Yuan Zuo A04 Week7

After reading the article “Care Work: The Invisible Labor of Asian women" by Wei Ming Dariotis and Grace J.Yoo, I got a better and deeper understanding of Asian women in academia. For many Asian American women in academia, not performing care work is not an option, because of the pressures they face to perform it as well as because of their personal values(Yoo&Dariotis). The authors defined care work as the physical,mental and emotional work put into nurturing and supporting another individual. This may sound strange for lots of people, but care work exist in Asian communities. From elementary school to high school, I was in this "care work" academia system. This is commonly seen in Asian societies. I remember one of my teachers said:"teaching a student how to become an adult is more important than teaching him/her knowledge." Asian women in this case think they need to help students not only in academic performance but also in mental health even everyday life. As a result. most Asian teachers spend more effort and time on students even without extra pay. In this article, there was a list showing what care work is about: "Comforting students when they are experiencing personal or academic issues; Helping students seek out counseling......; Following up with them after they’ve been my student." Even for people who do not like this kind of care work, they can find those Asian faculty's patience and positive energies through their behaviors. In the conclusion part, the authors said:" Recognizing and valuing this work, no matter who performs it, would benefit academic institutions in many ways because this work ultimately enhances student learning, retention, and success. "I am proud of seeing this conclusion as an Asian and hope care work can continuously help more students.

                         
picture from:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/behind-model-minority-myth-why-studious-asian-stereotype-hurts-n792926


Reference: Valverde, K.-L. C, & Dariotis W. M. (2020). Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy.Rutgers University Press