Sept. 5, 2012

I was in class yesterday when halfway through class, an Asian male and an Indian male walked into class. Before they could  take three steps into the classroom, the professor took one look at them and immediately said, "You're not in this class." The Asian male looked confused, but he and his classmate retreated right away. She was right--they weren't in the class. They had accidentally walked in, but how did she know that just by looking at them?

After they left, the professor turned back to the class and simply said, "They didn't look like they belonged in this class." Somehow, the judgment made sense to me, but I didn't know why. The short interaction stayed in my mind for the rest of the day and it wasn't until the next morning that I suddenly realized why that statement was so significant. What she said was right and maybe she did not mean it this way (or at least she did not consciously mean it this way), but it might have been both a racial and gendered. The interesting thing was that it did not depend on race or gender alone. It was the interaction of the two. Asian and male. Indian and male. The realization struck me that Asian and Indian males rarely ever took up jobs in the helping professions, possibly because of the gender divide in their cultures. 

Would the professor had said the same thing if the males were Caucasian or African-American? Would she have said the same thing if they were Oriental women or Middle Eastern women? Maybe. Maybe not. To clarify what I mean by "cultural gender divide", I bring forth my hypothesis about the cultural acceptability of what Asian and Indian men and women do with their lives. Now, note here that I mean cultural acceptability from their NATIVE cultures, not from American culture. Amercian culture, I assume, would be relatively more lax on which gender could do what.

Asian and Indian females are socially and culturally "allowed" (even lauded) for taking on traditionally male-dominated roles such as engineer, doctor, or scientist. However, the strict cultural pressure and conditioning of men in Asian and Indian cultures might deter them from talking on jobs in traditionally female-dominated roles--secretary or children's daycare, including jobs in the helping professions, such as teacher, nurse, or social worker, even if they have interest and/or skill in such a profession. That's when I realized the great "gender divide" in Asiatic cultures like mine. Don't get me wrong, Caucasian and African-American

culture also have a "gender divide" but it is less strict. For example, it is more common to see white or black men in professions such as nurse, teacher, or social worker whereas it is not common to see Asian or Indian men in such roles. Anyway, just a thought. A hypothesis. I could be wrong. Maybe gendered division of labor is relaxing in Asian and Indian cultures and my narrow and short life experience has not given me an opportunity to see that yet. OR maybe there is a kernel of truth to what I am saying and that this could be a prime area for research in the fields of industrial psychology, gender studies, critical cultural studies, political theory, and the changing dynamics of gender relations and expectations. Maybe.