By Sophiya Duale
Bound by tradition, exploited under French rule and facing American bombardment, Vietnamese women rapidly transformed from obedient daughters into fierce revolutionaries. Their journey reflects a fight to free their homeland from foreign dominance and themselves from patriarchy’s ancient grip.
A Woman’s Place in Traditional Vietnam
Rooted in Confucian tradition, Vietnamese women lived under the patriarchal mandate of ‘three obediences’, submitting first to fathers, then husbands and finally sons (4). Expected to embody the ‘four virtues’ of proper occupation, speech, appearance and conduct, their existence was strictly policed (4). Divorce unthinkable, polygamy the norm and rural women absent from political affairs, this raises the question: How did women conditioned for generational subservience come to embrace combat roles which contradicted every aspect of their socialisation?
Cultural Templates for Resistance
Although patriarchal, Vietnam’s historical landscape is rich with female heroic figures, such as the Trung sisters who briefly liberated Hanoi from Chinese rule in 40 CE before choosing suicide in the face of defeat (6). Their legacy of self-sacrifice for sovereignty endured centuries later as a woman in the National Liberation Front (NLF) declared ‘death in battle or
death by our own hand will give us the immortality of heroes.’ (10). Joining this lineage, women were able to locate themselves within a historical continuum, honouring ancestral resistance through emulation and inspiring future generations.
Oppression and Awakening
Branded ‘slaves of slaves’ under French rule (1887-1954), Vietnamese women faced intense labour exploitation and torture (2). The First Indochina War (1946-1954) became their training ground for covert operations and intelligence gathering (6). Brutally oppressed by colonial rule and later experiencing U.S. intervention from 1955, more than any abstract political ideology, vengeance for their personal sufferings catalysed
collective action among women. A Vietnamese traditional saying, ‘If the country is invaded by the enemy, the family will be destroyed’ became an immediate reality for many (9). As one Northern fighter, who lost her family to American bombs, explained: ‘The hope that I could raise children in a safe place one day kept me alive. It was what I was fighting for’ (9).
A Promise of Equality?
Particularly inspiring for women bound to home life, Ho Chi Minh declared ‘Women are half the people. If women are not free, then the people are not free’ (2). The Indochinese Communist party reaffirmed this sentiment in 1961, stating ‘We plan to liberate all women to be totally free and equal in society and in their families.’ (9). These promises gave women a stake in the revolutionary outcome, a vision of national and personal liberation.
Stories of Sacrifice
As American bombs began dropping across Vietnam from 1955, women seized the moment to forge their legacy in revolution. Minh demanded a ‘three-pronged attack’, requiring women to maintain domestic responsibilities, political activism and military support (2). Converging motherhood and militancy, Ut Tich, celebrated as a Southern ‘Long-haired
warrior’ personified this identity of ‘combat mother’ (2). Raising six children and maintaining her household, she led combat operations against American forces until her martyrdom in war.
In no capacity sheltered from war’s brutal realities, young Vietnamese women operated heavy weaponry, manufactured explosives and carried supplies across dangerous terrain (1). Equipped with shovels and AK-47s, they kept the 600-mile Ho Chi Minh trail open, crucial for weapon flow from the North to Southern troops (7). Navigating dense jungles barefoot,
sixteen-year old Tran Thi Truyen carried a sixty-pound pack to help build an underground surgery unit (7). Visions of lost limbs and bombs shattering the air around her, she continued to nurse the sick, exhibiting great resilience (7).
Nguyen Thi Dinh, who rose to become the Viet Cong’s first female general, expressed this sense of inevitable duty in her famous saying: there was ‘no other road to take’ (2). Similarly, the NLF’s female foreign minister, Nguyen Thi Binh downplayed her contributions as simply
how ‘Vietnamese patriots live.’ (7).
Post-War Gendered Realities in Vietnam
After the war’s end in 1975, despite proving themselves equal in courage, these women returned to homes where they now waged a quieter battle, against the weight of domestic expectations (9). Once warriors, now daughters-in-law, wives and mothers, bound again by the authority of husbands and elders. Women’s museums and oral tradition preserve their
legacy most, displaying images of long-haired soldiers with delicate embroidery, a contrast symbolising their sacrifice against tradition (2).
Ultimately, their story reveals the harsh reality of most revolutions: women who help secure their nation’s independence often continue to fight for their own. In war, a woman’s strength was celebrated; in peace, their voices faded into the margins of history, hidden beneath the shadows of men.
References
Cover image:
https://progressive.international/wire/2021-03-09-portraits-of-vietnamese-women-at-war/en
1- deVarennes, Kali. 2019. “North Vietnamese Women in War: Redefining Victory and Gender Roles.” DigitalCommons@CalPoly. 2019.
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/forum/vol11/iss1/12.
2- Taylor, Sandra C. 2003. Vietnamese Women at War : Fighting for Ho Chi Minh and the Revolution. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press Of Kansas; London.
3- Norland, Patricia D. 2020. “The Saigon Sisters: Privileged Women in the Resistance,” July. https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501749735.001.0001.
4- Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh Chau. 2013. “War and Diaspora: The Memories of South
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https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2013.846895.
5- Jones, Sasha. 2023. “Pretty Women and Male Anxieties : How Vietnamese Women Helped Win the Vietnam War.” The Mirror – Undergraduate History Journal 43 (1): 107–16.
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/westernumirror/article/view/15403.
6- Borton, Lady. 2018. “Behind the Scenes, in the Forefront: Vietnamese Women in War and Peace.” ASIA Network Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts 25 (1):
7–59. https://doi.org/10.16995/ane.276.
7- Wood, Jordan. 2015. “Taking on a Superpower: A Salute to the Women of Vietnam.” UKnowledge. 2015. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kaleidoscope/vol3/iss1/7.
8- Taylor, Sandra C. 1998. “Long‐Haired Women, Short‐Haired Spies: Gender, Espionage, and America’s War in Vietnam.” Intelligence and National Security 13 (2): 61–70.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02684529808432476.
9- Anderson, Helen E. 2010. “9. Fighting for Family.” Columbia University Press EBooks, December, 297–316. https://doi.org/10.7312/ande13480-011.
10- Sunnerberg, Maxim A, Eugenia A Marchenko. 2016. “Symbolic Heroines of the Two Resistance Wars in Vietnam (1945-1975).” The Russian Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1 (6): 185–204.
https://vietnamjournal.ru/2618-9453/article/view/84226.
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