The Southern Women's Museum was formerly the Southern Women's Traditional House established by the Southern Women's History Group on April 29, 1985. At that time, the construction of the Southern Women's Traditional House had been permitted by the competent authorities, but the country was focusing its human and financial resources on healing the wounds of war, so it could not provide funding for construction. Therefore, members of the Southern Women's History Group had to focus on overcoming difficulties, urgently prepare content and conduct a large-scale campaign, calling for donations from documents, images, artifacts to funding from millions of women and organizations across the provinces of the South to build a common house for Southern women - the Southern Women's Traditional House. The above achievements were achieved thanks to the companionship and support of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, specifically comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh, President of the Vietnam Women's Union at that time.
The idea of establishing a museum dedicated to women was suggested on October 20, 1982, at a meeting of key officials of the Association to celebrate the founding anniversary of the Vietnam Women's Union organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Women's Union. More than 200 officials of the Association, including many generations, unanimously supported and expressed their agreement that it was necessary to summarize the History of the Southern Women's Movement, because the general history book "Vietnam Women's Movement" did not say much about women in the South, a land with many unique characteristics, with a powerful force of women in the two resistance wars against France and the US, who were incredibly brave with millions of people, named and unnamed, fighting to the death, indomitable against the enemy, contributing to the revolutionary movement with extremely great achievements.
With the consent of the Politburo of the Central Executive Committee of the Party, comrade Nguyen Thi Thap convened a meeting to establish the Group to summarize the history of the Southern Women's Movement (abbreviated as the Southern Women's History Group) on October 24, 1982 and raised three things that needed to be done immediately and what had to be achieved in the entire work of rewriting the history of Southern women . First, to concentrate on documents, including living documents, to record the entire struggle of Southern women since the establishment of the Party. Second , books were not enough, our people had the habit, especially in the countryside, of believing only when they saw, and everything had concrete evidence. Therefore, we had to immediately establish an exhibition area for artifacts. In the process of collecting documents, we searched among the people to ask for any souvenirs that could be asked for, and brought them back to be displayed so that viewers could clearly see that what we said was true. That way, the persuasiveness would be high. Third , we sisters must by all means erect a statue of "Vietnamese Mothers" because during the past two wars, in the South in particular and the whole country in general, Vietnamese Mothers devoted their efforts and intelligence to nurturing the revolutionary movement, to protecting our cadres with boundless precious hearts.
In addition to preparing procedures for the establishment of the Southern Women's Traditional House, the Southern Women's History Group also sought the opinion of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union. At that time, comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, sent a document requesting the Standing Committees of the provincial and municipal associations to actively collect historical artifacts of local women to contribute to the Southern Women's Traditional House located in the City named after beloved Uncle Ho in time for the opening on April 30, 1985 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the country's liberation. First of all, the Southern Women's History Group asked the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union for permission to mobilize among women of all walks of life "each member contributes one day of labor". The proposal was approved by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union.
On October 2, 1984, Comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh, President of the Vietnam Women's Union, issued an official dispatch stating, "To promote the fine traditions of Southern women and also toeducate the younger generation, the traditional house needs to have the full content of the Southern women's movement through the revolutionary struggles, requiring the joint contribution of Party committees at all levels, relevant sectors, especially women in the provinces and cities in the South. With the motto of the State and the people working together, each person should save some money or spend a day's work to build the Traditional House. When permitted by the Party and local authorities, the Women's Union at all levels will sell lottery tickets to contribute. This is also a way for women to review the traditions of their homeland, country as well as of women themselves." When there was a document from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, the work of building the traditional house had many advantages. As a result of this campaign, 65 units in agencies and enterprises in the Central and Ho Chi Minh City participated in contributing.
On January 15, 1985, the Southern Women's History Group and the Central Vietnam Women's Union held a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City chaired by comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh. The meeting discussed specific plans and assigned people to be in charge of the 8-3 Special Lottery in the provinces and cities in the South. On February 2, 1985, a joint meeting was held between the Central Women's Union and the Southern Women's History Group, the Department of Culture and Information, and the Department of Finance to discuss a number of issues such as registering for ticket printing, announcing on newspapers and radio, launching campaigns, etc.
On February 6, 1985, at a meeting with the provincial and municipal Women's Unions chaired by comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh, the distribution of tickets and some procedures for selling lottery tickets and collecting money were discussed. The number of printed tickets was 6 million, each ticket costing 10 VND, distributed to the provincial and municipal Women's Unions and to the Ho Chi Minh City Trade Union. The lottery opening date was decided on March 15, 1985. The provincial and municipal Women's Unions and the Ho Chi Minh City Trade Union closely coordinated with the Lottery Committee at the same level with the effective cooperation of the finance, culture and information sectors... The lottery was carried out very enthusiastically and was enthusiastically responded by everyone. Ticket money was collected and paid in full according to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union. The special lottery result on March 8, 1985 ended successfully, the amount collected was 19,954,490 VND.
After a period of urgent work, the Traditional House of Southern Women was completed with 6 exhibition rooms according to the following topics: The main room for general exhibition; The room for political struggle; The room for armed struggle; The room for struggle in prison; The room for the world supporting Vietnam; The room for 10 years of construction after liberation. On April 29, 1985, the Traditional House of Southern Women held its opening ceremony, honored to welcome comrade Nguyen Van Linh, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee; comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh, President of the Vietnam Women's Union to attend and cut the ribbon.
(Source: Southern Women's Museum)
Over time, the artifacts and visual materials increased, the need to develop the traditional house into a strong museum was raised. The construction of the expanded traditional house was approved by the Central and the City, but at that time the Party and the State were focusing on healing the wounds of war. Once again, the Southern Women's History Group had to focus on overcoming difficulties and mobilizing funds to build a gender museum to satisfy the wishes of the public nationwide and international friends. To find a way to overcome the difficulties, the Southern Women's History Group had to send comrade Ngo Thi Hue - Deputy Head to Hanoi to meet comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh - President of the Vietnam Women's Union and the Ministry of Finance to ask for the organization of the second lottery in the provinces and cities of the South. With the approval of the Central Union and the Ministry of Finance, the second lottery was organized and raised 14,600,000 VND. From the time of launching the fund raising campaign to build the expanded Traditional House until the completion of the project, the total amount of cash and material support from all sources was over 800 million VND. This was a very large and valuable amount in the circumstances at that time, so the Southern Women's History Group had a plan to use it very economically in all stages to complete the project.
After 5 years of preparing content and conducting a large-scale campaign, calling for donations from documents, images, precious artifacts to material from millions of women and organizations throughout the provinces of the South. Every initiative, every result that the Southern Women's History Group achieved to prepare for the construction of the Southern Women's Museum was paid attention to and supported by comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh. To prepare for the inauguration of the expanded Traditional House, the Southern Women's History Group and the Southern Women's Traditional House sent a dispatch to the Ministry of Culture requesting a name change. On March 31, 1990, the Southern Women's Traditional House was officially recognized by the Ministry of Culture as the Southern Women's Museum. On May 18, 1990, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday, the Southern Women's Museum officially cut the ribbon to inaugurate.
Born and raised in her hometown Ben Tre, where every dike, every river branch, every road still bears the heroic traces and evidence of the legendary long-haired army, comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh not only contributed her strength in the two resistance wars against France and the US but was also a pioneering and exemplary cadre of the Association, trusted by generations of Vietnamese women. As for the Southern Women's Museum, comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh has always accompanied the Museum since its early days of establishment, not only supporting with all her might in her position as President of the Vietnam Women's Union but also contributing her own memorabilia, images, and documents to enrich the Museum's artifacts.
The Southern Women's Museum was born with the contribution of human and material resources of generations of women, including comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh, who created a buzz at that time. From here, the revolutionary achievements of Southern women were preserved and introduced so that visitors could feel and understand the great sacrifices and losses of generations of women so that we could have freedom and independence like today. The Southern Women's Museum became the pride and honor of women at that time, a common home for revolutionary cadres and Association cadres to meet and exchange on traditional holidays. The policy of establishing the Museum responded to the feelings and earnest aspirations of cadres and women of all classes, and at the same time demonstrated the care of the Party and State for the cause of women's liberation. That is the passion that female cadres like comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh unanimously carried out to contribute to educating the revolutionary tradition of Southern women for future generations.
After 12 years of construction, the Southern Women's History Group has officially handed over the Southern Women's Museum to its descendants with trust and expectations. We, the younger generation, are deeply moved to accept this mission, but it is not an easy task. Generations of cadres and civil servants of the Museum have made every effort to both build the team and make the Museum's activities more and more professional, rich, and in line with the integration trend; while preserving and promoting the historical tradition of women, paying tribute to those who have passed away. The noble award of the First Class Labor Medal awarded by the State to the Southern Women's Museum in 1998 is an affirmative assessment of the role and position of the Southern Women's Museum in the cultural - political - social life of the City. That is the dedication, effort, and tireless efforts of the members of the Southern Women's History Group and of comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh - former President of the Vietnam Women's Union.
40 years have passed since the inauguration of the Southern Women's Traditional House in 1985; looking back at 40 years, there are things that have not been done as expected, but the Southern Women's Museum has gradually affirmed itself and become more mature. The current generation of officers and employees of the Museum always strive to do their best, unite to bring the Southern Women's Museum to develop more and more, worthy of the trust and expectations of comrade Nguyen Thi Dinh and those who founded the Museum.
Pham Thi Dieu
Deputy Director of Southern Women's Museum
References:
- Southern Women's History Group (1995), Twelve years, a journey .
- History of Southern Women (2015), History of Southern Women in the Resistance War , National Political Publishing House.
Source: https://baotangphunu.com/dong-chi-nguyen-thi-dinh-voi-qua-trinh-hinh-thanh-va-phat-trien-cua-bao-tang-phu-nu-nam-bo/
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