From childcare, cooking, and household chores to working in ricefields, at local markets, or in tourism, observing the ethnic women in the northern provinces of Vietnam will show you beauty beyond their appearance - a beauty that also lies in their admirable strength and resilience throughout their everyday hardships as a multi-layered minority.
Ethnic minorities in Vietnam generally live in poverty, with poor living conditions and low quality of life. In the conservative and patriarchal rural areas, girls grow up with much more burdens than boys: many young women do not get to go to school or eventually quit, as education is prioritized for sons, and most adolescents are often arranged to marry and sent to live with their husbands’ family before they even reach their 20s. Men are typically the breadwinner, while women's responsibilities concern household duties and sometimes low-skilled, low-paying jobs. Men tend to be considered dominant and have more authority not only on a familial level, but on village and province scales as well.
Nonetheless, my journeys to the northern rural regions of Vietnam have allowed me to capture the daily life of women here, proving that they are anything but weak. In the face of adversity rooted in their ethnicity, socio-economic status, and gender, these women are capable of bearing such burdens and doing a wide range of jobs, and are always seen with a warm and hospitable smile across their faces.
In recent years, ethnic women's lives have also seen various positive changes. More women have opportunities to work and therefore more economic independence. There have also been improvements in access to technology such as to smartphones or the Internet for women. Most provinces have a prominent women's union where they can connect with others in the community and take part in empowering activities.