A couple days ago we toured a couple local businesses. One of them was the MyLan company, which makes printing plates and some sort of chemical products. The place was gorgeous with sprawling, well landscaped grounds, a soccer field, and tennis courts. The insides of the buildings were equally impressive with fountains and probably the cleanest bathrooms in all of Vietnam. The company is one of the mOst successful in the province and is owned by a Canadian-Vietnamese man who really prides himself on the workplace environment he created. We had lunch with one of the employees who really enjoyed her job. However on the tour we ran into some very typical Vietnamese situations that frustrate the Canadian students.
As an introduction to the electrical engineering department we were told, with a giggle, that only handsome men worked here. When asked if women could work there we were told, again with laughter, that it was a job my h better suited to men. I wish that I had gone into engineering instead of medicine just so I could shock them. Many people we interview here say that there is not a lot of gender discrimination here but the Canadians are still struggling with this. In Canada this type of blatant gender streaming and career expectations would be the definition of discrimination. We have been told, for example, that now women can go into engineering and IT...because there are more indoor office jobs available. Also, women are expected fo stay closer to home after graduation more so than their male counterparts. So while this is angering, we keep trying to look at it through the lens if cultural relativism. Is it like this because women are being forced into these roles or, based on the cultural environment they are brought up in, is this just a reflection of the collective choices of all Vietnamese women? It is very difficult to tease these two ideas apart, but is interesting to think about and discuss for sure.
On Friday we head to the beach island of Phu Quoc for a chance to see more if Vietnam and to get a bit of a break from our research before coming back and finishing up our report. Last week we took a day trip to a nearby island on the delta known for its fruit trees. I swam in the Mekong, biked around, and picked some rambutans ( chum chums in Vietnamese). These extra excursions help ke appreciate the fact that I am in Vietnam, far from home as Tra Vinh is getting very familiar. I have my favorite pho place where the owner knows our order.
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