Intergenerational conflict and strategies of resistance : a study of young Punjabi Sikh women in the Canadian context
Date
1997
Authors
Mann-Kahalma, Perbeen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This thesis examines intergenerational conflict found in the experiences of eleven second-generation Punjabi Sikh women living in the Canadian context. Traditional research on intergenerational conflict is criticized for its portrayal of immigrant youth of ethnic minority backgrounds as passive victims, caught "between" the cultures of their parents' country of origin and that of their new home. Existing research is also criticized for its neglect of the lived experiences of such individuals.
Borrowing from the theoretical and methodological perspective of symbolic interactionism, with its emphasis on meanings and insights on self and identity as social processes, this research departs from traditional research and instead portrays women as active agents and negotiators of their social worlds. To gain an understanding of the everyday lived experiences of young Punjabi Sikh women and their interpretations of these experiences, in-depth interviews in the form of relatively free-flowing conversations were used.
The findings reveal that parents attempt to maintain control over their daughters by threatening them, drawing upon the cultural resource of love and/or justifying their actions in the name of protecting their daughters from malicious gossip. The operating vocabulary for parents is one of honour and tradition and social control by the group. In contrast, the operating vocabulary for the young women is that of independence and rights. The women' s frame of reference is primarily that of their peer groups and the broader "Canadian" society. In general, the findings indicate that the women's lives are characterized by contradictions which they attempt to resolve by adopting various strategies, from leading "secret" lives to the attempting of suicide.