Abstract
Asians are the second fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012a) and are projected to more than double between 2012 and 2060 – growing to 34.4 million and making up 8 percent of the total population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). In a report released by the Pew Research Center, Asians accounted for 25 percent of all the first-generation immigrants in 2012, of which 54 percent are women (Cohn, 2013). The majority of the recent immigrants come from the People’s Republic of China (or referred as mainland China) and reside in urban cities, including Los Angeles, California and New York City (McCabe, 2012), where their children attend urban public schools (Fix & Capps, 2005). In spite of their rapid population growth, psychological research on Asian immigrants – especially those of recent immigration status and of women – remains scant (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001). Within the limited literature relevant to this population, there are even fewer studies exploring East Asian immigrant women’s experience of employment and gender roles, two aspects that are salient to their identity development and mental health.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Addis, M.E. & Cohane, G.H. (2005). Social scientific paradigms of masculinity and their implications for research and practice in men’s mental health. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61, pp. 633–647. doi:10.1002/jclp.20099
Batalova, J. (2011). Asian immigrants in the United States. Retrieved from http://migrationpolicy.org/article/asian-immigrants-united-states.
Bernstein, K.S., Lee, J.-S., Park, S.-Y. & Jyoung, J.-P. (2007). Symptom manifestations and expressions among Korean immigrant women suffering with depression. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 61, pp. 393–402.
Blair-Loy, M. (2003). Competing devotions: Career and family among women executives . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bohr, Y. & Tse, C. (2009). Satellite babies in transnational families: A study of parents’ decision to separate from their infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 30 (3), pp. 265–286.
Bronstein, P. (2006). The family environment: Where gender role socialization begins. In J. Worell & C.D. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls’ and women’s psychological health: Gender and well-being across the lifespan (pp. 262–271). New York: Oxford University Press.
Brown, L. (2010). Feminist therapy . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Camarota, S.A. (2012). Immigrants in the United States, 2010: A Profile of America’s Foreign-Born Population. Retrieved from http://www.cis.org/2012-profile-of-americas-foreign-born-population#recent.
Chang, T. & Kwan, K.K. (2009). Asian American racial and ethnic identity. In N. Tewari and A.N. Alvarez (Eds.), Asian American psychology: Current perspectives (pp. 113–133). New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Chao, R. & Tseng, V. (2002). Parenting of Asians. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4. Social conditions and applied parenting (2nd ed.) (pp. 59–93). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Cheah, C.S.L., Leung, C.Y.Y. & Zhou, N. (2013). Understanding “tiger parenting” through the perceptions of Chinese immigrant mothers: Can Chinese and U.S. parenting coexist? Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4, pp. 30–40.
Chin, K.-L. (1999). Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States . Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Chua, A. (2011). Battle hymn of the tiger mother . New York: Penguin.
Chung, R.C. & Bemak, F. (2007). Asian immigrants and refugees. In F.T.L. Leong, A.G. Inman, A. Ebreo, L.H. Yang, L. Kinoshita & M. Fu (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology (2nd ed.) (pp. 227–244). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cohn, D. (2013). Demographic Portrait of Adult Children of Immigrants. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2013/02/FINAL_immigrant_generations_re port_2–7–13.pdf.
Collins, P.H. (1994). Shifting the center: race, class and feminist theorizing about motherhood. In E.N. Glenn, G. Chang & L.R. Forcey (Eds.), Mothering, Ideology and Experience. New York: Routledge.
Costigan, C.L. & Dokis, D.P. (2006). Relations between parent–child acculturation differences and adjustment within immigrant Chinese families. Child Development, 77, pp. 1252–1267. doi:10.1111/j.1467–8624.2006.00932.x.
Dasgupta, S.D. (1998). A patchwork shawl: Chronicles of South Asian women in America . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Dion, K.K. & Dion, K.L. (2001). Gender and cultural adaptation in immigrant families. Journal of Social Issues, 57, pp. 511–521.
Enns, C.Z. (2004). Feminist theories and feminist psychotherapies: Origins, themes, and diversity (2nd ed.). New York: Haworth.
Espiritu, Y.L. (1999). Gender and labor in Asian immigrant families. The American Behavioral Scientist, 42 (4), pp. 628–647.
Fix, M. & Capps, R. (2005). Immigrant children, urban schools, and the No Child Left Behind Act. Retrieved from http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=347.
Foner, N. (1998). Benefits and burdens: Immigrant women and work in New York City. Gender Issues, 16 (4), pp. 5–24.
Foner, N. (2005). In a new land: A comparative view of immigration. New York: New York University Press.
Greenman, E. (2011). Asian American-White differences in the effects of motherhood on career outcomes. Work and Occupations, 38, pp. 37–67.
Garcia-Coll, C. & Marks, A.K. (2009). Immigrant stories: Ethnicity and academics in middle childhood. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Goodrich, T.J. (Ed.) (1991). Women and power: Perspectives for family therapy . New York: Norton.
Grahame, K.M. (2003). “‘For the Family’: Asian Immigrant Women’s Triple Day.” Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 30 (1), pp. 65–90.
Hare-Mustin, R. (1978). A feminist approach to family therapy. Family Process, 17, pp. 181–194.
Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Henderson, A. (2003). Untapped talents: The employment and settlement experiences of Skilled Chinese in New Zealand. In M. Ip (Ed.), Unfolding history, evolving identity: The Chinese in New Zealand (pp. 141–164). Auckland: Auckland University Press.
Holland, J.L. (1973). Making vocational choices: A theory of careers . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hochschild, A.R. (2002). Love and gold. In B. Ehrenreich & A.R. Hochschild (Eds.), Global woman: Nannies, maids and sex workers in the new economy (pp. 15–30). New York: Metropolitan Books.
Kanatsu, A. & Chao, R. K. (2008). Asian immigrant fathers as primary caregivers of adolescents. In S. Chuang & R. Moreno (Eds.), On New Shores: Understanding Immigrant Fathers in North America (pp. 151–173). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Kanuha, V.K. (2005). Social work practice with women-of-color. In D. Lum (Ed.), Cultural competence, practice stages, and client systems: A case study approach (pp. 173–203). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Kawahara, D. & Espín, O.M. (Eds.). (2007). Feminist Reflections in Growth and Transformations: Asian-American Women in Therapy. New York: Haworth Press.
Kallivayalil, D. (2007). Feminist therapy: Its use and implications for South Asian immigrant survivors of domestic violence. Women & Therapy, 30 (3–4), pp. 109–127.
Kibria, N. (1993). Family tightrope . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kim, B.C. & Ryu, E. (2005) Korean Families. In M. McGoldrick, J. Giordano & N. Garcia-Preto (Eds.), Ethnicity and family therapy (3rd ed.) (pp. 349–362). New York: Guilford Press.
Kim, B.S.K., Atkinson, D.R. & Umemoto, D. (2001). Asian cultural values and the Counseling process: Current knowledge and directions for future research. The Counseling Psychologist, 29, pp. 570–603.
Kim, K.C. & Kim, S. (1998). Family and work roles of Korean immigrant wives and related experiences. In Y. Song and A. Moon (Eds.), Korean American women: From tradition to modern (pp. 103–114). Westport: Praeger.
Kim, S., Conway-Turner, K., Sheriff-Trask, B. & Woolfolk, T. (2006). Reconstructing mothering among Korean immigrant working class women in the United States. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 37 (1), pp. 43–58.
Kim, S.Y., Wang, Y., Orozco-Lapray, D., Shen, Y. & Murtuza, M. (2013). Does “tiger parenting” exist? Parenting profiles of Chinese Americans and adolescent developmental outcomes. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4, pp. 7–18.
Kwong, K., Chung, H., Sun, L., Chou, J. & Taylor-Shih, A. (2009). Factors associated with reverse-migration separation among a cohort of low-income Chinese immigrant families in New York City. Social Work in Health Care, 48 (3), pp. 348–359.
Lee, E. (2007). Domestic violence and risk factors among Korean immigrant women in the United States. Journal of Family Violence, 22, pp. 141–149.
Lee, E. & Mock, M.R. (2005). Chinese families. In M. McGoldrick, J. Giordano & N. Garcia-Preto (Eds.), Ethnicity and family therapy (3rd ed.) (pp. 302–318). New York: Guilford Press.
Liamputtong, P. (2001). Motherhood and the challenge of immigrant mothers: A personal reflection. Families in Society, 82, pp. 195–201.
Loo, C.M. (1998). Chinese America: Mental health and quality of life in the inner city. Sage Publication: Thousand Oaks.
Louie, V. (2004). Compelled to excel: Immigration, education, and opportunity among Chinese Americans. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Lupton, D. (2000). ‘A love/hate relationship’: The ideals and experiences of first-Time mothers. Journal of Sociology, 36, pp. 50–63.
Ma, P-W., Hsu, P., Desai, U. & Zehner, M. (2011, August). The Impact of early separation from parents: Adjustment and parenting concerns among Chinese immigrant families. In C. Yeh (chair) Parenting and the psychological well-being of Asian immigrant children: The role of acculturation and the immigration context. Symposium presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
Markus, H.R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, pp. 224–253.
McCabe, K. (2012). Chinese immigrants in the United States. Migration Policy Institute . Retrieved from http://www.migrationinformation.org/usfocus/display.cfm?ID=876.
McGoldrick, M., Anderson, C.M. & Walsh, F. (1989). Women in families: A framework for family therapy. New York: Norton.
Moon, S. (2003). Immigration and mothering: case studies from two generation of Korean immigrant women. Gender and Society, 17, pp. 840–860.
Noh, S.H., Wu, Z., Speechley, M. & Kaspar, V. (1992). Depression in Korean immigrants in Canada. II. Correlates of gender, work, and marriage. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, pp. 578–582.
Qin, D.B. (2009). Gender processes of adaptation: Understanding parent–child relations in Chinese immigrant families. Sex Roles, 60, pp. 467–481. doi:10.1007/s11199–008–9485–4.
Park, K. (2008). “I can provide for my children”: Korean immigrant women’s changing perspectives on work the home. Gender Issues?, 25, pp. 26–42. doi:10.1007/s12147–008–9048–6.
Rhee, S. (1997). Domestic violence in the Korean immigrant family. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 24, pp. 63–77.
Rolls, C. & Chamberlain, M. (2004). From east to west: Napalese women’s experiences. International Nursing Review, 51, pp. 176–184.
Sengupta, S. (1999). Women keep garment jobs by sending babies to China. New York Times, 1 (4). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/19990915wednesday.html.
Sharma, A. (2001). Women who have been abused: Improving the effectiveness of Feminist therapeutic interventions with immigrant and racially visible women healing the wounds of domestic abuse. Violence Against Women, 7, pp. 1405–1428.
Silverstein, L.B. & Goodrich, T.J. (2003). Feminist family therapy: Empowerment in social context. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Smith, A., Lalonde, R.N. & Johnson, S. (2004). Serial migration and its implications for the parent-child relationship: A retrospective analysis of the experiences of children of Caribbean immigrants. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 10, pp. 107–122.
Suarez-Orozco, C., Todorova, I.R.A. & Louie, J. (2002). Making up for lost time: The experience of separation and reunification among immigrant families. Family Process, 41, pp. 625–643.
Super, D.E. (1957). The Psychology of Careers. New York: Harper & Row.
U.S. Census Bureau (2011). 2012 National population projection. Retrieved fromhttp://www.census.gov/population/projections/data/national/2012.html.
U.S. Census Bureau (2012a). Most children younger than 1 are minorities. U.S. Census Bureau News. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/population/cb12–243.html.
U.S. Census Bureau (2012b). Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month: May 2012. U.S. Census Bureau News. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/cb12ff09_asian.pdf.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001). Mental Health: Culture, race, and ethnicity – a supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General . Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Vatcher, C. & Bogo, M. (2001). The Feminist/Emotionally focused therapy practice model: An integrated approach for couple therapy. Journal of Martial and Family Therapy, 27, pp. 69–83.
Wang, Q. (2006). Relations of maternal style and child self-concept to autobiographical memories in Chinese, Chinese immigrant, and European American 3-year-olds. Child Development, 77, pp. 1794–1809. doi:10.1111/j.1467–8624.2006.00974.x.
Wang, Q. (2012). Chinese socialization and emotion talk between mothers and children in native and immigrant Chinese families. Asian American Journal of Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/a0030868.
Yakushko, O. (2006). Career development of immigrant women. In W.B. Walsh & M.J. Heppner (Eds.), Handbook of career counseling of women (2nd ed.) (pp. 387–426). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Yip, T., Gee, G.C. & Takeuchi, D.T. (2008). Racial discrimination and psycho-logical distress: The impact of ethnic identity and age among immigrant and United States-born Asian adults. Developmental Psychology, 44, pp. 787–800.
Zhou, M. & Nordquist, R. (1994). Work and its place in the lives of immigrant women: Garment workers in New York City’s Chinatown . Applied Behavioral Science Review, 2 (2), pp. 187–211.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Pei-Wen Winnie Ma and Munyi Shea
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ma, PW.W., Shea, M. (2015). Work and Gender Roles among East Asian Immigrant Women in the United States. In: Espín, O.M., Dottolo, A.L. (eds) Gendered Journeys: Women, Migration and Feminist Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137521477_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137521477_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-70550-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52147-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)