The percent that report that someon

The percent that report that someone other than the husband or wife was mainly responsible for the
various child rearing tasks when the child was age two to five is distinctly higher for the earliest marriage
cohort than for the following two cohorts. Given that the earliest marriage cohort were raising their first
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child during a period of war, separation of couples may have been relatively common. This could account
for the higher involvement of others besides the couple in raising young children. A similar pattern of
cohort differences, however, does not hold for the tasks asked about when the child was age six to ten.
This may in part reflect that for many of the respondents in the earliest cohort, by the time their first child
was of school age, the war period was over and separation of spouses less common.
In contrast to the patterns observed with respect to husbands’ participation in domestic chores, there
appears to be an increase in the involvement of husbands in a number of preschool child rearing tasks
across the three marriage cohorts as seen in Table 7. Two measures of husbands’ involvement are
presented. One refers to the combined percent of respondents who report that the husband was mainly
responsible for the task or shared main responsibility equally with the wife. The other indicates the
percent that report that the husband did the task some or a lot. For all five preschool child rearing tasks
considered, both measures indicate that husbands’ involvement was distinctly the lowest for the earliest
marriage cohort and, for almost all, highest for the most recent cohort. In general, however, increase
between the first and the middle cohort is substantially greater than between the middle and most recent
cohort. As noted above, the substantial increase between the first two marriage cohorts in husbands’
involvement may reflect at least partially the fact that many in the earliest cohort would have been raising
their first child during the period of war. This would not explain, however, the more modest increases in
husbands’ involvement for most of the tasks between the middle and most recent cohort. In contrast to
husbands’ involvement, no consistent pattern of change is evident across the marriage cohorts in the
involvement of wives in preschool childcare tasks. In all three cohorts the majority did each of the tasks a
lot.
The pattern of change across cohorts is more varied for the early school age child rearing tasks asked
about. Husbands’ involvement in disciplining the child is substantially higher for the middle and most
recent cohort compared to the earliest cohort but husbands’ involvement in going to school meetings and
helping with the child's homework is highest for the middle cohort. This may partially reflect a greater
concentration of school aged children of the most recent cohort towards the younger ages of the age range
when school meetings and homework are less important and not deemed necessary for the child’s father
to get involved.
There is some evidence of increased involvement of wives in the tasks related to early school age
children. Most notable is the consistent increase in the percent of wives who frequently assist children
with their homework. The increase is particularly sharp between the middle and the most recent cohorts.
Although not statistically significant, the highest percentage of wives frequently going to school meetings
and disciplining their first child during school ages is also found for the most recent marriage cohort.
When the wife’s frequent involvement in any of the three tasks combined is considered, a consistent and
statistically significant increase is found.
Tables 8 and 9 assess changes in husbands’ involvement in preschool and in early school age child
rearing respectively within a multivariate framework using logistic regression. The dependent variables
refer to whether the husband did each of the tasks under consideration at least sometimes (0 for no, 1 for
yes) and includes a summary variable indicating whether the husband did any of these tasks covered in
the table at least sometimes. As with the logistic regressions relating to household chores and domestic
decision making, the covariates included are marriage cohort, gender, area of residence, whether or not
the wife has high education and whether or not someone other than the couple mainly did the task.
The results in Table 8 confirm the substantial increase over the course of the three cohorts in husbands’
involvement in all of the preschool age tasks under consideration. For every task, as well as for the
summary measure, the highest odds ratio is associated with the most recent cohort and both the odds ratio
for the middle and the most recent cohorts are statistically significant. Statistically significant odds ratios
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below 1 for all measures are associated with the respondent being female indicating that women attribute
less frequent involvement to husbands than do men in these childcare tasks. Odds ratios below 1 are also
associated with being in rural areas and for all tasks, except looking after the child, are also statistically
significant. This indicates that husbands in rural areas have lower involvement than those in urban areas
in these preschool childcare tasks. No statistically significant odds ratios are associated with the wife
having high education. However, having someone other than one of the spouses mainly doing the task
has a strong negative influence on the frequency of the husband's involvement.
Table 7 indicates a more mixed pattern of change in husbands’ involvement in tasks associated with
school age children. The odds ratios associated with marriage cohorts are statistically significant only for
disciplining the child and for the summary measure. In fact, the odds ratios are below 1 in the case of the
most recent marriage cohorts in relation to going to school meetings and helping the child with homework
although they are not statistically significant. The odds ratios below 1 associated with female respondents
indicates again that women report that husbands do the tasks under consideration less frequently than men
report for themselves. Odds ratios associated with living in a rural area are substantially below 1 and
statistically significant for each task indicating that rural husbands are less involved in these tasks than are
urban husbands. Having some other person than one of the couple mainly do the chore also reduces the
frequency with which the husband is involved.
The overall impression provided by the results on roles in the care of the first child during preschool ages
is that husbands’ involvement in care tasks has increased over the time period covered by the three
marriage cohorts between the first and the middle cohort. Husbands also appear to have increased their
involvement in disciplining the child once the child is in early school ages. At the same time, wives’
involvement in preschool care tasks is substantially greater than that of husbands and does not appear to
have changed across the three cohorts. The main child rearing task in which wives have become more
involved is helping with homework once the child enters school.
Discussion and Conclusions
Much of the recent literature on gender in Vietnam speculates on the negative effects of the transition to
the market economy on gender relations, while earlier work emphasized the gender equalizing influence
of socialist policies (Werner and Belanger, 2002). Little social science evidence, however, has been
provided to support either of these claims. Our study is unique in providing empirical data on how the
gender roles within the household have been affected by various, often competing, forces in Vietnam over
the past four decades.
Our examination of gender differences in the division of domestic labor during the early years of marriage
reveals considerable continuity across three cohorts, spanning periods corresponding to the war with
America, reunification and renovation. Wives continue to have primary responsibility for household
chores, such as buying food, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning house, or doing the laundry, to an
overwhelming degree. Only a rather minimal increase in husbands’ involvement in these chores is
associated with the most recent cohort, that is those married after the onset of economic renovation and
greater opening to the global community, including the West. The main exception is the increased
involvement of husbands in managing the household budget, which is especially evident for the most
recent cohort. Even this change, however, does not appear to be accompanied by a decline in wives’ role
in household budget management.
While our survey cannot measure change over time in attitudes towards the gender division of domestic
labor regarding household chores, we note that current attitudes do not appear to differ in a consist pattern
among cohorts. When asked if they agree or disagree with the statement, “If a husband and a wife both
work, they should share household tasks equally,” the percent somewhat or strongly agreeing fluctuates,
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going from 57 percent to 48 percent to 54 percent for the three successive cohorts. Interestingly, men
agree more frequently than women (58 percent versus 49 percent). That many profess attitudes
supportive of gender equality likely reflects awareness of the social ideals advocated by the state and
other organizations, even if such awareness does not translate into practice.
Although there is only minimal evidence for a more equalized gender division of labor with respect to
doing household chores, there is some evidence for growing inequality in major household decision
making at the early stage of marriage. Our results indicate a substantial increase across the three cohorts
in the percent who indicate that decisions about household production and the purchase of expensive
items were mainly made by the hu