postcoloniality and ethnography: negotiating gender, ethnicity and power
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Postcoloniality and ethnography:negotiating gender, ethnicity andpowerCynthia Joseph aa Monash University , Melbourne, AustraliaPublished online: 05 Mar 2009.
To cite this article: Cynthia Joseph (2009) Postcoloniality and ethnography: negotiating gender,ethnicity and power, Race Ethnicity and Education, 12:1, 11-25, DOI: 10.1080/13613320802650907
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Race Ethnicity and EducationVol. 12, No. 1, March 2009, 11–25
ISSN 1361-3324 print/ISSN 1470-109X online© 2009 Taylor &FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13613320802650907http://www.informaworld.com
Postcoloniality and ethnography: negotiating gender, ethnicity and power
Cynthia Joseph*
Monash University, Melbourne, AustraliaTaylor and FrancisCREE_A_365260.sgm10.1080/13613320802650907Race Ethnicity and Education1361-3324 (print)/1470-109X (online)Original Article2009Taylor & Francis121000000March [email protected]
This paper draws on black and postcolonial feminist theory in problematizing theinterplay of difference and power within the identity practices of Malaysianwomen. I examine strategic essentialism and cultural difference in ways of beingMalay-Muslim, Chinese and Indian women. I highlight the ways in which ethnicand gender politics privileges and marginalizes ways of being and knowing withincontemporary postcolonial Malaysia. This paper raises important issues of doingresearch on multiple identities in challenging and changing globalized ethnic andgendered spaces of education and work.
Keywords: postcolonial feminism; difference; power; strategic essentialism;gender; ethnicity; Malaysia
The politics of research and writing: ethnography and power
How do we understand women’s identity practices within a highly ethnicized, strati-fied and political context like contemporary postcolonial Malaysia? The works ofblack and postcolonial feminist theorists (such as Brah 1996; Gunaratnam 2003; Mirza2008; Mohanty 2003; Spivak 1990, 1993) provide the conceptual tools to understandthe interplay between lived experiences and the constraints of ethnic categories in waysof being young women. This epistemological approach allows for postcolonial analysisof the gendered, ethnicized self-identifications of young women (research participants)and myself1 (a Malaysian-Indian woman researcher), which is framed by the contem-porary cultural politics produced by the colonial legacy in Malaysia.
This paper focuses on the ways in which Malay-Muslim, Chinese and Indian youngwomen construct ‘success’ (or ‘failure’) in negotiating ethnic and gender politics. Thisstudy is part of a larger ethnographic enquiry on the ways in which cultural politicshave different effects on Malaysian young women’s orientations to education, success/failure and future opportunities. It began with a study of 16 year old schoolgirls in aMalaysian urban school in 2000, and follow-up research with the same students, nowyoung women in their twenties in 2006. I have been able to observe the ways in whichyoung people shape cultural politics at the local, national and global levels.
Strategic essentialism and difference: Malaysian-Indian researcher and Malaysian young women
I do not pretend that this research is an atheoretical or apolitical text; such a projectwould be neither possible nor desirable (Spivak 1993). My personal, schooling,
*Email: [email protected]
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professional and social experiences as a Malaysian-Indian have played a crucial partin the construction and representation of knowledge in my work. As Alcoff (1991)states,
Who is speaking, who is spoken of, and who listens is a result, as well as an act of politicalstruggle. (Alcoff 1991, 21)
I turn to Spivak’s notion of strategic essentialism as a way of dealing with the degreeof complexity in identity/ethnic politics within the Malaysian context. Spivak’s notionof strategic essentialism offers a theoretical perspective from which we can under-stand ways of being through the fluidity of identity practices while acknowledging theessentializing or fixed nature of identity categories to facilitate a course of action.Spivak (1993) argues that one has to look at where the person is situated when onemakes claims for or against essentialism. She makes the distinction of strategy suitinga situation but that strategy is not a theory. What then is the course of action thatSpivak is referring to in relation to my own work? Strategic essentialism allows me toidentify the ways in which my self-identifications/subject positionings vis-à-viscultural politics in the Malaysian context shape the research. Strategic essentialismalso enables me to understand the ways in which my research participants, Malaysianyoung women, work with and through ethnic and gender categories in ways that bothempower and disempower.
In reflecting on my identity as a Malaysian researcher through Spivak’s concept ofstrategic essentialism, important issues emerge. I can identify with the Chinese andIndians, as they are minority groups who are constantly subjected to the politics ofethnic identification and the affirmative action policy that favors the ethnic majorityof Malay-Muslims. In terms of ethnic identification furthermore, I can identify beingIndian with the marginal location of Indians within Malaysian society. I particularlyidentify with the Indian girls ranked in the highest achieving class as I was in similarposition during my schooling and university days. In terms of the Chinese girls, Icould identify with their frustrations at an education system that, while emphasizinghigh grades, did not reward them by giving them scholarships as is the privilege ofMalay-Muslim students given the affirmative action policy.2
The majority of the girls from the top ranked class were Chinese and most of thetop students were Chinese. Chinese students had more options in comparison with theIndian girls, as a number of them had familial financial power whereby they could gointo the private higher education system or even overseas in circumventing the ethnicpolitics vis-à-vis affirmative action policy. Those who could not afford to go into theprivate higher education or overseas knew that it was only through achieving highgrades that they might have a better chance of doing the course of their choosing atuniversity. The Malay girls in the high-achieving class understand that they are enti-tled to opportunities for scholarships even though they generally do not perform orare not required to perform as well as the Chinese girls. In contrast, it is the Malaygirls in the weaker class who are marginalized and lack the opportunities available tothe higher performing students. At the same time I can identify with the Malays sincelike the Malays, the Indians have less economic power in comparison with theChinese.
Strategic essentialism accounts for shifting axes in difference identifications thatare responses to social, political and economic dimensions underpinning contempo-rary Malaysian society. This is neither straightforward nor undifferentiated since my
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multiple locations are marked by official identity categories. I grapple with the state-prescribed identity of being a Malaysian-Indian female educator, yet I share a senseof collective identity as a ‘Malaysian’ citizen. As Ansell (2001, 107) argues ‘we areneither absolute insiders nor absolute outsiders among the research community …difference and identity subvert one another’.
Malaysian young women in my study were also engaging with strategic essential-ism vis-à-vis ethnic and cultural politics. They evoked ethnic categories in makingsense of their positionings and experiences of success/failure. Yet in the same instancetheir identities are shaped by discourses of a dynamic and becoming self, as I willillustrate in the following sections.
Negotiating tradition and globalization: young women’s narratives of success and failure
In looking through the 2006 narratives, and reflecting back on my fieldwork in 2000 withthe then 16 year old girls, I found three discourses of success emerging from their narra-tives: educational/academic success, cultural success, and material/economic success.
Clearly, there are normative notions of academic/educational success. Educational/pedagogical practices such as streaming, ranking, the privileging of the Sciences overthe Arts and overemphasis on examinations facilitate normative notions of academicexcellence. In Malaysia, such constructions of academic success are in part based inthe British colonial legacy of meritocratic ‘Western’ liberal value system expressed ina hierarchy of achievement.
While institutional practices and discourses vis-à-vis schooling experiencesconstruct normative understandings of educational success and failure through prac-tices of social injustice, some Malaysian young women from the 2006 follow-up studyargue that success in their present lives is not shaped by such normative notions.Safiah offers an interesting insight:
… if we are weak in our studies … academic … it does not mean that we are failures inlife … in the future … the person might have other ideas … on how to make money …how to improve her work … her job performance … you said Punitha … she started offas a factory operator and slowly moving up to being a supervisor at Motorola … she isworking hard … making an effort to improve her career…
They assert instead that success for contemporary Malaysian young women is linkedto ‘making an effort’, ‘working hard’, ‘having ideas’ and ‘making money’. In fact,such traits ensure success within the global economy, as I will illustrate in the nextsections. Safiah adds that,
…young women … multipurpose … we can do anything … as my father told me once… do not give up … even if you fail … there are other options … you can work…
The quote from Safiah indicates a range of options open to Malaysian women in theglobalizing and national economy. This occurs amidst ‘an ethnically fragmented post-colonial society ruled by an authoritarian but procedurally democratic state (in abidingto regular elections)’ (Ng, Maznah and Tan 2006, 15).
In their present context, educational success for Malaysian young women isacquired through continuation of education or training and careful planning. Suchstrategies are seen, for example, in the case of Roslina, Shariza and Nalini:
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… I plan to do my MBA through distance education … while working… I would like tohave my own fashion business one day … fashion accessories and clothes… (Roslina)
…to become a university lecturer … once I have completed my degree program … I willcontinue with my Masters… I will apply for the university scholarship for lecturer train-ing… I still want to continue my studies… (Shariza)
…because when you specialize you work there and I’m only going to be … when Igraduate I’ll 24 and by the time … I have two more years … so I graduate in 2008 …then I have to work for a year so I’ll be 25 and then specialize … so I’ll only come back30 something … not anytime soon… (Nalini)
However, not all young women have equal access to educational success. Lynch andBaker (2005, 153) point out that ‘education can either be an agent of oppression oremancipation in the ways it interfaces with and defines economic, political, culturaland affective relations’. As I noted earlier in this paper, access to university education,international education and/or postgraduate education is mediated by ethnic politicsand financial power. Malay-Muslim academic achievers benefit from the affirmativeaction policy in that they have less stringent academic qualifications into publicuniversities and scholarships for overseas studies. Chinese and Indian students haveto acquire exceptionally good grades for similar opportunities.
Low-achieving Malay-Muslim young women (such as Hasniza, Zakiah andAzlina) have access to diploma qualifications and vocational education throughgovernment subsidized post-secondary institutes. Such qualifications ensure careerseither in the administrative or semi-skilled professions within Malay-Governmentspaces – or corporate Malay companies which in turn positions them within the lowerrungs of middle-class Malay society. There are limited places within such institutesfor Chinese and Indian students given the ethnic quota. Such opportunities are notavailable to Chinese and Indian low school achievers.
High-achieving Chinese and Indian young women with family’s financialresources circumvent the ethnic politics in pursuing their studies overseas (such as SuMei, Yen Ling and Nalini). Low-achieving Chinese and Indian girls have two educa-tional pathways. They pursued post-secondary qualifications within the privatecolleges if their families had the financial resources. Or they enter the workforce uponleaving school.
Gender politics also shape Malaysian young women’s experiences and(de)constructions of success and failure. Marriage to some extent still defines ‘Malay-sian’ femininity. Generally within Malaysian society, there is an expectation for womento get married and embody the role of a wife and mother. Women are constructed assymbolic bearers of the cultural collective through physical and social embodiment ofthe ‘good’ and ‘proper’ woman (Yuval-Davis 1997; Zine 2006).
Malaysian young women who embody ‘traditional’ and patriarchal notions offemininity and cultural success have aspirations of marriage at an earlier age (usuallyearly or mid-twenties). These young women predominantly represent the low-achieving ‘traditional’ Malay-Muslim and Indian schoolgirls.
Hasniza, a Malay-Muslim young woman, who aims to ‘open her own kindergartenafter completing a distance education degree in early childhood, while working at achildhood center’, is getting married at the end of the year. She makes the point:
…in the Qu’ran … in Islam … if possible … we should not delay marriage … as it is agood thing … dating and socializing in Islam is not good … not nice … as we might do
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something wrong while dating … physical intimacy … it is in the Qu’ran … we taughtthis in the school…
Aspirations of marriage are closely linked to representations of Muslim femininity inso far as marriage legitimizes physical intimacy. Furthermore, dating and socializingis not encouraged within a patriarchal understanding of Islam as such social activitiesare considered improper for the ‘good’ Muslim girl. Marriage in Islam is seen as a reli-gious duty, a moral safeguard and social necessity (Barlas 2004; Zine 2006). Malay-Muslim culture is based on family life: the understanding is that Islam requires itsfollowers to marry and have a family. Similar understandings are also prevalent withinthe Indian community in Malaysia.
Low-achieving young Indian women who are now 22 years old continue toembody ‘traditional’ notions of Indian femininity in also aspiring to marry though notbefore enjoying social freedom:
…will get married at 25… (Rathi)
…I will be a good wife … I will understand him … then caring … I will be open-minded… I will tell him everything… (Punitha)
…want to enjoy before marry … want to enjoy my parents … then with my friends …if I am married … and when my husband is not working … I cannot go out or what …will get into trouble… (Sumitha)
It is understood that there is limited social freedom within marriage amongst the‘traditional’ Indian and Malay-Muslim women. Yet there is also a valuing of marriageas an indicator of cultural success. Cultural success then is often linked to observanceof traditions or cultural norms. Social status within the collective and broader societyis associated with marital status. Different ways of being Malay-Muslim, Chinese andIndian young women are culturally-valued in different ways. ‘Traditional’ Malay-Muslim and Indian femininities constructed within a patriarchal framing of meritrecognition from the respective ethnic collectives. Even with the increasing participa-tion of Malaysian women in the workforce, bringing with it financial independenceand autonomy, and the increasing delay in marriage, the expectation still is of youngwomen to marry.
Significantly, marriage in the narratives of Chinese was silenced. This is not anindication that marriage is not important to them. In fact, Yen Ling argues that the‘Asian’ life is to ‘live life to save money … then get your house … family and that isit’. However, Chinese women construct a different notion of cultural success that istied into the national and global environment. As I have argued elsewhere (Joseph2005; 2006), the Chinese ethnic collective mobilizes identity strategies of kiasu-Chineseness3 (with markers of keen competition, selfishess, materialism, alwayswanting to win and afraid to lose) and neo-liberal subject (self-management and self-invention) to ensure their success and visibility in the different social realms amidstthe educational and economic injustice vis-à-vis the Malaysian state affirmative actionpolicy. Such identity practices are inscribed in the young. Notions such as ‘hardworker’, ‘eyes open for opportunity’, ‘money is important’, ‘challenging’, ‘competi-tive’, ‘moving forward’ that emerged from the 2006 narratives were present in 2000.Their focus in life at this stage is to improve their career status and in life generally.Docility, submissiveness and gentleness – traits generally associated with ‘traditional’
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femininity – are resisted by 22-year-old young Chinese women in 2006. Interviewexcerpts below are indicative of their notions of cultural success:
…as long as I am moving forward. (Yen Ling)
…push myself a bit more … learn something new along the way … constantly learningsomething new… (Siew Lee)
Some Malay-Muslim and Indian high achievers (like Nalini, Roslina and Shariza) andthe rebellious and naughty (like Intan and Sharmala) do not totally embrace ‘tradi-tional’ notions of femininity as prescribed by their respective cultural collectives. Yetthey also do not totally abandon norms of appropriate female behavior. In fact, they‘balance’ or manage success within career, cultural and global spaces, as I will illus-trate in the following sections.
Educational success has empowered them with greater life choices (such as pursu-ing a postgraduate degree or moving up the career ladder) yet they understand thatmarriage may limit their opportunities. As Shariza says ‘…after marriage … the guywon’t want me to go overseas to study … that is difficult’. So, she delays marriageand continues with her postgraduate studies. Likewise with Nalini, she delaysmarriage to 30 as she intends to specialize and gain work experience as a gynecologist.
Malaysian young women in 2006, while emphasizing the importance of marriageand family life, seek equitable gender relations within the family:
…now that both men and women are working … there must be a balance in house-work… (Sfiah)
…get married to a nice guy … who has faith in religion … and must support me … nopolygamy andall that stuff… (Zakiah)
…I do not want to have problems financially… (Su Wei)
…want a husband … he must be very good to me … polite and understanding…(Sumitha)
My interviews with the young women in 2006 revealed that ‘traditional’ Malay-Muslimand Indian young women embody normative notions of cultural success vis-à-vis ‘thegood woman’. I argue that they are strategic in taking on this identity practice, as theyare located in the lower ranking occupational categories (such as clerks, factory oper-ators) in either multinational or Malay companies. In some ways, cultural successcompensates for their lower positionings in the career hierarchy. Take the case of the‘traditional’ Low-achieving Indian girls, Rathi, Punitha and Sumita. The marginalizedpositionings of some young women in the academic hierarchy during their schoolingdays is reproduced in 2006 in that they are located in the lower occupation categories.Rathi used to work as a factory operator and now works as a clerk in a cargo company,DHL Express, and Punitha is a factory operator in a multinational company, Braun.They represent the lower income Indians – and occupy similar positionings to theirparents who are also in the lower income group. Marginalized positionings are repro-duced for example through identity practices related to the traditional Indian womanwith markers of obedience, docility and conformity (as seen in Rathi and Punitha)which are not valued in the top and middle occupational categories especially withinthe capitalist and competitive corporate/multinational sectors. Ng, Maznah and Tan
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(2006) write about the prevailing ideology of ‘female suitability or docility’ in relationto women workers in the lower occupational rungs of the multinational companies. Thisis not unique to the Malaysian context. Patriarchal power is reconstituted in the corpo-rate sector and capitalist relations of domination, which emphasize passive and ‘tradi-tional’ femininity in the lower occupational categories. While Rathi and Punitha havesome economic power through their salary earning capacity, this does not deny the factthat they are disempowered economically and socially through their locations in thelower occupational categories.
‘Traditional’ Malay-Muslim women like Hasznia, Safiah and Zakiah also embodysimilar forms of gendered and ethnicized conformity in their identity practices.However, they benefit from the privileges of the affirmative action policy, which isnot available to the low-achieving ‘traditional’ Indian women.
Young women located in upper and middle echelons of the career hierarchymaneuver between the ‘traditional’ and the global and to ‘experiment’ with culturalsuccess that transcends the ‘docile’ or ‘traditional’ woman. Take the case of Intan,Nalini and Yoke Lin.
Intan, a Malay-Muslim woman, is currently working as a secretary to the logisticsoperations manager in an American multinational company. The top and middlemanagement in multinational companies tend to be dominated by the Chinese. Similarto her identity practices in 2000, she continues to resist the notion of the typical Malay-Muslim as a young woman in 2006. What is new in 2006, is that she now embodiessignifiers of Chineseness and the neo-liberal subject in being ‘fast-paced’, flexible in‘learning new things’ and competitive – in addition to being ‘open-minded’. She resistssignifiers of the typical Malay-Muslim in ‘being dependent’ on the affirmative actionpolicy and laissez-faire. Yet, Intan also wholeheartedly embraces privileges of theaffirmative action policy accorded to Malays. For example, she refers to the special10% discount that Bumiputeras obtain when purchasing a home. Islam is also animportant identity marker in her life. Intan is fully aware of the powerful officialdiscourse of Islam and Bumiputera-ness operating within the broader Malay(sian)context – yet she is also aware of the discourses of Chineseness and discourses of neo-liberal subject in the global economy operating in the American/multinational workenvironment she is located in. She is strategic in her negotiations with multiple ethno-religious and gender markers in ensuring that she is economically empowered in thefuture. She is also cautious in not pushing the Muslim boundaries around social andsexual behavior. Though Intan also says that ‘my mum has said to me … be careful… just take care of yourself … make sure whatever you do outside does not affectme…’. The notion of family and ethnic collective honor is still important.
Nalini, a high-achieving Indian young woman completing her medical degree inAustralia attributes success in life to one’s own effort and personality – though shealso feels that family and the ethnic collective are important:
…I would just think it’s more of a personality … a combination of things … lots ofthings … family … ethnicity does play a role … but I still think it is up to the person …when we come to an outcome and an achievement I would still think that it depends onyour family as well … it just really depends … whether a person really wants it … itdoesn’t really matter if you’re like Chinese, Malay or … if you really have a goal inlife…
Nalini draws attention to the understanding that collective and cultural traditions vis-à-vis ethnicity and family also play an important role in the lives of young Malay
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women. Furthermore, there is the interplay of socio-historical legacies and ethnicpolitics in determining pathways – as in the case of Indians with historical roots in theplantation sectors. ‘Traditional’ values are also important in their lives. Nalini tells ofher plans to return to Malaysia after gaining work experience in Australia, not surpris-ingly as her parents still live there. Nalini also notes the importance of Hindu religionin her life.
Yoke Lin, one of the high-achieving Chinese girls, is now completing a microbi-ology degree in a Malay(sian) university. She could not go overseas or into a privatecollege due to financial difficulties. She embodies the notion of kiasu in being aMalaysian university student in studying hard, being competitive and aspiring forexcellent grades. But ethnic politics frustrate her as ‘the university is mostly populatedby Malays … they get the priority … it is not like they cover it up … they do it in theopen’. She continues:
…Then you are there studying hard … you work your arse off … and you never fightthe Malays if they get a higher score … during the examination time … the Malays goand see their lecturers and get tips … they tell us that they have got a copy of the exampaper … it is that bad … these kinds of things … you get so disheartened by things likethis…
Though she is angered at the privileging through ethnic politics within the localuniversity, she works hard with the aim of gaining a good degree and moving into theprivate/corporate sector.
In some ways, this group of Malaysian young women (such as Intan, Nalini andYoke Lin), embody the notion of the ‘can-do-it all’ in being global, savvy, indepen-dent, confident and future oriented. At the same time, they aspire to social and culturalsuccess as prescribed by their ethnic collectives.
Winners and losers: money, materialism and ‘shopping around’ for identity strategies
Malaysian young women ‘shop around’ for identity strategies that are cultural, educa-tional and/or economic to ensure their success. They think through their identity strat-egies. They are aware of cultural and societal expectations, and structural constraintsin ways of being young women. Their identities are shaped by discourses of a fluid,dynamic and becoming self – and also by the material inequalities of their lives (Brah1996; Gunaratnam 2003; Mirza 2008; Mohanty 2003). What struck me most in 2006was that young women, irrespective of their location, place much importance on mate-rial success or material wealth. Intan captures this point:
…to be successful… To achieve something … nowadays the world is like over materialisticright … must have this and that … you know…
Sharmala aims to increase her earning capacity. She associates happiness with mone-tary wealth and a good job:
…I always wanted to make more money… I want to lead a rich lifestyle … so I have tostart working for it now itself … to support my own lifestyle … some kind of high main-tenance for myself… I am not earning enough yet … to fully support myself … so I amnot happy in that sense … happy … have a good job and all…
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Money and materialism are very important to young Chinese women like Su Wei:
…no money no talk eh… nowadays everything needs money … money is veryimportant…
Financial empowerment guarantees a bright future and material assets, as Su Wei andYi Mei highlight in their 2006 interviews.
…I want a house … want my own apartment … then maybe in future I want my ownhair saloon too … not right now … but I am planning to go overseas … to London …and do some hairdressing there for one to two year… I cannot get to save the money togo to London…
…if possible I want to be rich … happy…
Revathi, a young Indian woman, hopes to acquire financial and material assets byworking as a global nurse in Saudi Arabia upon completing her nursing qualificationin Malaysia. Safiah, a married Malay-Muslim woman with a son, tells me that one ofher goals is ‘to have my own business … food business … me and my husband…’
Traditional Indian and Malay-Muslim young women aspiring to gender roles ofwife and good woman also place similar importance on money. Rathi indicates:
…spend money … saving money … keep for my future … want to enjoy before marry… want to enjoy my parents … then with my friends … if I am married … my husbandnot working … get into trouble cannot go out or what…
Punitha makes a similar point:
…to save up a lot of money … easy future … able to buy a car … then when I getmarried … it is easy … also with money … it is easier to have children and bring themup… I will get married at 25…
Likewise with Malay-Muslim girls, Zakiah, Hasniza and Safiah:
…marriage … at 26 … both of us are saving money now … to buy a house … buy a car… have our own property… I will continue to work after I get married… I have adiploma … so I want to continue to work… I will have my own money to spend then…
Super-achieving transnational Malaysian young women (such as Siew Lee inSingapore, Yen Ling and Nalini in Australia) prioritize financial independencethrough the attaining of a post-graduate degree. As Yen Ling notes, she wants to ‘pushmyself a bit more’ and aims at ‘being independent and financially independent’.
I attribute this interesting finding to a number of factors. Ng, Maznah and Tan(2006) writes of the latest phase in the evolution of Malaysian feminism into a market-driven entity as a result of the national economic resuscitation. There is now greaterconsumer power for Malaysian women with their increasing participation in the jobmarket. Free market enterprises, nationally and globally, have capitalized on this andtargeted women for profitable gains under the guise of women’s empowermentthrough financial power. Economic liberalization and the consumer culture haveresulted in ‘commodity feminism’ (Ng, Maznah and Tan 2006). Alongside this, thenotion of ‘girl power’ operates simultaneously with expressions of autonomy throughphysical embodiment and fashion in media representations of global consumer
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culture. Malaysian young women, as with young people in most countries negotiatediscourses of consumption through advertisements, women’s magazines, movies,fashion and other cultural texts (Nilan and Feixa 2006).
Theorists working in the area of youth culture also assert that ‘consumer culture isa complex site of female participation and constraint, enjoyment and objectification’(Lukose 2008, 146). Lukose continues that while ‘patriarchal structures of emergent,globally inflected spaces of public consumption commodify women at the same timethat they target them as consumers … consumer culture is a complex site of femaleparticipation and constraint, enjoyment and objectification’ (2008, 146). New global-izing consumer spaces are constructed by discourses of consumer agency that makethese spaces both enabling and constraining for young women. The ways in whichyoung women engage with global popular culture and global consumerism is shapedby their income, ethnicity, class, gender and language (Nilan and Feixa 2006).
Success for Malaysian young women is derived from careful planning, studyinghard and being competitive, adopting different ways of being, continuation of educa-tion or training, delaying marriage, observance of traditions and/or cultural norms andethnic privilege. There are different pathways to success. For Malay-Muslim youngwomen, success relates to ‘balancing’ different cultural forms (Malay-Muslim femi-ninity, ethno-religious expectations, global consumerism and global culture). Theyembody different forms of cultural success – as long as such embodiment falls withinthe notion of family and the ethnic collective’s honor. As Intan and Norita say ‘takecare of yourself’. Intan quotes her mother ‘take care of yourself … make sure whatyou do does not affect me or your father’. Similar patterns of balancing exist aspathways to success for Indian young women. Yet what differentiates their respectivepathways is the affirmative action policy and associated educational, economic andcultural privileges for Malay-Muslims. Furthermore, the Indian ethnic collective ismarginalized economically and politically. Being ‘traditional’ coupled with lowschooling success, results in Indian young women occupying the lower rungs ofoccupational categories in the national and global economy. With the Chinesewomen, pathways for success relate to kiasu-Chineseness, economic resources andmarkers of the neo-liberal subject. Yet, while there are patternings between gender,ethnicity and success pathways, I reiterate that Malaysian young women draw ondifferent ethnic, gender and global signifiers in constructing success within differentspaces.
Ethnic and gender politics work for some as an asset for social and occupationalmobility, as is the case of Malay-Muslims through affirmative action policy – or thecase of the Chinese through economic power – while at the same time hindering thepathways of others to similar opportunities (in the case of Indians). While I haveargued for patternings, I acknowledge that there are exceptions. Economic factorssuch as families’ financial background, which is an important marker of social class,certainly play a determining role in the educational aspirations and pathways of youngpeople. However, social dimensions such as gender and ethnicity are also sites ofcontestations that shape educational pathways and opportunities. This reflects findingin other pluralistic contexts and multiethnic societies such as Africa (Dolby 2001),Britain (Mirza 2008; Shain 2000) and the United States (Purkayastha 2005; Zine2006). I am reminded that social inequalities and hierarchies continue to(dis)empower Malaysian women. Patriarchy is embedded within the notion of the‘traditional’ Malay-Muslim and Indian woman as are ethno-religious politics withinaffirmative action policy.
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One of the most visible impacts of globalization has been the increased participationof women in the paid labor market (Acker 2004). Globalization and global economyresult in societal changes that are ‘profoundly gendered, racialized and class-based,reflecting differential layers of privileging in society’ (Chow 2003, 448). Successfulparticipation in the global economy privileges ways of being over others. On the onehand, are young women (like Siew Lee, Yen Ling, Nalini and Intan) who embody the‘high-achieving’, ‘fast-paced’, ‘flexible’, ‘future-oriented’ and confident young womenwho are successful within the global economy. They enjoy material/economic andcultural success. On the other hand, are the low-paid and ‘docile’ female members ofthe labor force in the occupational categories of clerical and factory operators (likeRathi, Punitha, Zakiah and Hasniza). The hierarchy of skills and occupations mediatedby gender and ethnic politics are reinforced in the global and national economy.
Mohanty (2003, 3) aptly captures the essence of identity politics in contemporarytimes – ideologies of gender and ethnic politics ‘in conjunction with the politics ofethnic nationalism and capitalist consumerism are differentially constitutive of all ourlives in the 21st century’.
Reflections and moving forward: postcolonial feminism and ethnographic longitudinality
At the beginning of this paper, I observed that the researchers are very much part ofthe discourse they create. In this context, black and postcolonial feminism, and ethno-graphic longitudinality4 provide the methodological tools to understand the wayswhich self-identifications are relative to a constantly shifting context, to situations thatinclude a network of elements involving others, the objective conditions, and socialand political specificities I was able to address some of the silences particularly inrelation to affirmative action policy during my 2000/2001 fieldwork comprising inter-views with young Malaysian women. In my later work, in 2005/2006, I was remindedof the silences of ethnic and gender politics that underscored my earlier fieldwork. Imade a concerted effort to be consistent in presenting interview questions to theresearch participants so as to allow young women to converse freely their thoughtsand feelings regarding their positionings.
I acknowledge a privileging of the educational elite in the way I carried out myfieldwork in 2000 and 2001. I asked only the high-achieving schoolgirls about theaffirmative action policy. I did this because I did not think that the low achieverswould have much to say about affirmative action policy and associated privileges.This suggests that I am very much socialized in and around educational achievementand how this may be impacted on by ethnic politics. In this context, ethnic bias occursas a result of the way the girls are positioned in education on the basis of their ethnic-ity. I took notice of those who achieved academically. In my field notes, I asked ‘whydo I feel sad and depressed after talking to the girls in 4 Arts C? Why aren’t theyachieving? They are not motivated in their studies’. I noted that ‘it is very challengingtalking to the girls in 4 Science A especially the top achievers. We have interestingdiscussions. I seem to be able to relate to them better, it is easier to talk to them, easierto get their opinions. Why are there silences with some of the 4 Arts C girls? Why arethey so accepting? Why aren’t they challenging schooling?’
I used to impress upon Priya, the Indian girl from the best class who was underperforming, the importance of doing well. I did this with the girls from the otherclasses but not with the same degree of interest. I still remember getting frustrated
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when the girls told me that they were happy being where they were in terms of theiracademic achievement. I wanted them to realize that they would have more choices ifthey had higher academic grades. I drew on my educational values, biases and expe-riences to advise them. The power dimension comes into play here. The researchapproach of ethnography is that I am an embedded researcher. My degree of engage-ment is reflected in my network of personal relations with Malaysian young womenin my study.
Whilst sensitive to participants’ feelings I would nevertheless try to make themaware of the importance of academic achievement for increasing their life choices. Idid not imagine that they would score the maximum number of As for their examina-tions. There is no doubt that the interaction between the researcher and research partic-ipants is influenced by the values and background of the researcher. Hence, I askedthe following in my field notes: ‘Am I being biased here as a Malaysian educator, ina system that places much importance on academic achievement?’
Clearly, normative notions of academic/educational success with markers ofacademic excellence represent a primary lens for analyzing academic success and fail-ure. Though engaged with literature in areas of postcolonial studies, feminism ofdifference and critical educational theories during my doctoral studies, I found myselfslipping back into an educational framing of the ‘culture of positivism’ (Giroux 1983)with markers of streaming, academic ranking and examinations. After all, I had beeneducated and taught in the Malaysian school and university system that stronglyadvocated for such practices. I am very much a product of and likely complicit in thedominant way of understanding educational achievement in Malaysia, namely throughthe pedagogical practices of streaming, academic ranking and valuing of the sciences.Such constructions of success are based not only in the meritocratic Western liberalvalue system but also kiasu-Chineseness as well. As I have noted, remnants of thecolonial education system still prevail within the present day Malaysian educationsystem. Such significant junctures in this study reveal how my location as researcherimpact on the direction and outcome of the research.
The power dynamics for 2006 were quite different to 2000. The Malaysian youngwomen are now located in different cultural and educational spaces beyond theirschooling years either in university or working in the public or corporate sectors – anda few were working overseas. There are exciting times for Malaysian young womenwith increased educational and career opportunities even within the midst ofconstraining ethnic and gender politics.
The Malaysian education system and the broader society to some extent constructlow achievers as failures. Yet when I spoke to Malaysian young women in 2006 (whowere constructed as failures and low achievers in 2000), I noted expressions of enthu-siasm and energy in their faces and imaginings. They have ambition in the midst ofthe highly stratified and ethnicized Malaysia. They express hope for a bright future yetthey understand ethnic boundaries around Malay-ness, Islam, Chinese-ness andIndian-ness as played out within educational, cultural and economic spaces in contem-porary Malaysia. They understand practices of inclusion and exclusion in relation togender and ethnic politics. They also understand what it takes to succeed – cultural,educational or material success. They are moving forward in the midst of webs ofpower.
They resist and conform. Even the low achievers (like Punitha, Rathi and Sunita,the traditional Indian young women, and Hasniza, Zakiah and Azlina, the traditionalMalay-Muslim young women) who are constructed as educational losers/failures by
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the Malaysian society and the education system are still able to achieve a modicum ofsuccess even if it is within the traditional sphere. They might not be able to reachcorporate or global or material success as the super-achievers and high achievers, butthere is still a sense of success. In this respect, the black feminist theorist Patricia HillCollins (2000, 290) writes ‘the world is a dynamic place where their goal is not tomerely survive or to fit in or to cope, rather it becomes a place where we feel owner-ship and accountability … there is always the power to act no matter how bleak thesituation may appear to be’.
Ethnicities and femininities are being re-defined and re-constituted throughdiscourses operating at the local and national as well as at global levels (Brah 1996;Gunaratnam 2003; Mirza 2008; Mohanty 2003; Spivak 1990, 1993). With market/economic liberalization and global capitalism there are alternative economic andeducational spaces within the Malay(sian) context, such as the private educationsector with transnational programs, multinational and transnational companies andcorporate sectors. A vibrant women’s movement exists in Malaysia comprising AllWomen’s Action Society, National Women’s Coalition, Women’s Aid Organization,Women’s Centre for Change and Sisters-in-Islam. This movement advocates forgender equality in terms of women’s social, economic and political rights.
Black and postcolonial feminist methodology provided the conceptual tools tounderstand the ways in which cultural and educational spaces are both dynamic andconstraining within the processes of Malaysian young women’s self-identifications. Ihave critically reflected on my positionings in relation to the changing context ofMalaysian young women’s lives and the broader Malaysian and global contexts.
It has been challenging negotiating the three ethnic groups of Malaysian youngwomen – Malay-Muslims, Chinese and Indians. The challenges have come at variouslevels of this project – emotionally, theoretically and methodologically – not neces-sarily in that order. This research project, which spans seven years, has been a verypersonal and political journey for me.
Notes1. I am a Malaysian-Indian woman living and working in Australia since 2003. I have had
personal and professional experiences within the Malaysian schooling and universitysectors.
2. The affirmative action policy was implemented after independence to eliminate povertyand the identification of economic function with particular ethnic groups that resulted fromthe British colonial rule (Andaya and Andaya 2001). There were more Chinese and someIndians in the higher economic classes compared to the ethnic majority Malay-Muslimsafter independence in 1957. Through this state social engineering policy, a new generationof Malay-Muslim middle class, professionals, capitalists and entrepreneurs was created.However, 40 years on from the implementation of this policy has resulted in the intensifi-cation of the widening of the intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic inequality gap (Maznah 2006).Malaysian Indians, poor Malays and the marginalized indigenous groups are now seen asthe growing underclass in Malaysia.
3. Kiasu is a Chinese dialect term meaning ‘afraid to lose’. In Joseph (2006), I discuss thisidentity strategy of Chinese young women in further detail. The ‘kiasu’ Chinese youngwomen is one who is a top achiever, competitive, selfish, always wanting to win and afraidto lose.
4. The research approach of ethnographic longitudinality (Weis 2004) and postcolonial femi-nism provide me with the methodological tools to understand ‘how global and nationalformations and relational interactions seep through the lives, identities and communities ofyouth and adults, ultimately refracting back on the larger social formations that give rise to
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them to begin with’ (Weis 2004, 190). Weis (2004) aptly captures my point here in theresearch approach of ethnographic longitudinality where ‘using data collected at two pointsin time to trace the continuities and discontinuities of identity, relations, and material lives,enables us to see the ‘field of forces’ through which structural advances and structuralassaults shape how individuals and groups live and narrate their everyday social practices’(190).
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