Unequal Freedom

The author attempts to address the system of Chinese-American marriage. He mainly deals with the challenges that Asian-American families experience. These challenges may be cultural differences, immigration differences and many others. Gender roles can also be a major challenge (Glenn, 2002).

The author argues that the Asian-Americans have to work to get to the level of the white people. The author seems convinced that they would only reach it by embracing other differences. At that time, few Asians lived in the states, and the ratio of women to men was not equal. For every woman, there existed thirteen to twenty men.

Most Chinese men who came to the American states left their wives in their countries. This made the women undergo a lot of degradation. The wives resided with their husband’s family. The husband usually oversaw all household chores and received remittances. The wives had to obey the husband, and consultations had to be made to the husband before making any decisions. The wives operated under the influence of the mother-in-law. They took care of the children at home and assisted in subsistence farming. The woman’s sexual chastity would be enhanced by only seeing the husband rarely. He would come very rarely in a year.

Later, the only women who got attention seemed to be the prostitutes. Due to the lack of balance in the gender ratio, there existed a high urge for sexual pleasure. The women would be used to satisfy the large number of men sexually. The women got kidnapped and transported to be prostitutes. They had little information, and so they could not defend themselves. They had less leisure time as they worked all day and night.

The author’s main concern focused on the gender equality. The women experienced harsh and cruel treatment. The book reveals the lack of balance in gender equality, which the writer attempts to bring to light. Women ought to be given equal respect as the men. Is any gender better than the other? No gender is superior over the other. All are equal and should be treated the same (Acosta-Belen, 1979).