Women In Hmong Culture

The Hmong American women have changed culturally and educationally greatly, since coming to the United States as refugees. The Hmong women were second class citizens in their own culture. They have turned that around here in the United States. While in the refugee camps, the Hmong women held no positions of leadership and were not allowed to make any decisions involving themselves or others. Not one woman held an administrative position or was on any refugee decision-making committee, even though women made up over half of the camp population; women were underrepresented among camp leaders and program participants, as well as on staff. Pg.168 It was believed that women were uneducated and uninterested in leadership roles because they were expected …show more content…
Most Hmong girls dropped out of school at an early age and education was not high on their list of obligations instead, marriage and helping with the family was. When the Hmong refugees arrived in the United States, the Hmong children were at a great disadvantage. The dropout rate for Hmong students in middle and high school was higher than that of any other Asian American ethnic group throughout the period from the 1980s to the 1990s (Donnelly 1994; Lee 2007) pg.171 The perception of Hmong women in the Hmong culture has changed dramatically since arriving in the United States. A majority of Hmong Americans now view education as an important factor for both Hmong girls and Hmong boys (lee 2007) pg.172 Due to the new attitude of the Hmong culture, education is moving to the forefront of importance in the Hmong society. This change of attitude has led to an increasing number of Hmong women and men pursuing higher education, and as a result there are currently thousands of Hmong college students in America (lee 2007; Thao 2001) …show more content…
Hmong American girls are more likely to do better than Hmong American boys in school. Hmong American girls are more likely to be on the school honor roll than their male counterparts. Pg.172 Hmong American women today are taking a more leadership role as professionals and leaders. These women no longer follow Hmong traditional roles for women instead, they are pursuing a position alongside men, working with men. The Hmong American women still face cultural biases in Hmong and American societies. Even though the Hmong women have made great strides, they, just like American women still have to work harder to