Although globalization and integration processes in today’s society favor and encourage race, ethnicity, nationality, religion and gender equality, people will always identify themselves as representatives of a certain social group. One’s beliefs, attitudes and ideas about gender have always been a result of his or her personal experience, childhood, education and of course, parents’ influence and authority. It has been traditionally assumed that gender segregation in labor and education signal some kind of gender discrimination and tendency to define some professions as male ones and others – as the women’s types of occupation. It is also worth observing and analyzing how gender factor impacts one’s cross-cultural adaptation and ability to realize his or her skills and potential in a host country. All people’s bias and preconceptions depend on their living conditions, socialization and advice of authoritative people in their life. I consider some pieces of advice and infusion to be quite useful and necessary in our life, but I also think that sometimes girls receive to many directions as for their future life orientation and position, that can be also viewed as a kind of pressure.
I am an international student from China, who came to the USA in 2014 and after having spent some time in this multinational and diversified country I realize that I still face some problems, when communicating with Americans and I often feel insecure in expressing my points of view and preferences. There is a number of reasons for this fact, but now I also find some explanation in my gender identity and the way I have been brought up by my parents. Gender aspect if surely included in the main factors of cross-cultural adaptation, which are psychological and sociocultural adaptation (Carlsson & Sinclair 112). To my mind, women experience much more stress and depression within first couple of months, because they have more frequent need in communication and mutual understanding. Although I have been always relatively fluent in English and never found it difficult to watch English-speaking movies or read American books, I encountered the problem of direct address of American people on the street. It has become much better since I have dealt with many organizational issues here, but now I can explain this problem in terms of gender identification.
If one compares China with other countries, it becomes clear that gender inequality is rather low. However, the work opportunities and access to the labor market for women are not completely equal and fair. But as a person, who has always been aware of this challenge in my country, I have never given it too much attention and wanted to become a successful woman, who manages career and family. My gender identity and stereotypes have been always driven by my mother, who subconsciously and very often unintentionally made me think the way she thought. Of course, I appreciate everything my parents give me and respect their opinion, but at the same time I now have realized that I feel uncomfortable in a different society and it is very difficult for me sometimes to clear barriers in interaction with people, who do not have the same concept and understanding of femininity. Different scholars and sociologists have investigated mother gender socialization and its impact on the daughter feminist identity, her feelings about herself and also future aspirations. “Regarding future career choices, daughters tend to receive more messages than sons about choosing enjoyable careers that allow an exit to fulfill family obligations” (Colaner & Rittenour 84). Indeed, my mother always encouraged me to play only games for girls, clean the house, wash-up and gave lots of tips and recommendations to become a good wide and mother in the future. This is very important for every girl and I even consider this large input and work with me to invaluable, but at the same time I sometimes feel that I am very different from women in American society and this spirit of femininity does not only influence the way I feel, but also the way I act. Whenever I need to be more persistent and self-confident in my position, I face the problem defining myself as as woman, who needs to possess a certain number of personality traits, which make up my womanhood.
Rudman, Dohn and Fairchild (2007) have suggested a theory of gender identity threat, which can be directly projected onto my personal life, because whenever I feel my status as a “real” girl or woman questioned, I am trying to restore it and sometimes I avoid activities and occupations, which do not fit gender stereotypes, because I consider them to threaten my gender identity (Hong, Pi & Wang 466). When I was a child, I had an idea to become a pilot, because I really enjoyed the idea of flying back and forth, looking at the beautiful landscapes and views. At that time, I was ridiculed by my peers and felt very insulted, but now I realize that all their comments and attempts to oppress me were the result of our social system and adults’ way of thinking. Most men cannot consider women equally talented and skilled in male-dominated areas. These prejudices exist on television, in our everyday life and during our family dinner talks. It is very difficult to believe in things we have never been taught to believe in. As for particularly American society, in the past twenty years the number of women pilots has risen by more that 20%. I wonder whether those women, who now work as pilots, feel their female identity being threatened or not.
Looking now at my friends, colleagues and relatives, I must say that our choice of university and profession fully depend on our individual personal beliefs together with the gained life experience. Each identity is a result of parents’ care-taking, school nurturing and further social practices. I now learn how to take a strong position in my life, defend my opinions and even take some very masculine perspective in society, because old-fashioned way of thinking and moral limitations will not allow me to get what I want in my life. In this case I would like to bring the last example from my life, when I opted for my comfort, not for some rules or obligations. Once I had to present my country at the university and although I had been always taught to wear skirts and dresses for such events in my country, I preferred to wear some comfortable shirt and jeans, just because it was more comfortable. Of course, I think that women need to preserve their femininity and always remain women, but a gender factor should always be a helpful tool, instrument, a key to one’s success, not an obstacle and means to discriminate and diminish somebody.
It is quite predictable and logical that the less we accept traditional norms in gender policy and male dominance, the more we are likely to aspire to a career. But it does not mean that we are more reserved or closed to communication and social interaction. One cannot precisely state which factors are the most influential ones in this respect, but gender identity threaten can be one possible explanation to women’s being more likely to feel depressed and strange in the multicultural community. I believe that my mother’s encouragement of education for my future career and family has been an indirect predictor of my work and family aspirations and a feminist identity is of course, a mediator of relationships between these aspects. We all receive this kind of encouragement, set of rules and stereotypes in our life, but as soon as one gets a self-determined, confident and conscious person, he or she can decide how to use this background, whether to make a wise use of these recommendations and account for them or let them rule our life and present some serious barriers on our way towards success.
Works cited
Carlsson, Rickard; Sinclair, Samantha. “What I will be when I grow up? The impact of
gender identity threat on adolescents’ occupational preferences”. Journal of Adolescence 36. (2013): 465-474. Print.
Colaner, Colleen; Rittenour, Christine. “’Feminism Begins at Home’: The Influence of
Mother Gender Socialization on Daughter Career and Motherhood Aspirations as Channeled Through Daughter Feminist Identification”. Communication Quarterly 63 (1). (2015): 81-98.
Hong, Jian-Zhong; Pi, Zhong-Ling; Wang, Jian. “Cross-cultural adaptation: The Impact of
online social support and the role of gender”. Social Behavior and Personality 43(1). (2015): 111-122.
