Focus on developing female staff

The "nuclei" at the base

Chau Thuan is the only commune in Quy Chau where the Party Secretary and the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee are both women. During our field trip here, our conversation with comrade Lu Thi Mai - Party Secretary, Chairman of the Commune People's Council was constantly interrupted by many cadres and secretaries of Party cells coming to meet, discuss and ask for opinions on work. Witnessing this female Party Secretary enthusiastically and warmly guiding each person, we understood why she has such high prestige among local cadres and Party members.

Chau Thuan Commune Party Secretary Lu Thi Mai regularly exchanges work to promptly grasp the situation. Photo: My Nga

Faced with the reality that the commune is a purely agricultural locality, with 98% of the Thai ethnic people, life is still difficult because people only rely on rice, so right after the Commune Party Congress for the 2015 - 2020 term, Chau Thuan Commune Party Secretary Lu Thi Mai discussed with the Party Committee, together with the Commune People's Committee to mobilize people to change their thinking, convert crops and livestock, focusing on developing 4 key areas: rice cultivation, raw sugarcane cultivation, forest cultivation and aromatic root trees. To create motivation, the Commune Party Committee directed to select a number of villages as pilot villages such as: pig and cow breeding model in Bong 1 village, aromatic root tree cultivation in Bong 2 village, sugarcane cultivation in Noong Hang village...

With the active mobilization of cadres and party members, the consensus and diligence of the people, people's lives have gradually improved, and contributions to the construction of new rural areas have changed for the better; if at the beginning of the term, the poverty rate of Chau Thuan commune was 50%, now the poverty rate of the whole commune has decreased to 30.5%.

“At first, looking at the numbers, people were really “afraid” to start building new rural areas. In reality, the people’s internal strength is limited, but whatever is beneficial to the people, they will do.”

Comrade Lu Thi Mai - Secretary of Chau Thuan Commune Party Committee

People in Chau Thuan commune grow incense roots and raise cattle. Photo: My Nga

Identifying difficult criteria such as housing, income, poor households, as a "locomotive", comrade Lu Thi Mai always encourages each cadre and party member not to be discouraged, to uphold the spirit of responsibility, and to direct socio-economic development. Since then, Chau Thuan has achieved 14/19 criteria and registered to reach the new rural finish line in 2020.

In Chau Nga commune, since April 2016, young female cadre Luong Thi Tue (born in 1989) has started to take on the position at the Party Committee Office, concurrently Vice Chairman of the Commune Party Committee Inspection Committee. Being of Thai ethnicity, graduating with a bachelor's degree from Hue University of Law, comrade Luong Thi Tue is a young intellectual who was attracted to work in the locality.

Having been trained and matured since her internship at the Party Committee Office, in her new position, Luong Thi Tue has a lot of experience in handling daily work in the commune, effectively assisting the Party Committee Standing Committee in operating effectively. Chau Nga Commune Party Committee Secretary - Comrade Vo Anh Tuan commented: Compared to men, female cadres have a harder time, the difficulty of the Party Committee Office is to "be proficient in the work of one's own level, know the work of the superiors", having been trained and challenged by many practical experiences, Comrade Luong Thi Tue has matured in many aspects, meeting the requirements of the job.

"Compared to men, female cadres have a more difficult life."

Comrade Vo Anh Tuan - Secretary of Chau Nga Commune Party Committee

We were also present and witnessed the lively and open discussion atmosphere at the regular meeting with the Party cell secretaries in April at Chau Binh Commune Party Committee. The female Party cell secretaries proposed many specific solutions for local policies and plans such as new rural construction, education work, Party member management, etc.

Chau Binh Commune Party Secretary talks with female Party cell secretaries after the monthly meeting. Photo: My Nga

Chau Binh Commune Party Secretary - Comrade Vi Dai Thang said: "Currently, in the locality, the number of men working far away is large, rural women have to directly take care of the family burden. Therefore, women become the main human resource in agricultural production and economic development. Practical implementation of work shows that female Party cell secretaries have many advantages, being enthusiastic, meticulous, dynamic, and having a flexible leadership style, achieving good results."

If in the past, 100% of the Party cell secretaries were male, currently Chau Binh commune has 10/17 female Party cell secretaries, all of whom have promoted their roles and positions in management, contributing to the completion of the commune's plans. "Female cadres play an increasingly important role in political activities and new rural construction," Party Secretary Vi Dai Thang further affirmed.

“Female cadres play an increasingly important role in political activities and new rural construction.”

Comrade Vi Dai Thang - Secretary of Chau Binh Commune Party Committee

Photo: Ke Kien

Screening and preparing new personnel

Head of the Organizing Committee of Quy Chau District Party Committee - Comrade Lang Van Xuan said: Paying attention to young and female cadres, ethnic minorities, the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee issued Project 06/DA-HU on October 28, 2011 on training ethnic minority cadres, female cadres, young cadres, and grassroots cadres. Along with training and fostering, Party committees at all levels have also paid attention to arranging, promoting, and creating an environment for female cadres to participate in key positions in communes and towns; heads and deputy heads of district-level departments, offices, and branches.

At the District and grassroots Party Congresses in Quy Chau for the 2015-2020 term, the percentage of women participating in the District and grassroots Party Executive Committees exceeded the prescribed target: 11/37 female cadres participated in the Executive Committee, accounting for 29.7%, including 2 female cadres in the District Party Committee Standing Committee, accounting for 18.18%, and 3 young female cadres (under 35 years old), accounting for 27.27%.

Female cadres participating in the Party Executive Committee of the district and grassroots levels for the 2015 - 2020 term.

These cadres have developed their capacity well, are enthusiastic in their work, have been trained in practice and have matured in all aspects. Many units, especially at the grassroots level, have proactively trained their cadres to go to school to improve their qualifications, gradually standardizing female cadres, contributing to leading the development of the locality such as in Chau Binh commune, Chau Phong, town...

However, in some party organizations, the proportion of female cadres still does not meet requirements due to the incorrect perception of some Party committees and authorities about the role and position of female cadres; the planning, training and use of female cadres is not strategic, visionary and lacks breakthroughs.

Lu Thi Yen - Secretary of the Party cell of Luong village, Chau Phong commune shares and guides women in the village on how to make dried bamboo shoots. Photo: My Nga

Explaining the reason, Head of the Organizing Committee of Quy Chau District Party Committee Lang Van Xuan said that the role of motherhood and wifehood of women has more or less affected the study to improve qualifications, especially in rural areas. Most women are afraid to participate in long-term courses, afraid to go far. This leads to a limitation in some places in the number of female cadres who meet the requirements of professional qualifications and political theory to be able to introduce and run for election.

"Women's role as mothers and wives has more or less affected their ability to study and improve their qualifications, especially in rural areas."

Comrade Lang Van Xuan - Head of the Organizing Committee of Quy Chau District Party Committee

In the coming time, in the spirit of "looking at the work and choosing people", especially the work of preparing personnel for the upcoming Party Congresses at all levels, the Standing Committee of Quy Chau District Party Committee will continue to focus on leading and directing grassroots party organizations and units to seriously review and evaluate cadres, thereby promptly detecting typical factors, in which priority is given to female cadres to be included in planning, training, fostering, evaluating and arranging them in accordance with their capacity and strengths, especially creating all conditions for women to study and improve their professional capacity.

Quy Chau Town. Photo archive