The Working Woman V. The Stay at Home Mom and Wife

Growing up in America there were a multitude of differences with my culture. The Vietnamese culture that is, in contrast to the American culture. Additionally with the values I was brought up with, which greatly differed from American values. Little did I know, as a child I would come across complications in terms of culture clash, as I was raised in one culture, but exposed to many more. I was surrounded by friends and certain relatives that have a more liberal perspective on certain aspects of life such as dating and marriage. Similar to this concept in Asia specifically in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan a Western concept that has influenced these countries would be that women have more freedom in terms of having a career, and are no longer forced to settle down to start a family. Due to this freedom of having a career, women have put off marriage in order to focus on their job, building their profession. This in turn postpones having children which has caused issues with the population imbalance of young and elderly. Despite the issue of population imbalance issues that ensue with delayed marriage, include the opportunity for women to live their lives outside of the workplace before settling down.

What seems to be a reoccurring issue with the Western world, and East Asian countries would be the differing values in which children are raised. In addition to the expectations to carry out these learned values into adulthood. It is a western concept that women have the freedom to do as they please, in terms of having their sole focus be work, or be both a doting mother and career driven woman. In Asia women are given labels such as “spinster”, which tends to refer to unmarried women past the age of thirty. This is a demeaning title meant to shame women for being “undesirable” as they are seen as “old” and past the age to be single. Aside from the fact that this has caused a raising issue which revolves around repopulating the country… Why must women be put to shame for wanting to make a career and namesake for herself? Why must a positive aspect be translated into a negative feature? Why does society make an effort into discouraging women, shaming them, and for a lack of a better word oppress women for their own joy, and successes.

In short, there is not a wrong or right answer, despite being raised in America, I was still brought up with the same values my parents were upheld to. Not taking tradition into consideration, times have changed, therefore values are changing. It is no longer the benchmark to settle down at such a young age, it has been more commonplace for couples to marry at an older age in order to focus on their careers. One chooses to be financially stable, before making the commitment of a family. Additionally work is not the only aspect adults are driven in, it has become more prevalent to receive above an undergraduate degree in order to hold higher positions, thus raking in more income. This will only push back plans of marriage and a family even further, society has become more greedy and selfish, therefore making it more difficult to settle.