Kristina Manuel-Week 4-SS1

According to Wei Ming Dariotis and Grace J. Yoo's Care Work, Asian American women in the academy are required to do care work, which is a form of labor that involves intentional caring that allows others to feel cared for. However as a result, this may require withholding one's own emotions for the sake of others. It is often expected of specifically Asian American women to perform care work because of stereotypes of Asian American women being nurturing caregivers. As this type of labor requires focusing on controlling one's own emotions, it can be emotionally draining and exhausting, causing physical and emotional health problems. The studies from this reading showed that Asian American women often take part in doing care work, which is also uncompensated and unrewarded. The Asian American women faculty also fill the gap for infrastructure needs on college campuses, all for free basically.  As a result, the academy should learn to recognize this labor and also value it. Asian American women value their students and faculty, but they should also be taken care of too.

In another reading from this week called She Shall Not Be Moved by W.P., it is a poem that speaks about the unfair treatment of W.P. when she was in academia, specifically the insults and mistreatment that she suffered. Her workplace was toxic, as faculty would tell her she is "unorganized" and would degrade her in front of her students. They would also call her a "challenge," yet there was no reason for W.P. to be seen in such a way. Moreover, W.P. also began to develop physical illnesses as a result of this toxicity, such as ulcers, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and etc. Even after suffering from this physical pain, she was threatened to be sentenced to a psychiatric ward. It is as if the institution is working against her, no matter what she does. Poetry was W.P.'s outlet for the suffering, or "invisible knives," she was enduring at the time.

Question: Have Asian American women ever been paid for their care work? If so where?

W.P. She Shall Not Be Moved. 
Dariotis, W.M. and Yoo, G.J. . Care Work.
Photo from UN Women of Australia Twitter Page