Gendered cultural tightropes: bicultural Latinas navigating and negotiating familismo in American doctoral programmes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research underscores the ‘gender reversal’ in college enrolment and educational attainment that appears to favour women today. However, less is known about how Latinas navigate doctoral study demands and gendered cultural expectations within their ethnicity. We use Chicana/Latina Feminist Theory to explore how the ethnic cultural script of familismo intersects with the demands of doctoral study for bicultural Latina doctoral students of various generational and class levels. Drawing on 20 interviews with Latinas enrolled in American doctoral programmes, we find that they negotiate what we term gendered cultural tightropes as evinced by the importance of (1) Maintaining closeness amidst geographic separation; (2) Appraising parental consejos [nurturing advice] and; (3) Navigating familism within individualist values of the academy. We argue that these gendered cultural tightropes, imbued with the ideals of familismo, are placed upon them because of the social categories they inhabit and are independent of class and immigrant generational level.