ASAM paper

Xinyu Shang

ASAM 100AA

Week 8 Reading Journal

This week’s readings were focused on the power of women in liberation. The

readings mainly focus on the role that the women played in liberating the Asian

American people from different situations that they were subjected to. In Becoming an

Integral Part of America, different circumstances of women fighting for their rights as

well as the rights of their fellow women are presented. Sadie Lum gives her experience in

revolution. In the 1970s, Asian American women started showing their awareness on

political matters and the instances of racial, gender and social class discrimination that

was going on in America and started taking action (Lum, 2006). Some of them opted into

political activism, community service programs and others into mainstream politics and

revolution like Sadie Lum. Their believe was that the issues that they were experiencing

were all as a result of capitalism and they vowed to fight it. They laid down strategies to

achieve this and they used community services to help the other Asian American women.

We also find the case of Shui Mak Ka who was among the women leading a strike to

have their wages increased, and they were able to rally over 15,000 women, through their

union, ILGWU, a rally organized at Columbia park, hence, pushing forward their agenda

(Ka, 2006). The women, led by Kitty Tsui, are also able to fight for the position of the

lesbians in the society, people who were viewed as being evil. These cases in this book

show how the power of women can be harnessed to create a better environment.

In Politicizing Motherhood, the women are presented to be fighting for their

rights for the institution of daycare centers to reduce their straining while working when

they have young children. The garment workers campaign seriously for these daycare

centers in New York City (Bao, 2003). The campaigns were made by the women

immigrants, showing that they had power over the things which were being done to them,

despite being immigrants they still have the power to fight for their needs and rights. The

campaign also involved reducing the birthrates by these women, which reduced by about

22.4 per 1000 people in 1970s and by 13.1 in 1980s, as a result of the better terms

instituted. The meeting which was held by these women in 1981 was a major cause of

revolution which resulted into institution of these daycare centers for the garment

workers (Bao, 2003).

In One Year After the Sit-In, we are presented with the case of students who

staged demonstrations, who were the Asian American and Latinos. The 17 undergraduate

students from Princeton University staged a sit in at Nassau Hall, complaining to the

administration for failing to institute Asian American and Latino studies in the institution

(Takeda, 2001). The students vowed to stay in the hall until the school administration

vowed and committed to institution of these studies in the University. The movement of

Asian American students was also involved in such demonstrations in 1990s. This led to

equal rights in the universities and colleges in United States and the Asia Americans as

well as other black people in the American universities were treated well (Takeda, 2001).

What I find to be most interesting in this week’s readings is the power of the

people working as a team and people who are determined to achieve something. The

history of women in liberation is not written broadly and these are some of the interesting

scenarios which show the power of women, and how they were involved in achieving

what people are enjoying today in United States, mainly the Asian Americans. The

energy and determination of these women is also very interesting. They do not care about

where they are fighting for their rights but provided that they have the platform to do so.

From this week’s readings, I understand the importance of teaming up for a common

goal.