The Ao Dai is the traditional attire of Vietnamese women – through the ups and downs of historical periods, the Ao Dai has seen many changes in materials and styles to meet the taste of the wearers.

Ten years ago, fashion designer Ngo Thai Uyen burst on the trend-making scene by winning an award at the fashion connections contest in Singapore.

The Vietnamese “Ao Dai”, or long dress, has become famous throughout the world through various cultural performances. Over the past 2 years, the dress has taken on a new duty, in a new adventure.

The Elderly People's Associations at all levels have been strengthened and developed in all aspects to deserve the eighteen gold words " Aged People with Stronger Will Setting Bright Example for the Cause of National Construction and Defence" which were presented by the Party Central Committee's Secretariat to the Vietnamese Elderly People's Association at its second congress in 2001.

Viet Nam’s new Law on Gender Equality, to take effect in July, would greatly improve the advancement of women, said the head of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Viet Nam (NCFAW), Ha Thi Khiet.

A Vietnamese parliamentary committee, which discussed the Gender Equality Bill Thursday, expressed support for removing the disparity in retirement ages for men and women.

Hanoi (Vietnam News agency) – Malaysia Star Newspaper on 1st January carried the article “A story of successful economic development”, praising Vietnam’s market-oriented economy as “a silent burst” with a continuous high growth for many years

Within the project component “ Capacity building for the formulation policy recommendations” funded by Netherlands, at the end of August and early September 2005, Vietnam Women’s Union conducted 3 training courses on “Training on gender knowledge and gender mainstreaming in policy formulation to support the development of women enterprises and private sector” for 130 WU’s officers at provincial and central levels.

The speech made by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, member of the Central Party, Chairman of the Committee of Social Affairs at the talk with the leaders from ministries, central agencies and organizations on the occasion of the 75th anniversary celebration of Vietnam Women’s Union.

Vietnam has made great advances to ensure gender equality, according to the United Nations on the occasion of the World Population Day July 11 which focuses particularly on gender equality.

On the occasion of a drafting workshop for the law for gender equality, VWR talks with Mme Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, chairwomen of national assembly’s committee of social affairs

In the past, a Land use certificate (LUC) granted to a household was typically written with the name of the head of the family as the household reppreventative instead of names of both spouses. in most cases, husbands are the heads of families and only their names are written in the LUCs. This to some extent negatively influences women's equity in terms of their rights and benefits as land users. Also, women have a less decisive voice in land related matters in their families.

HA NOI, July 21 , 2005 - The UNIFEM CEDAW South East Asia Program (SEAP) is organizing a multi-stakeholder workshop in Vietnam with the objective of raising awareness about the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and women's human rights. The workshop takes place on 21 - 22 July at Thang Loi hotel, Hanoi.

In order to open the forum for sharing and exchange ideas on policy, law and gender equality practices in the field of economics, and to support the Drafting Law Committee and the working group of Gender Equality Law getting more information, both practical and theoretical for analyzing and building appropriate and feasible regulations for Gender equality, in the field of economics, the Central Vietnam Women’s Union organized the Workshop “Development of legislative regulations on gender equality in field of economics” on the 6th and 7th of June.

In the Morning of June 30th., the Women’s Union in Ho Chi Minh City and the Committee for the Advancement of Women of Ho Chi Minh City organized a workshop to contribute comments and ideas for the draft of Gender Equality Law. Other participants included representatives from the National Assembly Members Delegation, City branches, City units and services, social-study Centers and female scientists.

The topic of World Population Day on the 11th July of this yearwas “Gender Equality”, Vietnam is making good progress: 92% of school age girls are going to school and mother and infant mortality rate is going down.