R.acislDUnderstanding Oppression Of

By Enakshi Dua

Cetarticlepasseen revue deuxfar;onsd' expliquer l' oppression quesubissent lesCanadiennesoriginairesde l'Asie du Sud. La premiere metl'accent sur la famille. l'institutiondu patriarcat et la persistance desideologies patriarcales tradi­tionnelles qui creent et maintiennentl'oppression de ces femmes par leshommes. La seconde mithodeconsidere le racisme dans la societecanadienne comme etantresponsablede l'oppression desfemmes de l'Asiedu Sud, reteguant au second planl'oppression de ces femmes par leshommes. Les deux mithodesexpliquent mal l' oppression desfemmes de l' Asie du Sud parcequO elles ne parviennent pas a dis­cerner le caractere particulier del' oppression que subissent lesCanadiennes originaires de l'AsieduSud.

As South Asian-Canadian women,lboth immigrant and Canadian-born,struggle to transform gender rela­tions within the family, gender oppres­sion remains a serious issue in their lives.South Asian women often work 'doubledays' at paid and domestic work, facedomestic violence in a society which of­fers little assistance, and struggle to raisechildren in a society hostile to SouthAsians. The task of identifying how gen­der, race and class intersect in the lives ofSouth Asian-Canadian women, becomesimportant in order to formulate effectivestrategies for change.

In feminist theory, there are two waysto conceptualize gender oppression ofSouth Asian women located in advancedcapitalist countries.2 South Asian wom­en's gender oppression is seen as beingmainly determined by eitherpatriarchy or

Sharon Fernandez, Hands of Oppression, 1992Acrylic on Canvas, 24" x 18"

by racism. Both approaches are inad­equate, as both fail to identify thespecificity ofgenderoppression for SouthAsian-Canadian women.

Capitalist patriarchy and culture

Feminist theory has understood thegen­der oppression of South Asian womenmainly through two concepts: capitalistpatriarchy and culture. Socialist feministtheory attempts to locate patriarchal rela­tions within the development ofcapitalistrelations, specifically linking capitalistrelations of production with the socialrelations of reproduction. (Coontz andHenderson; Lerner; Fox) The oppressionof women from the Third World is attrib-

uted to capitalist patriarchy, which isseen as integrating the world into asystem of global exploitation andaccumulation. (Meis; Muszynski) Inthis context, theoppressionofwomenin and from South Asia has beenlinked to a universal form of patriar­chat relations.

The androcentric ideology ofPativratya is built into the socialstructure in the village. Women donotparticipate in thepolitical arena.They are economically dependenton men since property is inheritedby and transmitted through maleheirs. Interpersonal relationshipsare structured to ensure develop­ment of hierarchical relationshipsbetween the sexes with men in thehigher position and division of la­bour along sex lines is in effectwith a stigma attached to women'swork. Since the structures are rig­idly set without alternate viableoptions women cannotdo anythingbut conform and accept the sec­

ondary position accorded to them.(Dhruvarajan 277)

If all gender oppression is created bycapitalist patriarchy, what distinguishesthe oppression of South Asian women,both in the West and in South Asia, is thepersistence of culture, or traditionalism.Studies on women in India suggest thatthepersistenceof 'traditional cultural val­ues' maintains the institution of patriar­chy, thus perpetuating gender inequality.(Kapur; Kurian; Conklin)

Underlying these analyses is the notionthat South Asian institutions, family for­mations, and culture are pre-modern; in­stitutions which have not yet undergonethe social transformation to 'modern' in-

6 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHlERS DE LA FEMME

Or Gender?South Asian-Canadian Women

dustrial forms. Thus, South Asian familyformations, both in the West and in India,are perceived as having greater genderinequality then the 'modem' nuclear fam­ily. Implicit is the assumption that genderequality is a creation of modernity.

Studies of South Asian women inCanada, since they originate in South Asia,are dominated by similar assumptions ofmodernization and traditionalism. Theissue, then, of the gender oppression ex­perienced by South Asian-Canadianwomen becomes one of assimilation intothe more'modem' culture ofgreater gen­der equality. While women in India aredominatedby patriarchal ideologies, SouthAsian women in Canada, given access toeconomic opportunities and "multipleideologies including egalitarianism avail­able through the media, have an egalitar­ian patternofinterpersonal relationships."(Dhruvarajan 284) Ghosh also points tochanges in gender relations due to expo­sure to more 'advanced' institutions, butdefines theconsequencesofthese changesmore ambiguously.

South Asian women in Canada havemoved from a developing society toan industrially advanced society, andthis often necessitates changes in theireconomic roles.... The conflict be­tween the traditional role ofthehouse­wife and the uncertainty of the rolesinvolved in being a working wifesubject women to ambiguity and con­flicts in their personal lives. (416)3

Similarly, South Asian women inCanada have been described as in 'transi­tion', characterized by a 'duality' in theirworld view:

On the one hand the women are en­trenched in the traditional values of

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1

For South Asianfeminists culture isnot only important

in creatingoppressIOn

but also in thesocial construction

ofresistance.

theircultural heritage; buton theotherhand, they exhibit contemporary, fu­ture oriented aspirations. They aredeeply committed to family andhome; but also reveal the potentialfor high achievement. (Naidoo andDavis 312)

According to studies on South Asian­Canadian women, the gender oppressionof these women is thus located in SouthAsian cUlture.4 It is only through expo­sure to modem institutions of economyand ideology (media) that Canadian SouthAsian women have been able to transformtheir gender roles.

Central to these studies is the use ofculture to determine the specificity ofgender oppression of South Asian-Cana­dian women. The concept ofpatriarchy infeminist theory has come to be defined inhistorically specific ways wherein thesocial construction of gender ideology isseen to articulate with the relations ofproduction and reproduction. In the caseof South Asian women, however, thespecificity of their gender roles has beenreduced to culture. Thus, the assumption

is that it is the past which restricts SouthAsian women lives. Present factors suchas racism, classism, and the reproductionof gender ideology in the Canadian con­text are not emphasized. These studiesthus fail to identify the specific ways bywhich gender oppression in the SouthAsian-Canadian family is created andmaintained.

Racism versus gender oppression

South Asian feminists5have challengedsocialist feminist analyses. They arguethat underlying their analyses is a raciststereotype of South Asian women as pas­sive victims of oppressive family prac­tices.

South Asian feminism begins as anattempt to locate the historical and race/ethnic specific characteristics of the con­struction of gender. The challenge forSouth Asian feminism in advanced capi­talist societies is to "locate the Blackfamily more fmnly in the historical expe­riences of Black people-not in the ro­mantic idealized form popular with someanthropologists." (Amos and Parmar 11)

Furthermore, South Asian feministsargue that the major tenets in feministtheory are based on the experiences ofwhite middle class women, and do notreflect the experience of South Asianwomen. (Bhavani and Coulson;Ramazanoglu; Lees) In identifying thehistorical specificityofSouth Asian wom­en'sgenderoppression, South Asian femi­nism focuses on the impact of racism inthe construction of gender relations inadvanced capitalist societies.6 Accordingto South Asian feminist thought, the insti­tution of the family is transformed in thecontext ofa racist society. "Relationshipswithin the Black community are struc­tured by racism and it is a denial ofracism

7

Indian women are committed to theirculture which idealizes the role ofwomen as wives and mothers. Buteven if such a commitment becomesdiffuse in the Canadian context as aresultofexposure todiscussionsaboutwomen's inequality and the burdenof dual roles, there are compellingreasons for women to conform toIndian ideals. Indian valuesandnormsact as a catalyst in promoting intra­ethnic interaction and social net­works.... The immigrant sub-culturepromises comfort and security.(Agnew 71-72)

Secondly, it is important to challengethe notions of the 'passive' South Asianwoman by demonstrating not only herresistance, but the social construction ofthat resistance.

Such sources of power are culturallyspecific and Asian women, in par­ticular, have a tradition of strugglewhere they have used and convertedtheir so called 'weaknesses' intostrengths and developed gender andculturally specific forms of resist­ance. (pannar 264).

In other words, South Asian feminismsubverts the use of culture in feministthought. Whereas socialistfeminist theoryperceives culture as defining South Asianwomen's gender oppression, South Asianfeminism points to the importance ofcul­ture in the construction of South Asianwomen's resistance to racism.

South Asian feminist thought thus em­phasizes racism as more important thanpatriarchy in the lives of South Asianwomen. However, by prioritizing racistoppression over gender oppression, espe­cially in the family, South Asian femi­nism fails to capture the realities of manySouth Asian-Canadian women. Whilethese women may see their families as arefuge against racism, they also see theirfamilies as the site where their paid andunpaid labour is appropriated, where re-

ing South Asian families against racismbecomes a difficult one for South Asianwomen to resolve. Thus, South Asianfeminists argue that women need to con­tinue to support Indian 'culture' in thecontext of racism.

glesoversexualityandagainstdomes­tic violence, for example, have beenimportant issues for all feminists, andhave involved confronting assump­tionsaboutdomesticrelationships. Butat the same time the black family is asource of support in the context ofharassment and attacks from white

people.(Bhavani andCoulson 88)

In evaluating theways in which rac­ism defines the so­cial constructionofgenderrelation­ships, South Asianfeminist theoryalso integrates ananalysis ofculture.For South Asianfeminists, cultureis not only impor­tant in creatingoppression, butalso in the socialconstruction ofre­sistance. SouthAsian feministshave argued that,due to the racistattacks on culturalpractices of theSouth Asian com­munity, especiallythose which relateto the gender op­pressionofwomenwithin the family,these practicesshould be evalu­ated according todifferent criteriafrom those whichapply to white cul­ture.

There are twobases for this ar­gument. First, in

the context ofracist attacks by the state onthe South Asian family, such as the denialof the legitimacy of practices such asarranged marriages, the defense of thesecultural practices becomes a form of re­sistance against racism. (Pannar 246;Amos and Pannar 15) The contradictionbetween gender oppression and defend-

Sharon Femandez, Untitfed, 1991Ink on Paper

Whatever inequalities exist in suchhouseholds, they are clearly also sitesof support for their members. In say­ing this we are recognizing that blackwomen may have significant issues toface within black households. Strug-

importantly, a refuge against racism.

and its relationship to patriarchy to positpatriarchal relations as if they were notcontradictory." (Amos and Pannar 9)

Gender oppression of South Asianwomen is thus seen as being defined byracism rather than patriarchy. For SouthAsian women, the family is not, however,simply a site ofgender oppression but, as

8 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHlERS DE LA FEMME

South Asian feminist thought emphasizes racism as moreimportant than patriarchy in the lives ofSouth Asian women.

strictions on their activities are enforced,and where gender relations are repro­duced, at times with physical force. Theemphasis on racist oppression obscuresthe importance of gender oppression inthe lives of South Asian women. This isnot to say that racism does not have apervasive effect on the lives of SouthAsian women, nor that racism does notreinforce gender oppression in many im­portant ways. Rather it is to argue that it isdifficult to theoretically prioritize racistoppression over that of gender, or viceversa.?

Furthermore,by focusing so exclusivelyon racism, South Asian feminists havefailed to explain how gender and racework together in the lives of South Asianwomen. For South Asian feminists, gen­der oppression within the family becomesreduced to 'struggles over sexuality andagainst domestic violence'. Yet the op­pression of women in the family goesbeyond a struggle over sexuality and vio­lence (as importantas these struggles are),to the struggle over the position ofwomenin the relations of production and repro­duction within the household and society.The links between the subordination ofSouth Asian women within the householdand their subordination in society andhow these forces have been shaped byracism remain undeveloped. The histori­cal specificity of the subordination ofSouth Asian women in the West is thusreduced to racism. As a result, genderoppression in the South Asian family isseen as secondary for the lives of SouthAsian women.

Explaining gender oppression ofSouth Asian women

Both socialist feminist theoryand SouthAsian feminism faiho identify the histori­cal specificity of the gender oppression ofSouth Asian women. These analyses havereduced the gender relations to cultureand tradition. While South Asian femi-

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1

nism offers a more sophisticated analysis,it also fails to adequately explain genderoppression of South Asian women. Byemphasizing racism over gender oppres­sion, it fails to identify the relationshipbetween race, gender, and class in thelives of South Asian women in Canada.

Culture is not history; to identify thecultural basis for oppression or resistanceis not to identify the historical construc­tion of gender relations, femininities orthe relation of South Asian women toproduction and reproduction in advancedcapitalist societies. The task remains forfeminists to undertake such a project, in amanner which identifies how race, gen­der, and class articulate together in thelives of South-Asian Canadian women.

EnakshiDua is a PhD. candidate at YorkUniversity, in the Department of Sociol­ogy. She wouldlike to thankPenniStewart,Despina Ilioupoulou and Ben Stockton.

1 I am using the term South Asian-Cana­dian women to refer to both immigrantwomen from South Asia, as well as Cana­dian-born women of South Asian origin.While South Asia refers to India, Paki­stan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, SouthAsian immigrants also come from Africa,Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. I real­ize that the term South-Asian women isproblematic as it encompasses differentethnic, religious, linguistic, and nationalgroups. The diversity of women includedin this category indicates the importanceof research that demonstrates both thesimilarities as well as differences in theexperiences of South Asian women.2 The article draws on work on SouthAsian women in Britain and the UnitedStates as well as Canada.3Ghosh'sanalysis ofSouth Asian womenis characterized by colonialist assump­tions of Indian and Canadian society.These assumptions influence her defini­tion of the traditional role of women in

South Asia, which she defines as that ofthe 'housewife'. Such conceptualizationignores the fact that women in South Asiahave been and continue to be involved inproductive activity. The invisibility ofthese activities has been seen as a conse­quence ofgender oppression. Rather thanexploring what the 'traditional role' ofwomen is in South Asian society, Ghoshaccepts a colonialist and sexist definitionof women's activities.4 While Naidoo and Ghosh locate thedualistic self-image of their sample inHindu philosophy, it is not clear if all thewomen in their sample are Hindu. Thecategory of South Asian women includeSikh, Muslim, Jain, Parsee and Christianwomen. It is not clear how these womenrelate to Hindu ideology.5 It is important to note that South Asianfeminist thought has often been called'Black feminist thought'. However, as theterm Black feminist thought has increas­ingly been used to refer to the work ofAfrican American writers (see Collins1990), I use South Asian feminist thoughtto refer to a feminist body of thought onSouth Asian women in advanced capital­ist societies. It is also important to notethatmuch ofSouth Asian feminist thoughtcomes out ofEngland, and the paucity ofwork within this framework on SouthAsian-Canadian women.6 In this case, Western South Asian femi­nism has differed from feminist thoughtin South Asia which identifies the histori­cally specific form of patriarchy, the un­derdevelopment of the economy, and theIndian state as the central forces whichhave shaped oppression of women in In­dia. See, for example, Omvedt (1984) andDesai (1985).7 It is interesting to note that in conceptu­alizing gender oppression within the fam­ily, Black feminist thought has taken amore critical position. Recently, Collins(44) has argued that more attention needsto be paid to Black women's unpaid la­bour within extended families as a form of

9

exploitation by men. Similarly, Lorde (1984) and Ritehie (1985)have challenged what they call the 'conspiracy of silence' aboutBlack men's physical and emotional abuse of Black women aspart of a larger system of legitimized violence.

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NUPURGOGIA

My master's tongue

curls

unfurls

spits out

me

The English Language

Nupur Gogia is a brown activist whohas been working with women ofcolour.

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME