Latinas juggle gender rules and 'dueling cultural pressures,' survey shows
Most Latinas say they feel pressure to succeed at work and provide for their loved ones at home while also juggling cultural expectations such as doing housework and living up to beauty standards, a Pew Research Center study found.
Most Latinas say they feel pressure to succeed at work and provide for their loved ones at home while also juggling cultural expectations surrounding traditional Hispanic gender roles: doing housework, starting families and living up to certain beauty standards, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Tuesday.
“These are widespread pressures that women face in the U.S. overall, but one unique thing about Latinas is that many of them have recent immigrant connections and this produces unique cultural pressures that they may feel from family or friends,” Jens Manuel Krogstad, a senior writer and editor at Pew who co-authored the survey, told NBC News.
Growing up as the oldest of 10 siblings in a Catholic, Mexican American home in North Carolina, Flor Herrera said she mostly feels stressed about being financially prepared to take care of her parents "when they're no longer able to take care of themselves."
At 33, Herrera said her family constantly asks when she plans to start her own family. She has even considered freezing her eggs, but she feels conflicted about having "to step back in my career if I want to be a mother," said Herrera, who serves as the executive director of Casa Azul de Wilson, a nonprofit organization she co-founded with one of her sisters to help first-generation Latino college students.
Such tensions have ignited an "inner battle" within Herrera as she figures out how much of her desire to start a family is innate or "because society has told me that I want it," she said. "It does seem like an achievement that I want to accomplish, just not right now. But when the time comes, what if I can't? That's also a big fear."
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