Blog 2 – Project Proposal and Progress

Hello everyone!!

It’s been quite busy since we last posted but here is our proposal for the partnership of LFS 350 students with VFPC!

Click below to see:
Proposal_Group14_VFPC

Now we will be using Rolfe et al.’s Reflective Model to address a topic that we all relate strongly to.

WHAT?

The idea of gender and the food systems that we have discussed in session 5 has allowed us to reflect on how it plays a big role towards food justice. Many times, we do not realize that gender discrimination is still occurring in many cultures. This kind of discrimination creates many problems which includes poverty or household food insecurity. Research done by Soham Sen and Mikael Hook on the gender-inclusive nutrition activities in South Asia has found that gender is one of the important factor for the undernutrition rates in South Asia. One of the countries being discussed is India. What they found was that 68% of the children admitted to clinics for severe malnourishment were girls. The reason behind this was due to the high value of boys in the family. Boys or men are given preferential treatment within the household, thus, making their feeding practices better than women. Apart from that, women has a 65.46% literacy rate compared to males which is 82.14%.  Thus, this causes women to be more dependent on males to provide them with their needs. 

Therefore, women are forced into responsibilities related to house-related work and food preparations. In our recent quiz and lecture session, it was noted by Allen and Sachs (2012) that

“women perform the majority of food-related work, but they control few resources and hold little decision-making power in the food industry and food policy. And, although women bear responsibility for nourishing others, they often do not adequately nourish themselves.”

This quote highlights the challenges of what women in Asia have to go through regarding responsibilities and nutrition on top of a lack of freedom and a lower chance of earning a full education. 

All of our members in this group are from an Asian descent and face similar problems regarding gender equality. Here are some of our experiences in different cultural settings that are related to this topic: 

Sabrina – I grow up in a small town in northeastern China. In my childhood, I lived with my grandparents and my parents. Both of my parents are hard working and they got home everyday almost at the same time. When my mom got home, she prepared food ingredients immediately and cooked for the whole family, while my father sat down on the chair and watched TV shows. After we finished dinner, my mom washed the dishes, while my dad watched his TV show again. I felt very unfair about this situation and talked to my dad, but my dad told me his mom also did the same thing as my mom when he was young. I have to say it is very common in China and Asia. People should recognize they have equal roles in food system and no one should be forced to responsible for cooking or house-work.

Levania – I think that my parents can considered modern parents as they are more open minded and more flexible about many things. However, despite that, my extended family (grandparents) and even my parents, sometimes still adopt the thinking that women should serve/take care of the household while men work. My brother is taught to work hard and make sure that he will eventually get a good job to provide for the family. As for me, I am expected to take care of him in Vancouver and do the house chores (laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc). Looking back, I think that the idea of gender is slowly evolving from my grandparents ideology, to my parents and to myself. The ability for us to be more aware and exposed to this kind of idea truly makes a difference in one’s ideology.

Cindy – Growing up, I was not even aware of what gender equality was. The gender roles that I saw from my family, especially my grandma and mom, seemed to be an accepted concept and no one had objections towards it. Naturally, I accepted it too and thought these would be my responsibilities as well. However as I grew up, I realized that there were different perspectives on this topic and that gender equality is still a heavily debated topic. Especially in Asian cultures, I know that different views and new ways of thinking are less accepted because they are deeply rooted with their traditions and culture. Therefore, I am extremely grateful that my mother started to become more open minded as she was exposed to the different culture in Canada, which is more free spirited and liberal.

Elin – Despite the fact that we are living in the 21st century, gender inequality is still present in many places all around the world. It was also happening in my household. Especially, in a kitchen setting, when all my female siblings and I are helping out with setting up the table for a meal, my brothers will be in their room doing whatever that they are doing and will not come down until the table is all set up and the food is ready to be eaten. Also, I remember when my mom and my older sister were away from home, I was responsible for all the cooking and cleaning, even though my older brother was at home. Other than the assigning roles, giving birth to a son is still affected now. Back when I was just a little child, I remember my aunt being treated poorly by her mother-in-law just because of the fact that her first child was not a son, but was a daughter. I am very disappointed and confused about why gender inequality is at present. People should realize being a female and a male should not be treated any differently because they are all the same human beings.

Image retrieved from http://hlj.sina.com.cn/news/wtbg/2014-09-22/0930146734.html

Yeon – My family immigrated when I was 10. Therefore, I easily had access to the culture and tradition before coming to Canada. I am the only child in my family, and my grandparents on my mother’s side did not care much about the gender of the grandchildren, so I rarely felt any gender inequality even when my cousins and I visited their place. However, my grandmother on my father’s side was a bit different. Even though my dad was her youngest (and my dad’s oldest brother already had two sons), I learned later on that she suggested to my mother to have a second child. I remember when I was little with my grandma asking me the question. However, instead of saying “don’t you want a younger sibling,” she clearly said, “don’t you want a younger brother.” Now that I am grown up, even though I know how much my grandma loves me, she still would have preferred to have a grandson from my dad as well. These suggestion would not have happened if there was a gender equality was more prominent in Korea. It is fast changing, but I think there is still needs to be a lot to work for the gender equality to happen in all aspects (job, family, wage, etc…) in society.

Brenda – As a kid growing up with open-minded parents, I wasn’t aware of the issue of gender inequality and gender roles. My dad never expect my mom to do all the chores as he believes that every member in the family should be equally responsible for this home. However, as I grew and learned about gender inequality and stereotypes at school, I began to notice that the older generation of my family, such as my grandparents, still have the thought that women should be the one taking care of the family and houseworks. It is more obvious when the entire family gather together during Chinese New Year. While the children are playing and the men are chatting, women are responsible for the work in the kitchen. My mom and her sisters will spend the whole day in the kitchen preparing for our New Year dinner. Although people have started to notice gender inequality, it is still a very common issue among families. I believe that we still need to work harder and pay more attention on the issue in order to create a world that all genders share the same value and equality.

Image retrieved from http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_63eead5c0100u0r4.html

SO WHAT?

Gender discrimination still happens to people of the lower income class in Asia. In China especially, gender roles of the women include house chores and taking care of the family. A happy marriage is seen as having the women be obedient and performing the majority of the household work instead of having a successful career. Thus, women are trapped working 24/7 at home which prevents them from achieving career freedom and growth. At the same time, men will feel no obligation to take care of their families and many use their money to gamble, smoke, and use the money for their own personal life. This leads to women and children in certain parts of Asia very vulnerable to poverty and household food security as they have to self-support themselves. This gender discrimination happens almost everywhere in Asia. People in our group are all Asians and we share the same understanding of gender discrimination in Asia.

NOW WHAT?

As young female adults that share the similar ethnic background, we believe we should address this issue and help raise awareness. Many low income women are having trouble supporting their family and themselves as they become the sole provider of the family. One way we can work towards this issue is by changing the stereotypes regarding gender roles and educate ourselves through higher learning. Thus, what we can do right now as students is to find connections with organization who are aware of these issues. We know that there are a lot of organizations who are creating movements to empower women and this can help lead to the advancement of women’s rights in Asian countries. Specifically, practicing the ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) will allow women to focus on their assets that they have and finding methods to utilize them in an empowering way instead of trying to implement foreign changes. Thus, from this, we can contribute money, research and time towards helping underrepresented women from afar.

To relate gender equality to our Vancouver Food Policy Council project, the idea of equality is present in both of these topics. According to the United Nations, the right to food, freedom and education is a basic human right. However, as we can see, there is a stark difference in what is on papers and policies versus what is actually reality. Therefore, justice encompasses the main theme for these two populations.Our reflection focuses on justice for equality in gender roles, specifically for women in Asia. Our project focuses on food justice for children, who are vulnerable and susceptible to uncontrollable factors such as poverty. 

References:

Allen, P., & Sachs, C. (2012). Women and food chains: The gendered politics of food. Taking food public: Redefining foodways in a changing world, 23-40.

Liu, H., Li, S., & Feldman, M. W. (2013). Gender in marriage and life satisfaction under gender imbalance in China: The role of intergenerational support and SES. Social Indicators Research, 114(3), 915-933. 10.1007/s11205-012-0180-z

Sen, S., Hook, M., & Open Knowledge Repository. (2012). Gender-inclusive nutrition activities in South Asia: Mapping report World Bank, Washington, DC.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2018, from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/