Daughters

As the daughter in a Mexican immigrant household, I was raised with high expectations and responsibilities, under many gender-specific restrictions. I was held to the ideal of ‘the perfect daughter.’ For years there was no questioning. I felt a sense of obligation towards the people who raised me, who faced so many struggles.

By interviewing other daughters of immigrants, I learned about their often-similar conversations with their parents and the pressure of living up to two different cultural standards. As I share the stories of these strong women, I expose the difficulties of first-generation American daughters navigating culturally informed gender-specific expectations and hope to support and benefit the next generation of daughters.