ABSTRACT
This chapter moves away from national-level population statistics and begins a strident focus on the lived realities of individual Chinese Australian women. By drawing upon qualitative interview accounts of everyday life, this chapter draws attention to the home and family institution to examine the contributions, roles and interactions of Chinese Australian females in the domestic sphere. Framed by an understanding of the politics of the Confucian family system, the discriminatory mechanisms of the White Australia Policy, and their impacts on the intersectional identities of Chinese Australian females, this chapter firstly explores Chinese Australian females’ childhood experiences such as access and achievement in education. I then move on to illustrate the diverse ways in which Chinese Australian mothers and adult daughters contributed to family economies. Interviews indicated that some women dedicated their lives to unpaid work in the home, while others worked in family businesses in subordinate positions. In some instances, Chinese Australian women took on more responsibility in these businesses in ways that challenged the ‘front’/‘back’ gender divide. This economic participation reflected the need for Chinese Australian women to contribute to the survival of their families and experience roles and subjectivities that challenged the patriarchal division of gendered labour and space.
