Sex and Gender Inequality

Throughout my life growing up as a Hmong woman and within my society, it taught me that woman's were the ones staying at home and learning how to be a better house wife rather than going out into the world and exploring it. To have a discussion about the Traditional Hmong culture compared to the American Hmong culture, from past experiences and now I can tell that it is hard for some of my grandparents to understand what it means to be sexist. For example, my grandmother recently told me that when she got married to my grandfather and even though he was unfaithful to her, she did nothing but stayed home and kept everything she felt inside for the sake of her kids. She said there was nothing she could do or say since back then in her society, man had power and woman were just their followers. Hearing this from her and comparing it to the American Hmong culture I was in shock and furious! I couldn't believe that it was such a norm for the woman's that they couldn't do anything about it besides just talk about it to their family members and feel pity for themselves. From my perspective, all I knew about the Traditional culture was learning how to become a better house wife but I never really heard of stories about woman having no say in anything they wanted. Its also sad to know that they don't know how to change the situation besides putting up with everything since their society is controlled by men's making them feel useless. I believe one major down fall for the woman's is because of the disadvantages they had from migrating from Laos/Thailand to the U.S. They felt helpless for not being able to help themselves so they had to rely on their husbands. In addition, they had no idea about the resources around them that could've helped them. They didn't know the language, how to write in English, how to drive, or even how to find a stable job. Language was a great down fall because communication was one of the main keys to success. Compared to the American Hmong culture, many Hmong woman are going to college and most are even the first in their generation to go. Its just interesting to see the change that my generation of Hmong woman are going through now compared to the past. However, I am glad to be able to see and be the change of our Hmong circle because our society now is more educated to be better!