The Vietnamese Women’s Museum is an interesting museum to visit in Hanoi. It gives good information about the role and contributions of Vietnamese women in the country’s social, culture, economy, and the war.
I didn’t plan to visit this museum, but when I was wandering around the French Quarter in Hanoi to find a good Bun Bo Hue restaurant, I came across this on Google Maps, then I decided to visit the museum.
The ticket is only 40k VNd for adults, which is a reasonable price. It has air conditioning, which is a bonus to take a break from summer’s heat. The museum has beautiful design, well curated, and lots of informative panels.
I had a good afternoon exploring the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, so in this article, I will share with you the museum’s location, how to get there, things to do at the museum, and whether it is worth visiting.
Location of the Vietnamese Women’s Museum
The Vietnamese Women’s Museum is located in the French Quarter of Hanoi, south of Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter. It’s also close to other popular museums such as the Hoa Lo Prison Relic Museum and the Vietnam National Museum of History.
The extract location of the museum is at 36 P. Lý Thường Kiệt street, right next to the Trung Vuong high school.
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How to get to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum?
Most first-timer visitors to Hanoi stay in the Old Quarter. From the Old Quarter, you can easily walk to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, within 10-15 minutes. Walking is a good way to explore different streets and neighborhoods of Hanoi.
If you want to avoid the heat, you can take a short taxi or motorbike ride to reach the museum. Most tourists and locals prefer to use riding share services such as Grab and XanhSm by requesting a ride from the App. The ride is around 20-30k from the Old Quarter to The Vietnamese Women’s Museum.
Entrance ticket and opening hour
The museum is open everyday from 8am to 5pm. The ticket is 40k per adult. You can easily buy tickets onsite at the ticket counter on the 1st of the museum. The museum is a little-known treasure in Hanoi, so you don’t have to queue to buy the ticket.
You can rent an audio guide for an extra 40k VND. It’s a good option for more insight. It’s also cheap to rent one, so you can just go for it for extra content.
I didn’t rent an audio guide and I think there is enough info to read at each point of the museum. There are also guide books in Korean and Japanese for those who want extra information.
How long should you spend at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum?
I would recommend spending at least two hours exploring the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. This will allow you leisure walking though each exhibit, reading the info boards, listening to the audio guide, and taking plenty of rest.
There are benches and air conditioning for you to rest between rooms and floors.
Is it worth visiting the Vietnamese Women’s Museum?
The Vietnamese Women’s Museum is not often listed on the best things to do and see in Hanoi, but I personally think it’s well worth visiting if you’re interested in the history and the life of women in Vietnam.
The museum is located in the heart of Hanoi, just an easy 5 minutes walk from south of Hoan Kiem Lake. You can easily combine a visit to this museum with other well-known attractions nearby such as Hoa Lo relic museum, Hanoi Opera House, or the French Quarter.
The museum is small, but it’s well laid out and gives interesting info about Vietnamese women’s life. You will need around 1.5 to 2 hours to gain a lot of insight into the life of women in Vietnam, their role in the family, history, and the war.
The entrance ticket is cheap, only 40k (1.5 usd) per adult, which is a bonus to consider visiting. I am happy to pay more for its well-organised and good amount of artifacts on display.
What to do at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum?
The Vietnamese Women’s Museum building has 5 floors:
- The first floor is the location of the ticket counter, temporary exhibit, and souvenir shop.
- The second floor is exhibit about women in family
- The third floor is exhibit about women in history
- The fourth floor is exhibit about women’s fashion
- The fifth floor is Art and cultural space
You can easily explore between each floor by walking up the staircase or using the elevator. Each floor has a small room with a fan and a large room with air conditioning.
You can rent audio for an extra 40k VND but there are also clear info boards at each point explaining detail of the displayed object in Vietnamese, English, and French.
1. The first floor
On the first floor is the ticket counter area, the museum shop, and a temporary exhibit. During my visit, it displays the life and stories of Hero and Martyr Hoang Ngan.
Hoang Ngan, whose real name was Pham Thi Van, was born in 1921 in Hai Phong into a family with a tradition of patriotism. From a young age, she participated in revolutionary activities. She worked as a secret courier when was just 14 years old.
During the revolutionary years, she met and married the revolutionary leader Hoàng Văn Thụ. Both were held in Hoa Lo Prison in separate cells and the harsh prison conditions.
The French colonial authorities executed Comrade Hoàng Văn Thụ in 1944, leaving Hoàng Ngân with deep, lasting sorrow. She transformed her grief into strength, continuing to fight even in prison.
After her release from prison with the August 1945 Revolution, Hoang Ngan immediately returned to revolutionary activities. She also founded the Vietnam Women’s Newspaper in the Viet Bac war zone.
In July 1949, after a long battle with malaria in conditions lacking medicine, Hoang Ngan passed away at the young age of 28.
2. The second floor – Vietnamese Women in Family
In this floor, you will see several zones about traditional wedding, marriage, childbirth customs in Vietnam from different ethnic communities.
Vietnamese women with small businesses
In a small room with a fan, you can see exhibits about the small business of Vietnamese Women in daily life. Small business on a full time or casual basis has long existed among some groups of Vietnam people such as the Viet, the Hoa and the Cham.
The sales persons are often women, selling agricultural products, craft, utensils, food and drinks at home, in a market or on the roadside. You can see street vendors are common in urban areas such as Hanoi Old quarter. They push carts of products, carrying them in baskets from a shoulder pole, or use bicycles.
The exhibit about wedding customs, costumes, and rituals
This zone explains how different ethnic minorities in Vietnam carry out their wedding rituals, customs, and ceremonies.
You’ll see the bride and groom’s clothing, wedding gifts in the engagement and wedding ceremonies of different populations such as Viet, Hoa, Cham, Dao, Thai…
Patrilineal societies
The Viet, Yao, Thai, Sinhmun, Bru-Vân Kieu, Taoi, Ma and Hoa populations followed the patrilineal family structures. This means men play an important role in the nuclear family. Parents prefer to have sons to take care of them when they’re getting older.
Children are called after their father and only sons (especially eldest) have the right to inherit. The groom and his family play a major role in the wedding. Marriage rituals include three main occasions: engagement, wedding and the first visit of the young couple to the bride’s family.
The boy’s family will often consult fortune tellers to find the best date and time for the wedding. The wedding takes place at the groom’s house where the bride will live from then on.
Matrilineal societies
Some Vietnamese populations in the Central highland and central plain such as the Ede, Mnong, Jarai, Coho, Churu, and Cham have a matrilineal family structure. In opposite Patrilineal societies, this family structure is more focused on women. The oldest woman has a decisive role in family affairs.
The bride and her family play a major role in the wedding. It is usual for men to live in their wife’s home and for children to take the mother’s name. Girls inherit family wealth.
Exhibit about childbirth rituals
In this section, you will learn about the Vietnamese traditions around newborn babies, childbirth, and how to care for new mothers from different groups of people living in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the new mothers must follow a strict diet for around one month to recover from childbirth. The Viet prefer to add young fruit such as papaya or banana flower in the daily diet to foster lactation. The room for the new mother also needs to be warm, free of draughts and purified by the smoke of special herbs.
In the mountainous area, heating is provided by embers or the kitchen fire. Cham communities keep the room for new mothers warm by putting jars of embers under the bed.
There are also many taboos to protect the newborn baby. Mary ethnic groups hang a green branch in front of the house to exude strangers and splinters from the house. They also use Amulets from the pagoda to hide near the baby’s bedside. The neck is worn with a small silver chain to protect babies from bad winds and evil spirits.
3. The third floor – Vietnamese Women in History
This floor shows the sacrifices and achievements of Vietnamese women during the two resistance wars against French and American. It looks at the roles of women in combat, domestic life, and revolutionary activities.
From the early history of the nation, Vietnamese women have played an important role in defending the country. In 40 AD, the Trung Sisters (Trung Trac and Trung Nhi) led the people in overthrowing the oppressive Han Chinese rule, winning independence for the country.
In the third century, Trieu Thi Trinh, 23 years old, from Trieu Son, Thanh Hoa, along with her brother, led an uprising against the Wu Chinese invaders.
Bui Thi Xuan, a talented female general of King Quang Trung, commanded an elephant cavalry unit that contributed to defeating 290,000 invading Qing troops in 1789.
They also contributed to the development of the country. In the 10th century, Empress Dowager Dương Vân Nga of the Dinh Dynasty prioritized national interests over family interests, entrusting royal power to General Lé Hoàn, thus establishing the Early Lê Dynasty and giving the nation the strength to defeat the Song Chinese invaders in 981.
Empress Nguyên Phí Ý Lan, during her two stints ruling under Emperor Lý Thành Tông, implemented many policies to ensure the well-being of the people: promoting calves, mulberry cultivation, and silkworm farming, and liberating court ladies.
History also records the contributions of many famous female scholars such as Hồ Xuân Hương, Đoàn Thị Điểm, and bà Huyện Thanh Quan.
During the French colonist and American War, Vietnamese women played an essential role in as the
- soldiers and guerrilla fighters
- Military medics and doctors
- Intelligence agents and couriers
- Diplomats and political leaders
- Civilians supporting logistics and local defense
Women were arrested, imprisoned and killed for defying the enemy and fighting for revolutionary organisations and the Party. Some famous figures are Võ Thị Sáu, Nguyễn Thị Định, Đặng Thùy Trâm, Nguyễn Thị Bình….
4. The Fourth floor: Vietnamese Women in Fashion
This floor shows beautiful costumes from various groups of people across Vietnam. You can learn about the fashion and motif art of Vietnamese.
The most popular fabric for 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam is cotton. Natural silk is used for applique and festive costumes. Hmong women use fabric woven from hemp which is then dyed with indigo. Ethnic clothes often incorporate many complex sewing techniques.
The Yao and the Phula favour embroidery; the Lolo and the Pupea applique, the Hmong and the Yao Tien batik; the Thai and the Khmer ikat and the Muong, the Tay and the various populations of the High Plateau prefer woven patterns.
Everything is hand made and in the past only natural materials were used. Patterns and motifs reflect each population’s identity and its environment. Sewing skills are passed from generation to generation. They illustrate women’s creativity, their sense of aesthetics and many hours of work.
5. The Fifth Floor: Art and Cultural Space
The 5th floor was the art and cultural space, but it was closed during my visit. The workshop is held on this floor.
Facilities at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum
There are several toilets at the museum which are clean and have toilet paper. There are also free lockers for you to put inside. The museum’s shop is on the ground floor where you can buy traditional Vietnamese gifts.
There are air conditioning and fans in rooms, so you can comfortably explore the museum without being too hot. The fans in most rooms were turned off during my visit, but there is a button there for you to turn on if you want to use it.
The building has both stairs and a lift so you can easily go up and down between floors on foot or using a lift. You can buy drinks such as water at the museum’s shop, but there is also a cafe at the entrance of the museum for you to check out.
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I’ve visited several museums and historical sites around Hanoi. I personally think the Vietnamese Women’s museum is well worth learning more about Vietnamese culture and history.
The entrance is reasonably priced, the location is central right next to the old quarter, the building has good air con, and very well organized information, so why not take a visit and let me know what you think about the museum in the comment section below.