of Transport.
http://www.mt.gov.vn/moitruong/quy-chuan-chat-luong/38091/
 APPENDIX

Questionnaire on women’s underrepresentation in the rail industry

Hello,
My name is Ma Nhat Anh, a third year student at the Faculty of Communication
and External Culture, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. Currently, I am
working on a report on gender disparities in the labor market, specifically on the
gender imbalance in the rail industry in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Railways Corporation announced the Gender Equality Action Plan
for the period 2011-2020 in 2011, as part of the Government's Action Program
on Gender Equality, with the goal of achieving substantial gender equality
between men and women in terms of opportunities, participation, and benefits
in all disciplines by 2020. However, after 5 years of implementation, in 2015,
the number of female cadres in the whole sector only reached 21.93%, of which,
only 16% of the leaders of the units were women. The purpose of this study is
to find the reasons and solutions for the trend of gender imbalance in the current
Vietnamese railway industry, including Vietnam Railways Corporation and its
subsidiaries.

As a result, your responses to this survey are extremely valuable to my report,

which acts as the primary data in the study process.

I guarantee you that all of your personal information will be kept totally
confidential and used solely for research purposes.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Nhat Anh.

1. Which of the following age groups do you belong to?

a. 18 - 35
b. 36 - 45
c. 46 - 55
d. Above 55

2. What is your gender?

a. Male
b. Female
c. Other

3. According to you, why are female workers underrepresented in the rail

industry? (Pick 3 answers maximum)
a. Masculine stereotypes in workplaces
b. Rough working conditions with security concerns, such as night shifts
and construction supervisions, are unsuitable for women's physiques
c. Women do not receive the same professional qualifications as men
d. Old-fashioned preconception formed since early ages prevents girls
from following STEM majors
e. Women are unable to strike a balance between work and family life
because their jobs entail frequent relocation.
f. Women overrepresent men by an equal or greater number.
g. Other (Please Specify)

4. At the agency/organization where you work, departments and organizations

have implemented practical tasks and activities within the framework of the
Gender Equality Action Plan 2011-2020 issued by the Vietnam Railways
Corporation? (if yes, please answer question 6)
a. Yes
b. No
c. I don’t remember

5. Which of the following contents have been implemented at the unit you are
working for? (You can choose more than one answer)
a. Organize a ceremony for female employees to become members of the
Party on a regular basis.
b. Organizing training and education sessions on gender equality
c. Establishing a committee dedicated to women to connect and support
female employees
d. Ensure adequate and suitable income, salary, social insurance, medical
services for female employees
e. Arrange/Create new job positions suitable to women's ability and
capacity
f. Other (Please Specify)

6. Answer this question if said "yes" in question 4: After implementing the

Gender Equality Action Plan, rate the improvement of following gender
inequality issues in the rail industry on a scale from 1 to 5:
a. Gender stereotypes in the workplace
b. Inappropriate work assignment for women in terms of health,
aspirations, and expertise
c. Lack of specialized and well-trained female labourers
d. Female employees' dissatisfaction in leave, retirement, maternity
benefits
 e. Female employees’ dissatisfaction in salary, insurance, and social
benefits

7. In general, after the implementation of the Gender Equality Action Plan, how
is the situation of gender imbalance in the Vietnam Railways?
a. Worsen
b. Unimproved
c. Improved to some extent
d. Exceptionally improved

8. If you have a daughter, do you want her to study and work for the Vietnam
Railways?
a. Yes
b. No
c. It’s their choice

9. In your opinion, which solutions below can improve women's disparity in the
rail industry? (You can pick more than 1 answer)
a. Promulgating recruitment policies specifically aimed at women
b. Organizing or cooperate with orientation, training campaign for high
school and university girls
c. Encourage female role models to inspire and attract potential female
employees
d. Build networks and committees for women to raise awareness of
stereotype in workplaces
e. Specialize maternity leave policies and strong social welfare systems
f. Specialize job descriptions for women, such as advertising, creativity,
office employment, and so on.
 g. Upgrade required and adequate workplace facilities to ensure women's
safety.
h. Promulgate security policies, regulations to ensure women's safety
i. Other (Please Specify)