By Angelique Masse-Nguyen, Founder, NOI –
For International Women’s Day month of March, media company NOI, will share a series of articles on Sustainable Vietnam on data they have compiled on what Vietnamese women have told them about beauty; sexual harassment; work; sex; marriage and children; and housework. NOI is platform for shaping new narratives for women in Vietnam.
The female participation rate in Vietnam workplace is impressive, but there is still a lot of disparity. Vietnam is ranked second for the most number of women in senior management among Asian countries. But women continue to form a large majority of the working poor, earn less income, and face precarious working conditions.
But what about NOI community?
56% shared that they never felt paid less because of their gender, while 44% have once experienced being paid less because of their gender.
But is it easy for our community to realise they may be experiencing a gender pay gap?
59% of women who took the survey shared that they rarely talk about their salary with their friends. And 96% have experienced working in an environment where wages were confidential. As salaries are rarely public, job offers don’t share a salary range, and salary survey doesn’t cover all industries or small business units, it’s challenging for women to know a fair salary.
And what may put women even more at risk of being paid less is that they rarely negotiate their salary. 54% of respondents rarely negotiated their salary, and when we included the ones that rarely dare to negotiate, 82% of women often take a job without trying to negotiate their salary.
But why? It isn’t because of a lack of ambition.
61% said they are ready to take on more responsibilities, while 2% would say they never want to advance. But not in any role, company or conditions: 39,4% already refused to take on a leadership role.
Either their company failed to offer them the right conditions to become a leader (lack of training, no salary increase, poor work-life balance), or they did not feel confident enough.
NOI is a new media company committed to telling the stories of Vietnamese women by putting women at the centre of every content they create, celebrate and discover. NOI’s ambition is to be the leading digital media for the new generation of Vietnamese women shaping new narratives and connecting women.
Get access to the complete data, in Vietnamese, by visiting the NOI website.
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Additional Sources:
- March 2021, Gender and the labour market in Viet Nam* ILO, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/—ilo-hanoi/documents/publication/wcms_774434.pdf
- https://www.gso.gov.vn/en/data-and-statistics/2021/12/gender-equality-in-labor-and-access-to-management-work-in-viet-nam/
