Disrupted Motherhood: Gender and International Relationships in Immigrant Families

Abstract

Research has consistently illustrated that gender roles change through migration. However, few have clearly analyzed how the role of intergenerational relationships further shifts parents’ gender roles. This study not only focuses on the shift of parents’ perspectives of gender roles, but specifically, how immigrant women's expectations for their children adapt to the culture of the destination. As children challenge gender roles, negotiations emerge overtime around small situations that gradually add up. By conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews with immigrant mothers and their adult children, I examine how immigrant mothers’ understanding of gender roles are influenced through intergenerational exchanges between them and their U.S.-born children. I find that although mothers’ gender roles change, they maintain traditional expectations for their children, which children come to resent as they age into adulthood.