Female Party cell secretaries in mountainous regions

(Baonghean) -In the mountainous district of Quy Chau, in many village party cells, many women were elected as secretaries. They did not hesitate to face difficulties and led the party cells to develop in many aspects. This is truly a big step forward in enhancing the role of women in society. It is even more meaningful in a mountainous locality - where the role of women is often underestimated due to social concepts and prejudices.

During a working trip to Chau Binh commune (Quy Chau), I heard the Party Committee officials of the commune share many stories about the activities of 8 female Party cell secretaries who are "good at state affairs and good at housework" in 8 grassroots Party cells. One of them is Party member Lo Thi Duc - Party cell secretary of Hat village. Like many other women in the mountains, when the majority of the population's lives are still difficult, the work of women will inevitably be heavy and arduous. "Women participate in economic production for the family, while taking care of their husbands and children... Therefore, there is not much time left to participate in Party work and mass organization activities," Ms. Duc confided. But that is still not the biggest obstacle for women in the highlands, because in society there is still prejudice and the attitude of "respecting men over women", so many families do not create conditions for women to be active.

For Ms. Duc, being honored to be admitted to the Party, despite her young age (born in 1980), she was aware of the role and responsibility of a Party member, she actively participated in Party activities as well as other social organizations in the locality. After many years of striving, in August 2012, she was elected by the Hat village Party Cell with 13 Party members to be the Party Cell Secretary - where, including her, there were only 2 female Party members. Although she had just taken over the job, and was a "female", Ms. Duc identified the breakthrough that the Party Cell needed to do immediately, which was to strengthen the discovery and training of outstanding people to introduce and admit to the Party. "The village has 98 households, 448 people, 100% of whom are Thai ethnic people. However, the number of Party members is still too small compared to the total population, especially female Party members," Ms. Duc shared.

Having a clear orientation, Secretary Duc regularly participates in activities of organizations such as the Women's Union of the village to discover and propagate to women the benefits and honor of being in the Party's ranks. However, the mobilization work is not always smooth, because according to her, many families do not want women to participate in social work. She said: "When discovering and nurturing elite masses at the union level, sometimes we have to go to the family to enlighten the members' thoughts. Therefore, many people, when understanding the meaning of joining the Party, support their wives, mothers, and children to strive and practice." With a sincere attitude, devoted to Party work, in 2012, the Hat village Party cell, Chau Binh commune discovered and nurtured 8 elite masses to be admitted to the Party, and the exciting thing is that 5/8 Party members are women.

Also in Chau Binh commune, I was introduced to the female Secretary of Sang 1 village Party Cell - Ms. Lang Thi Lan. Admitted to the Party in 2002, in 2004 Ms. Lan was trusted and elected as Secretary of a Party Cell with 14 Party members, including 4 female Party members. She confided about her own Party work, that of the Party Cell, and how to develop the Party Cell in both quality and quantity of Party members: "I received a lot of encouragement and support from my brothers and sisters in the Party Cell and my family in my work. In a highland village, sometimes a woman's voice cannot have high prestige. But I just do my best and the people will trust me." Thanks to that, Sang 1 village Party Cell was recognized as "A strong and clean Party Cell for 3 consecutive years". Such are the achievements, but when discussing Party work in the specific conditions of the locality, she shared many issues of concern and concern, especially the work of developing Party members, especially female Party members. “Our difficulty is that many of the masses are truly outstanding and prestigious in the village. However, in terms of cultural standards, many people do not meet them, so we cannot train them. As for women, in the locality, economic conditions are still difficult, while the responsibilities and obligations of women are too great, so many people do not pay much attention to union activities, so it is difficult to discover female party members to train and foster them,” Secretary Lan worried.

Saying goodbye to the female Party cell secretaries in Chau Binh commune, I returned to Chau Hanh commune - a unit with a force of female Party cell secretaries in hamlets and villages no less than Chau Binh commune. Almost immediately, comrade Le Ba Ngoc - Party Committee Secretary of the commune, listed for me the full names of the female Party cell secretaries, namely: Ms. Luong Thi Xuan - Secretary of Hua Na village, Ms. Luong Thi Huyen - Secretary of Khe Mi village, Ms. Lo Thi Que - Secretary of Dong Minh village... Currently, Chau Hanh commune has 23 Party cells with 346 Party members, of which 11 Party cells have "weaker" secretaries, the proportion of female Party members accounts for more than 40% of the entire Party Committee, of which 1 female Party member holds the important position of Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the commune, 3/17 comrades in the Party Committee Executive Committee of the commune. “The women are very hard-working and have a high sense of responsibility in their work, so they have promoted the role of Party work well, contributing to Party building, consolidating the political system at the grassroots level, helping the economy, society and general movements to develop clearly,” said comrade Ngoc. However, to achieve today’s results, Chau Hanh had to go a long way by many different ways to discover and nurture women. One of those tasks is to find sources of female Party members in women’s associations, schools, health stations and Youth Union organizations. Along with that is propaganda work to improve the position of women in the community, eliminate backward customs and prejudices to create conditions for women to operate. Secretary Ngoc shared: “Ideological work is the most important. We often encourage women not to feel inferior because they are the weaker sex, but to boldly participate in activities, fight for freedom and equality, and strive to improve themselves through participating in party work as well as social activities to improve themselves.”

The female party members that I had the opportunity to meet above are only a few compared to the number of 41 female party cell secretaries in the whole Quy Chau district. And their contributions, no matter at what level, show one thing: society has a more fair and correct view of the position and role of women, especially this really brings great significance in the conditions in the highland localities where economic life is still difficult, the concept and role of women are not necessarily as highly regarded as in Quy Chau.

Thanh Duy