In “The Time to Fight Is Now: Asian American Women, Academia’s Socially Engineered ‘Privileged Oppressed,’ Go Rogue,” authors Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis discuss the racial and sexual discrimination Asian American women face in the academic sphere. Not only are they suppressed by the racial factor of their ethnicities, but they also face challenges based on their gender. Women in academia are often overlooked when compared to their “superior” male colleagues; they are forced to balance femininity and masculinity in ways men aren’t expected to. A pregnant woman, if she chooses to take family leave, is scorned for disregarding her work and setting her career on the backburner. If she is too feminine, people walk all over her and won’t take her seriously; if she’s too masculine, people won’t like her. There’s a double standard for women, and there doesn’t seem to be a way where we can win.
In one of my classes last quarter, we learned about the term “feminine apologetic,” where women feel the need to apologize whenever they encroach on the territory of men and “usurp” their dominance. This is commonly seen in the world of sports. To balance the power and strength of sports, women play up their femininity on and off field by wearing frilly, pretty clothes and makeup. Magazines emphasize their feminine figure or connect the athletes with family and motherhood, undermining their talents on the court in the process.
Question: What are some resources available to women in the workplace? How can they combat the stigma that follows maternity leave?
Source: Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis. “Introduction. “The Time to Fight Is
Now”: Asian American Women, Academia’s Socially Engineered “Privileged Oppressed,” Go
Rogue.”
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