‘Women of the Diaspora’
A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of migration narratives of dual career Zimbabwean migrants
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v7i2.203Keywords:
photography, visual culture, masculinities, feminist critical discourse analysis, identity constructionAbstract
This study explores the establishment and maintenance of gendered ideologies and practices within the household of dual career Zimbabwean migrants in the Diaspora, viewed from the lens of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. With a limited sample, the study explores the construction of gendered identities by analysing language use in responses to photographs of men engaged in activities that, in normative gender discourses, are considered ‘women’s work’. Drawing on qualitative data in the form of responses to inter-discursive photographs, the findings suggest that patriarchal norms significantly influence responses, which may reflect the establishment and maintenance of gendered ‘cultural’ identities and roles regarding household tasks. On the one hand, household tasks are viewed as indexical of femininity and the upholding of African cultural value systems, thus naturalizing the association of women with the home. Some women ‘collude’ in reinforcing divisive patriarchal and familial beliefs about female and male roles and view any potential reconstruction of gendered identity within the household as a transgression of socioculturally prescribed behavioural norms for women while others contest such stereotypes. On the other hand, when confronted with the need to take on childcare and other domestic duties traditionally ascribed to women, while at the same time being under considerable pressure to live up to accepted masculine ideals of their home countries, male migrants experience a loss of identity as family provider, leading to a redefinition and reproduction of a ‘new’ patriarchal position within the household based on remembered significance.
References
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du Gay, P. (1996) Consumption and Identity at Work. London: Sage.
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El Refaie, E. (2001) Metaphors we discriminate by: Naturalised themes in austrian newspaper articles about asylum seekers. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5: 352–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00154
Espinosa, J. (2010) The advent of myself as other: Photography, memory and identity creation. Gnovis Journal of Communication, Culture and Technology 10.
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Goebel, a. (2002) ‘Men these days, they are a problem’: Husband-taming herbs and gender wars in rural Zimbabwe. Canadian Journal of African Studies 36: 460–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4107333
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Ige, B. and De kadt, E. (2002) Gender politeness: Zulu-speaker identities at the University of Natal, Durban. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 20: 147–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/16073610209486307
Jansen, S. (2008) Misplaced masculinities: Status loss and the location of gendered subjectivities amongst ‘non-transnational’ Bosnian refugees. Anthropological Theory 8: 181–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1463499608090790
Kelly, a. (1981) The Missing Half: Girls and Science Education. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Kibria, N. (1990) Power, patriarchy and gender conflict in the Vietnamese immigrant community. Gender and Society 4: 9–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/089124390004001002
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Lazar, M. M. (2008) Language, communication and the public sphere: a perspective from feminist critical discourse analysis. In R. Wodak and V. koller (eds) Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere 89–110. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lerner, G. (1975) Placing women in history: definitions and challenges. Feminist Studies 3: 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3518951
Lorber, J. (1999) Embattled terrain: Gender and sexuality. In M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber, and B. B. Hess (eds) Revisioning Gender 416–48. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage
Mahler, S. J. (1999) Engendering transnational migration: a case study of Salvadorans. The American Behavioral Scientist 42: 690–719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00027649921954426
Matsuoka, a. and Sorenson, J. (1999) Eritrean Canadian refugee households as sites of gender renegotiation. In D. Indra (ed.) Engendering Forced Migration: Theory and Practice 218–41. Oxford: Berghan.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (2011) Gender, Sexuality, and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McGregor, J. (2007), ‘Joining the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners)’: Zimbabwean migrants and the Uk care industry. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33: 801–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691830701359249
Meinhof, U. H. and Galasinski, D. (2000) Photography, memory and the construction of identities on the former east-west German border. Discourse Studies 2: 323–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445600002003004
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005) Madams and maids in southern africa: Coping with uncertainties and the art of mutual zombification. Africa Spectrum 40 (2): 181–196.
Pasura, D. C. (2008) Gendering the Diaspora: Zimbabwean migrants in Britain. African Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World 1: 86–109.
Pendergast, D. and McGregor, S. L. T. (2007) Positioning the Profession beyond Patriarchy. East Lansing: kappa Omicron Nu.
Riessman C. k. (2001) analysis of personal narratives. In J. F. Gubrium and J. a. Holstein (eds) Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method 695–710. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage.
Ruiz, M. (2002) Border narratives, HIV/aIDS and Latina/o health in the United States: a cultural analysis. Feminist Media Studies 2: 37–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680770220122864
Saft, S. and Ohara, Y. (2009) Men’s adultery as sickness: Metaphor, gender categories and the discursive construction of gender differences on Japanese television consultation programs. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 6: 113–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15427580903115107
Santa ana, O. (2002) Brown Town Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Discourse. austin: University of Texas Press.
Sontag, S. (1990) On Photography. New York: anchor.
Stoller, P. (2002) Money has no smell: The Africanization of New York City. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2009) Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thetela, P. H. (2002) Sex discourses and gender constructions in Southern Sotho: a case study of police interviews of rape/sexual assault victims. South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 20: 177–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/16073610209486309
Thetela, P. (2003) Discourse, culture and the law: The analysis of crosstalk in the Southern african bilingual courtroom. AILA Review 16: 78–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/aila.16.08the
van Dijk, T. a. (1997) The study of discourse. In T. a. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction Vol. 1 1–34. London: Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446221884.n1
Weatherall, a. (2002) Gender, Language and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Werner, O. (1961) Ethnographic Photography. Unpublished Ma thesis, Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY.
Wetherell, M., Stiven, H., and Potter, J. (1987) Unequal egalitarianism: a preliminary study of discourses concerning gender and employment opportunities. British Journal of Social Psychology 26: 59–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1987.tb00761.x
Wodak, R. (1996) Disorders of Discourse. London: Longman. PMCid:2350651
Wodak, R. (1997) Introduction: Some important issues in the research of gender and discourse. In R. Wodak (ed.) Gender and Discourse 1–20. Sage, London.
Wodak, R. (2005) Interdisciplinarity, gender studies and CDa: Gender mainstreaming and the European Union. In M. M. Lazar (ed.) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis 90–114. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Wodak, R. (2008) Controversial issues in feminist critical discourse analysis. In k. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson, and J. Sunderland (eds) Gender and Language Research Methodologies 193–210. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barker, G. and Ricardo, C. (2005) Young Men and the Construction of Masculinity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for HIV/AIDS, Conflict and Violence (Social Development Papers: Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction, Paper No. 26). Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Barthes, R. (1982) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang.
Bloch, a. (2006) Emigrating from Zimbabwe: Migrant perspectives. Social Policy and Administration 40: 67–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9515.2006.00477.x
Burgin, V. (1982) Looking at photographs. In V. Burgin (ed.) Thinking Photography 142–53. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Buskens, I. (2009) Doing research with women for the purpose of transformation. In I. Buskens and a. Webb (eds) African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment 9–17. London: Zed.
Charteris-Black, J. (2006) Britain as container: Immigration metaphors in the 2005 election campaign. Discourse and Society 17: 563–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926506066345
de Fina, a. (2000) Orientation in immigrant narratives: The role of ethnicity in the identification of characters. Discourse Studies 2: 131–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445600002002001
Deustch, F. M. (2007). Undoing gender. Gender and Society 21 (1): 106–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243206293577
Downing, E. (2006) After Images: Photography, Archaeology, and Psychoanalysis and the Tradition of Building. New York: Wayne State University Press.
du Gay, P. (1996) Consumption and Identity at Work. London: Sage.
Eco, U. (1982) Critique of the image. In V. Burgin (ed.) Thinking Photography 32–82. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Ellece, S. E. (2010) asking for a water calabash: Metaphor and gender in ‘patlo’ marriage. Marang: Journal of Language and Literature 20: 63–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/marang.v20i1.56820
Ellece, S. E. (2011) ‘Be a fool like me’: Gender construction in the marriage advice ceremony in Botswana – a critical discourses analysis. Agenda 25: 43–52.
El Refaie, E. (2001) Metaphors we discriminate by: Naturalised themes in austrian newspaper articles about asylum seekers. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5: 352–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00154
Espinosa, J. (2010) The advent of myself as other: Photography, memory and identity creation. Gnovis Journal of Communication, Culture and Technology 10.
Flam, H. and Beauzamy, B. (2008) Symbolic violence. In G. Delanty, R. Wodak, and P. Jones (eds) Identity, Belonging and Migration 221–40. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Franz, B. (2003) Bosnian refugee women in (re)settlement: Gender relations and social mobility. Feminist Review 73: 86–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400077
Gee, J. P. (1999) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. London: Routledge.
Goebel, a. (2002) ‘Men these days, they are a problem’: Husband-taming herbs and gender wars in rural Zimbabwe. Canadian Journal of African Studies 36: 460–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4107333
Gramsci, a. (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence Wishart.
Horowitz, D. L. (1985) Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ige, B. and De kadt, E. (2002) Gender politeness: Zulu-speaker identities at the University of Natal, Durban. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 20: 147–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/16073610209486307
Jansen, S. (2008) Misplaced masculinities: Status loss and the location of gendered subjectivities amongst ‘non-transnational’ Bosnian refugees. Anthropological Theory 8: 181–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1463499608090790
Kelly, a. (1981) The Missing Half: Girls and Science Education. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Kibria, N. (1990) Power, patriarchy and gender conflict in the Vietnamese immigrant community. Gender and Society 4: 9–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/089124390004001002
Laslett, B. (1999) Personal narratives as sociology: Featured essay. Contemporary Sociology 28: 391–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2655287
Lazar, M. M. (2005) Feminist CDa as political perspective and praxis. In M. M. Lazar (ed.) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse 1–28. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lazar, M. M. (2007) Feminist discourse analysis: articulating a feminist discourse praxis. Critical Discourse Analysis 4: 141–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405900701464816
Lazar, M. M. (2008) Language, communication and the public sphere: a perspective from feminist critical discourse analysis. In R. Wodak and V. koller (eds) Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere 89–110. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lerner, G. (1975) Placing women in history: definitions and challenges. Feminist Studies 3: 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3518951
Lorber, J. (1999) Embattled terrain: Gender and sexuality. In M. M. Ferree, J. Lorber, and B. B. Hess (eds) Revisioning Gender 416–48. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage
Mahler, S. J. (1999) Engendering transnational migration: a case study of Salvadorans. The American Behavioral Scientist 42: 690–719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00027649921954426
Matsuoka, a. and Sorenson, J. (1999) Eritrean Canadian refugee households as sites of gender renegotiation. In D. Indra (ed.) Engendering Forced Migration: Theory and Practice 218–41. Oxford: Berghan.
McConnell-Ginet, S. (2011) Gender, Sexuality, and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McGregor, J. (2007), ‘Joining the BBC (British Bottom Cleaners)’: Zimbabwean migrants and the Uk care industry. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 33: 801–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691830701359249
Meinhof, U. H. and Galasinski, D. (2000) Photography, memory and the construction of identities on the former east-west German border. Discourse Studies 2: 323–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445600002003004
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005) Madams and maids in southern africa: Coping with uncertainties and the art of mutual zombification. Africa Spectrum 40 (2): 181–196.
Pasura, D. C. (2008) Gendering the Diaspora: Zimbabwean migrants in Britain. African Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World 1: 86–109.
Pendergast, D. and McGregor, S. L. T. (2007) Positioning the Profession beyond Patriarchy. East Lansing: kappa Omicron Nu.
Riessman C. k. (2001) analysis of personal narratives. In J. F. Gubrium and J. a. Holstein (eds) Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method 695–710. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage.
Ruiz, M. (2002) Border narratives, HIV/aIDS and Latina/o health in the United States: a cultural analysis. Feminist Media Studies 2: 37–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680770220122864
Saft, S. and Ohara, Y. (2009) Men’s adultery as sickness: Metaphor, gender categories and the discursive construction of gender differences on Japanese television consultation programs. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 6: 113–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15427580903115107
Santa ana, O. (2002) Brown Town Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Discourse. austin: University of Texas Press.
Sontag, S. (1990) On Photography. New York: anchor.
Stoller, P. (2002) Money has no smell: The Africanization of New York City. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2009) Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Thetela, P. H. (2002) Sex discourses and gender constructions in Southern Sotho: a case study of police interviews of rape/sexual assault victims. South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 20: 177–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/16073610209486309
Thetela, P. (2003) Discourse, culture and the law: The analysis of crosstalk in the Southern african bilingual courtroom. AILA Review 16: 78–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/aila.16.08the
van Dijk, T. a. (1997) The study of discourse. In T. a. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction Vol. 1 1–34. London: Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446221884.n1
Weatherall, a. (2002) Gender, Language and Discourse. London: Routledge.
Werner, O. (1961) Ethnographic Photography. Unpublished Ma thesis, Syracuse University. Syracuse, NY.
Wetherell, M., Stiven, H., and Potter, J. (1987) Unequal egalitarianism: a preliminary study of discourses concerning gender and employment opportunities. British Journal of Social Psychology 26: 59–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1987.tb00761.x
Wodak, R. (1996) Disorders of Discourse. London: Longman. PMCid:2350651
Wodak, R. (1997) Introduction: Some important issues in the research of gender and discourse. In R. Wodak (ed.) Gender and Discourse 1–20. Sage, London.
Wodak, R. (2005) Interdisciplinarity, gender studies and CDa: Gender mainstreaming and the European Union. In M. M. Lazar (ed.) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis 90–114. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Wodak, R. (2008) Controversial issues in feminist critical discourse analysis. In k. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson, and J. Sunderland (eds) Gender and Language Research Methodologies 193–210. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Published
2013-07-12
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Makoni, B. (2013). ‘Women of the Diaspora’: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of migration narratives of dual career Zimbabwean migrants. Gender and Language, 7(2), 203-231. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v7i2.203
