Bicultural Asian American Women's Experience of Gender Roles Across Cultural Contexts: A Narrative Inquiry

There is a paucity of literature examining bicultural women's experiences of navigating their gender roles across their two cultural contexts. This qualitative study sought to understand how bicultural Asian American women negotiate their gender roles across their ethnic cultural and American cultural contexts, as well as how gendered racism and racialized sexism of Asian American women affect this negotiation. Ten bicultural Asian American women participated in this study. Using narrative inquiry, we present four case studies from the 10 narratives by Asian American women navigating gender roles across cultural and racial contexts. These cases suggest that bicultural Asian American women use various strategies to manage the conflicting messages about gender roles across cultural context, as well as empowering strategies to manage gendered racism and racialized sexism toward Asian American women. In using these strategies, the bicultural Asian American women in this study demonstrate their resilience in constructing their gender roles.