Southern Women’s Museum

202 Vo Thi Sau, Ward 7, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City +842839325519

Museums

Now Closed

Description

This museum commemorates the achievements of Vietnamese women. The first floor is the most accessible to foreign visitors, with excellent English and French signage and exhibitions of traditional crafts and ao dai, the exquisite national dress of Vietnam. The other two levels contain photographs and biographies of famous Vietnamese women throughout history, as well as information on the role of women throughout combat.

Initially, the museum comprised 200 square meters divided into six rooms. In 1986, however, it was expanded to 3,000 square meters via the generosity of numerous citizens, organizations, and abroad Vietnamese. The expansion took four years and was relaunched in 1990 with 5,410 square meters of usable space, including a 1,000-square-meter hall and a 700-square-meter storage facility. The museum now receives between 60,000 and 80,000 visitors every year, including international travelers, business executives, professors, students, and anybody else with an interest.

The Southern Women’s Museum in Ho Chi Minh City is now preserving 30,431 relics, comprising 929 items on public exhibition, 16,739 geometric objects, and 14,621 films, photographs, and historical documents. Two-thirds of the pieces relate to the resistance warfare, while the remaining one-third consists of things produced from a variety of materials.

Exhibits Of Southern Women’s Museum

The Southern Women’s Museum building is composed of three levels and eight rooms. Each floor has its own theme, and each floor’s map is exhibited at the entrance and labeled in Vietnamese and English.

There are numerous exhibits at the museum, but some of them are only on display occasionally. Listed below are 11 permanent exhibits:

Southern women’s tradition before the establishment of The Communist Party
Uncle Ho with southern women and southern women with Uncle Ho
The formation and development of Vietnamese women organizations
Southern women after The Reunification Day
Southern women in politics
Southern women in the military
Southern women in foreign affairs
Southern women in colonial prisons
The religion which worships Ba – a female supernatural character
Clothes, jewelry of Vietnamese women
Traditional handmade textile

This museum preserves 30,000 artifacts, which are organized into 24 collections.

Architecture Of Southern Women’s Museum

Currently, the museum consists of two buildings. The two-story, French-style building features wood and glass windows and is decorated in light yellow and white with wooden accents. The new structure has four floors, a white exterior, and a modern, airy design with hundreds of triangles. A rectangular entry canopy is supported by circular columns.

A 4.5-meter-tall monument of a courageous Vietnamese mother clad in traditional Ao Ba Ba stands outside, leaving a lasting impression on visitors. At the base of the monument are eight golden inscriptions: “Anh hùng – Bất khuất – Trung hậu – Đảm đang” (Heroic – Unconquerable – Loyal – Capable), which Uncle Ho gave to Vietnamese women during the Vietnam War.

The front yard is quite expansive and full of green trees, including fan-shaped traveller’s palms. There are four paintings depicting four Vietnamese women dressed in various forms of traditional Ao Dai.