Young Vietnamese girls enjoy significant gender equality thanks to strides that the country has made to empower women. Girls and young women now comprise at least 47% of the student body at all levels of the educational system, and more women are represented in the National Assembly than in any other country in Asia. With the passing of a number of laws, decrees and policies over the past several years, women in Vietnam are also now ensured equal rights to land ownership and access to credit.

Despite these gains Vietnamese women still face numerous challenges, many of which stem from cultural norms regarding men's and women's roles in the family. Housework and child rearing are viewed as women's domain, leading to a double burden of work given their substantial role in the economy. The average work day for Vietnamese women is 13 hours; for men only nine. Violence against women, particularly within the home, is pervasive, yet it is perceived as a private, family matter, hindering an effective response.

These cultural norms spill over into the sexual realm as well. The acceptance of masculine dominance permits men to seek sex outside of primary relationships, to satisfy their sexual needs as they see fit, and to demand sex from their primary partners. Vietnamese women often believe they must perform their "wifely duty" and that they do not have the right to refuse their partner's sexual advances. These and other factors place women in Vietnam at growing risk of HIV, by limiting their capacity to influence when, where and how sexual relations occur and preventing them from negotiating condom use or fidelity. Even among women who know that HIV/AIDS is a serious risk, fear of their partner's reaction to suggestions of infidelity or condom use is greater. Women also tolerate their husband's infidelity to protect the family's happiness and stability, which is their primary, socially-dictated role.

Although Vietnam's HIV/AIDS epidemic remains predominantly male, the gender gap has narrowed?from 70% male compared to 30% female in 2003, to an estimated 67% male to 33% female in 2005?and is projected to narrow further. Understanding the epidemic's progression and women's increasing vulnerability to HIV requires understanding men and women's decision-making dynamics and related gender norms.

As a result Pact's approach to HIV/AIDS prevention in Vietnam emphasizes the importance of addressing gender norms and women's empowerment. Through the Community REACH Vietnam Program, Pact provides grants and technical assistance to several international and local NGOs that are actively advancing this agenda.
Local partner SHAPC is building the skills of young university women to help them choose whether or not to engage in sexual activity and, if they do so, to negotiate condom use safely. Partner Medecins du Monde works with sex workers using a peer-based approach to develop the women's negotiation skills with clients and ensure consistent condom use.

Working with women alone is not enough, however. Pact also supports programming to help men understand prevailing gender norms and to challenge their ideas of masculinity. Pact partner Save the Children/US, in collaboration with the Government of Vietnam, is undertaking a program of interpersonal communications and workshops to help young men consider how their attitudes and practices place them and those around them at risk and to challenge them to make changes. Pact partner Population Services International has designed a media campaign supported by peer outreach that encourages men to redefine the meaning of manhood in Vietnamese society. A real man is one who protects himself and protects his family, not one who puts his partner and family at risk through unprotected commercial sex.

As an advocacy tool with donors and policy makers and to provide guidance to program implementers, Pact Vietnam also is leading the development of a publication on gender and HIV in Vietnam. Among other key topics this document will highlight women's vulnerability to HIV and outline specific strategies for reducing this vulnerability, with a view to stemming the tide of HIV infection among women in Vietnam.