Gender and labor in Asian immigrant families

This article explores the effects of employment patterns on gender relation s among contemporary Asian immigrants. The existing data on Asian immigrant salaried professionals, self-employed entrepreneurs, and,rage laborers sug gest that economic constraints and opportunities have reconfigured gender r elations within contemporary Asian America society. The patriarchal authori ty of Asian immigrant men, particularly those of the working class, has bee n challenged due to the social and economic losses that they suffered in th eir transition to the status of men of color in the United States. On the o ther hand the recent growth of female-intensive industries-and the racist a nd sexist "preference" for the labor of immigrant women-has enhanced women' s employability over that of some men. In all three groups, however; Asian, women's ability to transform patriarchal family relations is often constrai ned by their social positions as racially subordinate women in U.S. society .