Chinese Australian women’s ‘homemaking’ and contributions to the family economy in White Australia

Abstract

This paper draws upon qualitative interview data to present a historical geography of ‘homemaking’ and economic activity among Chinese Australian women during the White Australia Policy era. An analysis of interview material indicates that some women dedicated their lives to unpaid work in the home, while other women worked in family businesses in subordinate positions. In some instances, Chinese Australian women took on more responsibility in these businesses in ways that challenged the ‘front’/‘back’ gender divide. This economic participation reflected the need for Chinese Australian women to contribute to the survival of their families and experience roles and subjectivities that challenged the patriarchal division of gendered labour and space. This complex historical geography of Chinese Australian family economies in the White Australia era therefore challenges traditional feminist assertions that ‘the home’ is a universal site of female oppression and Orientalist assumptions that Confucian family systems were practised uniformly by all overseas Chinese.

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