Women During The Vietnam War - 2754 Words

AP WORLD HISTORY Warriors for Feminism Zhuri Bryant Jones 4/14/2015 Vietnamese women were very active during the Vietnam War between 1950 and 1974. Through the Vietnam War, women were able to get motivation and ideas to spark gender equality. Before, Vietnamese women were treated like second-class citizens to Vietnamese men due to a number of reasons, such as old Confucian traditions and oppressive husbands. These women did not question this way of life because of the deep rooted traditions of gender roles. During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese women went through many social changes that helped generate ideas for gender equality. While some migrated to America in order to start new lives away from the war, others stayed back and†¦show more content†¦As more traveled to America, Vietnamese women were no longer seen as immigrants, but instead as refugees. This shows that women weren’t seen as people, but as helpless foreigners. Because of this opposition, Vietnamese women became intrigued by the way American women fought for equality. How ever, Vietnam was not very fond of the Americans during this time. Because of this, Vietnamese men did not like the idea of their women going overseas: â€Å"They’d rather see their daughters find jobs with Vietnamese men because most of them always looked down on the Vietnamese women who worked for Americans.† Vietnamese women were not only encouraged to stay in a war stricken Vietnam, but they were shunned for seeking or finding work by American men. This played into the long oppression of women and the idea that they should stay home, take care of the family, and listen to their male superior. Finally, there were still gender roles that were defined throughout the world. Women could not catch a break no matter where they moved. Before their migration to America, they already had the long standing notion of women being inferior to men. This made it harder for women to break the status quo in America, even though they knew it was wrong. However, these repressive cau ses only made Vietnamese women want equality even more. Through living in America, Vietnamese women were subjected to the process of liberating women s lives in