It was almost dinnertime when my mom and I sat down for this interview, because I had waited her to wake up from her 'Sunday nap'. Mom looked sleepy but seemed as if she was all recovered from the weekdays' fatigue. "So, what questions do you have for this interview?" She asked. "Are you going to pay me money for this?"
I was curious about her dream, and her current occupation as a pharmacist. She had told me before that it was her father's word to be a pharmacist. I asked her, "Mom, you are a pharmacist now, right? What did you want to be when you were little? Or have you always wanted to be a pharmacist since you were young?"
She frowned, as if she was recalling the memories of the past. After a while, she answered that she wasn't. "Actually, I wanted to be a writer. She told me that when she was little, she was very good at writing. The time she was in elementary school, she had been awarded for every piece of writing she wrote. She also said proudly that all of her teachers liked her works. "At that time, you had to turn in your diaries, so that teachers can see them and make sure you have written your diaries every day." She said her diaries were so funny and well-written that they had made her teachers laugh.
Then here was my second question: "Then how come you did not become a writer?" Mom answered in a quite indifferent way. "Because of your grandfather." She said that the place she had lived was very conservative, not allowing women to study as equally as men. And her father was also not an exception. Grandfather had said that men can learn whatever things they wanted, but women should major in something that can earn money. "That's why he wanted me and your aunts to major either in pharmacy or education; to be a pharmacist or to be a teacher." I asked her whether his words were more like recommending or mandatory. She answered, "The latter, of course."
At that time when my mom was young, what men did and women did was very different. Men could learn whatever they wanted to learn, whereas many women did not even have the opportunity to receive higher education. That's why my grandmother could not continue her learning after elementary school. Maybe that's because the time when my grandmother was young, the inequality between men and women was even bigger, and many women were forced to work after graduating elementary schools. My grandmother does know how to write, but still has to make other people to write for her.
I felt a bit surprised. Of course I had known that gender inequality was bigger in the past, but I never knew that even my mom and my grandmother was involved in it. They could not have an equal chance. I was lucky, because my generations had much more freedom for selecting our own dreams and future occupations.
I asked my final question: "Do you ever regret of choosing your current job?" "No." Mom answered shortly. She said she would have been bad at writing, if she became a writer. The workplace had made her very tired when she was in her thirties, since she had to look after us and work at the same time. But she had never regretted of selecting her current job. She likes it, because she can give a hand to those who are in need, can keep herself busy all the time, and can keep on studying. She told me that her father's words benefited her after all, although they were mandatory in the first place.
From this interview, I got to know that there were generation gaps between me and my mom, and even my grandmother and my mom. As a woman, my grandmother and my mom could not receive the same opportunity as their male counterparts. My grandmother could not receive any education after she had graduated elementary school. Mom had few choices to make about what to learn. Our generation, in contrast, is free from all of these social restraints, and young women can do whatever they want. To me this social phenomenon felt somewhat as a 'generation gap'. I was glad that my mom is content with what she had learned and enjoys her current job, but I know many other woman of her age would not. That fact made me think a lot about the women's lives in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment