Recipient of the "Chin Hua Hsieh and Yun Mei Lee Hsieh
Undergraduate Thesis Award" given to the best research
paper written on any subject in the field of Asian
American Studies.I investigate the extent of spousal influence on assimilation and cultural maintenance as power levels within marriages can reveal hierarchical racial/gender positions in societal stratification structures on a micro-scale. This research is based on seven qualitative semi structured interviews with Filipina women involved in interracial military-based marriages, and is supplemented by archival research and previously published oral histories. Although my hypotheses assume that pressures for assimilation are in conflict with pressures to maintain cultural traditions, the results complicate dichotomous readings of these two forces. The results suggest that assimilation and cultural maintenance can be fundamentally intertwined in the construction of identity. Although social networks play an important role in maintaining cultural traditions, the results also suggest that spousal power is a key determinate in this process, with those husbands who engage in Filipino cultural traditions facilitating a greater amount of cultural maintenance within the lives of their wives.Colleges of the Arts and Sciences
Colleges of Social and Behavioral Science
