Tentative Title: The Social Construct of the Good South Asian Mother
Topic: South Asian mothers living in North America.
Rational for Topic: I chose this topic because I felt a deeper connection because I come from a South Asian background. Also the mothers in my family are all from a South Asian background and I can see how the burden of housework and childcare is put on the women. I want gender equality within my future household. I do not want to feel the pressure to conform to this “good mother”. I find it unfair that all the work is put on mothers because of dominant gender ideologies and because there is a lack of support especially for women of colour.
Key Research Questions:
- How is motherhood socially constructed in South Asian
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Supporting Research: My paper will contain the following subheadings:
- An introduction with the thesis: The growing diversity of variation in parenting has been given attention to in North America in the last few years. Mothers and fathers in the South Asian culture want the best for their child just like in any culture.
- Theoretical perspective the feminist political economy: The development and contemporary use of the concept of social reproduction, especially as it relates to women’s paid and unpaid work. Power relations that exist between men and women in society. Addressing overall societal inequalities that South Asian women experience in comparison to men. Women do have agency and ability to change their life situations, however ideologies, intersectionality and structures and policies make it difficult (using Fox to define
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Even in the households with adequate resources to hire external assistance for domestic service, caretaking responsibilities were not transferred to outsiders, confirming the observation that gender is more important than class in shaping these interactions (Spitzer, Neufeld, Harrison, Hughes, Stewart, 2003, p.282). Due to the lack of support from the government and due to financial reasons the pressure is put on women who must either do a double day or find a substitute. Many women complain about the lack support in North America while, in their home country they had
Chinese parenting is competent at times but there are other times where it is more suitable to follow other forms of parenting such as the Western style.These findings have important consequences for the broader domain of parent-child relationships. Whether it is Chinese parenting or Western parenting the relationship between family members is crucial. According to Amy Chua, Chinese parenting is more effective in helping the child attain a better future through the parents’ interests, while Western parenting style reflects mainly the interests of the child.
Lastly, the author argues that Chinese parents’ high level of expectation results in utterly differing parenting method. While Western parents’ role in their children’s lives is primarily a supporting one, Chinese parents intensely drill their children in preparation the
In the article, Chua (2011), is making comparisons of her style with the Western style and listing her own style of parenting. This can be seen in the article where Chua (2011) mentioned that, “They worry about how their children will feel if they fail at something, and they constantly try to reassure their children about how good they are […]” (para. 11). Chua (2011) further mentioned that, “That’s why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it.” (para.14 ). From this, we can see Chua making comparison and implying that the correct way to react to this situation is to critique the child in order to motivate them to do
There have been debates as to how the differences between cultures reflect on the methods of parenting parents choose to approach. It is found that culture plays a leading role in the methods of parenting chosen by most parents. That is true because cultures have certain expectations from parents to achieve with their children. This matters because not all parents agree with those expectations, but they feel the need to deliver them. The way children are raised around the world is dependent on the beliefs and morals rules of their parents. The Chinese and Saudi cultures differ from one another in their approaches towards parenting. Parenting methods differ in the way of showing emotions with their children, approaches for building confidence, and the treatment of their children to them in the future.
"Gender Studies and Social Analysis." Discipline of Gender, Work & Social Inquiry. N.p., 15 May 2001. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
In the article, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” Amy Chua writes about how to raise a child, focusing her analysis between the modes of childcare as per Western and Chinese cultural dictates respectively (Chua 408). Amy outlines several things that her children are not allowed to do including: watching television for inordinately long hours and even, taking sleepovers. Amy’s methods have been shown to be very strict and pedagogical, quite unlike those adopted in the Western communities. She believes that Western parents tend to be soft when dealing with their children and instead, only exert dedicated effort towards the attainment of their children’s goals, unlike the Chinese mothers (Chua 408). The article makes the reader think
Moreover Parents’ style and parent’s expectation are also the factor that drive Asian American successful in hight education. Base on Baumrind, Clinical and development psychologist, divide parental style into three styles which are “ Authoritarian (strict and obey), Permissive( spoiling) and Authoritative(supportive) base on “ Parental responsiveness” and “ Parental Demaningness”(Baumrind), and Neglecting style (ignoring) is added on later by Maccoby and Martin. Parent demandingness is the parent’s demand toward the children such as control, discipline,supervision, and responsiveness is the action or feed back the parents interact with their children such as love, warmth,involvement . Asian parents fall to Authoritarian style which is “a highly restrictive style, in which children are expected to maintain
Women have persistently been challenged with issues regarding what it means to be a ‘good mother’. Although times continue to change, issues confronting 21st century mothers, remain similar to the ones addressed in past generations. An abundance of mothers in the 21st century are still faced with the complex issue regarding the ‘stay-at-home mom’ stereotype, in spite of the fact that the feminist movement has provided women with more rights in the present-day, then ever before. However, while strides have been made, these changes have had an affect on society’s notion of motherhood. The portrayal of motherhood is determined by countless expectations in which society has established. Such expectancies have expanded, which now effect how motherhood is depicted in different cultures. As a whole the feminist movement has strongly influenced Western Society, which has resulted in women’s suffrage, the right to make individual decisions, and has also led to wide-ranging employment for women at more equivalent wages. However, the emergence of female employment has created a war between ‘stay-at-home’ and ‘working’ mothers, which is often referred to as ‘Mommy Wars’. In addition, female employment provides men with the opportunity to stay at home and become the primary caregiver, which has ultimately had a large impact on societies notion of motherhood, treating them differently than primary caregivers of the opposite gender. This paper will examine how the feminist movement has altered societies notion of motherhood in the 21st century in comparison to past generations as a result of working mothers and stay at home fathers.
The motherhood norm propels the care gap, the ideal worker norm pushes the gender gap, and the individualism norm prompts the income gap. The motherhood norm forces a burden on women to care. As Drago says, “the norm of motherhood leads women to expect, and be expected, to serve as caregivers for their families, and, more broadly, to care for anyone in need, and to do so for love rather than money. (Drago, 7)” women are more likely to have either a job or just a family, neither of which is healthy or in their well-being and morelse making the care gap more normal. The ideal worker norm again incentivizes people to act in a certain way, despite what their feelings are. Drago explains “professionals must adhere to the norm if they hope to gain
Parenting in today’s society is extremely competitive. Raising children has become the new sport interest to the parents, and the success that the kids achieve in life is the gold medal. You see the articles in magazines, the websites online, and the ads on TV that promote the newest and greatest parenting methods used by mothers and father everywhere. The differences we see in parenting can differ from family to family, but the biggest contrast is between the different ethnicities of the world. How a Western mother raises her child may be completely different than that of a Chinese mother. These differences are the ones that are observed by author Amy Chua, as well as mothers who have read her works of literature.
Gender stratification is the cuts across all aspects of social life and social classes. It refers to the inequality distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women at the basis of their sex. The world has been divided and organized by gender, which are the behavioural differences between men and women that are culturally learnt (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:218). The society is in fact historically shaped by males and the issue regarding the fact has been publicly reverberating through society for decades and now is still a debatably hot topic. Men and women have different roles and these sex roles, defined to be the set of behaviour’s and characteristics that are standard for each gender in a society (Singleton, 1987) are deemed to be proper in the eyes of the society. They are as a matter of fact proper but as time move on, the mind-set of women changes as well, women also want to move on. However the institutional stratification by the society has become more insidious that the stereotypical roles have created a huge barrier between men and women. These barriers has affected women in many aspects such as minimizing their access on a more superior position in workforce organization, limits their ownership of property and discriminates them from receiving better attention and care.
Feminist theory analyses the differences between both male and female aiming for better lives for females, also it is one which is not directly about women but challenges the male authority that obstructs inequality among the female community compared to males (Abbott, 2005).
It is argued that societies who supports education for women are more prone to experience dramatic social progress. It is further explained that when women enters the workforce, they contribute to their countries' economic prospects, and this leads to their economic independence thus improve their stature both at home and in the community. According to the report, globalization is the 'antidote to the intolerant fundamentalism' that helps eliminate regressive taboos responsible for the promotion of gender discrimination. When discussing the impact of globalization on women, Subhalakshmi (2012) looked at women workers in India. She explained that globalization has opened up various employment opportunities for Indian women, hence increasing their purchasing power, self-confidence and independency. This, in turn, is seen as a potential way to increase equality between the sexes and afford women an equal stance in
Gender roles are extremely important to the functioning of families. The family is one of the most important institutions. It can be nurturing, empowering, and strong. Some families are still very traditional. The woman or mother of the family stays at home to take care of the children and household duties. The man or father figure goes to work so that he can provide for his family. Many people believe that this is the way that things should be. Gender determines the expectations for the family. This review will explain those expectations and how it affects the family.
More and more women work outside and inside the home. The double demands shouldered by these women pose a threat to their physical health. Whether you are an overworked housewife or an exhausted working mother the chances are that you are always one step behind your schedule. No matter how hard women worked, they never ended up with clean homes. Housewives in these miserable circumstances often became hysterical cleaners. They wore their lives away in an endless round of scouring, scrubbing, and polishing. The increased strain in working women comes from the reality that they carry most of the child-rearing and household responsibilities. According to social trends (1996), women always or usually do the washing in 79 percent of cases and decide the menu 59 percent of the time. Picking up the children at school or doing grocery shopping are just a few of the many typical household-tasks a woman takes on every day.