Hanoi (VNS/VNA) —Reducing the gender gap in the areas of politics and labour force participationwas among the top issues at the on-going session of the 14th National Assembly(NA) meeting on November 9, during the broader discussion of the nationaltarget on gender equality.

According to the Government report,efforts by ministries, sectors and localities to enhance gender equality haveachieved encouraging results. Policies and legal regulations on the issue havebeen gradually completed, creating more favourable conditions for women invarious fields.

However, the implementation in somelocalities and agencies remains ineffective and has fallen short of targets.

Regarding gender equality in thefield of politics, many deputies said not enough attention has been paid toimproving the rate of women’s participation in administration bodies.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Thu Ha from thenorthern province of Bac Giang said the women have had lower odds of successthan men in the 14th NA election. The percentage of women in the 14th NA is39.2 percent while that figure for men is 68.4 percent.

Deputy Phan Van Tuong from thenorthern province of Thai Nguyen proposed the NA spend more time discussing theimplementation of gender equality policies.  

Lawmakers also raised concerns aboutgender inequality in the field of labour and employment. They stressed that theemployment quality of female workers remains unstable and they often work inthe low-skilled fields.

Deputy Truong Thi Bich Hanh from thesouthern province of Binh Duong said 70 percent of female labourers work in thefields of services, garments and textiles, and footwear.

The rate at which women receivingtraining is lower than that of men, while the unemployment rate among women ishigher than that of men. The average income of a paid female worker is 10.7 percentlower than that of men, she said.

Some deputies mentioned the sackingof female workers over 35 years old at a number of enterprises that havereceived foreign direct investment.

They also discussed other issuesrelating to the national target on gender equality, including retirement ageand retirement pension, violence against women and girls, the trafficking ofwomen and children, and gender imbalance at birth.

Closing the discussion, NA Vice ChairwomanTong Thi Phong said the NA asked the Government to complete related legaldocuments on gender equality and incorporate gender equality in socio-economicdevelopment plans.

Attention should also be paid tohuman resources training and development, raising public awareness of genderequality and increasing supervision over the implementation of gender equality.

Based on the Government report andopinions of NA deputies, the parliament would guide the Ministry of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs to study and seriously implement measures tofulfill gender equality goals in the future, she added.-VNA