Between “the front” and “the back”: Chinese women's work in family businesses

Abstract

This article explores the family and work lives of Chinese ethnic migrant women, both mothers and daughters, in families who run Chinese take-away businesses in Britain. In reviewing the literature on the lives of “Black” women and “women of color” in both the United Kingdom and the United States, the author argues that the specific intersections of family and work found in Chinese take-aways is distinct from those of other “Black” women who are not engaged in family businesses. The family and work lives of these women, which are very intertwined, are both more varied and ambivalently experienced than has been suggested thus far in writings about women in ethnic businesses. The meanings associated with “helping out” for the younger generation provide a new and different perspective on the gendered and generationally disparate ways in which families organize their labors. By focusing upon the experiences of both mothers and daughters (and children more broadly), there is evidence of both continuing forms of women's subordination, as well as empowerment and change, in Chinese women's lives.