Feminism "Abroad"

I really enjoyed reading Trigg's chapter titled Safe Keepers and Wage Earners. Here, Anuradha Shyam, a second generation South Asian female, accounts her live growing up in Inida and then moving to the US, going to college and working in the corporate world. Shyam differs from the norm with respect to her peers because during her youth and adolescence, her family always encouraged her to study and succeed just as much as her brother; There were no limitations enforced just because she was female. In fact, her family dynamic (once they moved to America) was even different from others who celebrated her cultural traditions because she did not have a stay at home mom. In fact she had a mother who worked long hours at an accounting firm and still maintained her household duties of cleaning the house and making dinner for everyone. If that is not a role model, I don't know who is!
Further along in the chapter, Shyam goes into more depth about what it was like for her, and what she expects it is like for other South Asian women, to work in the corporate America. One quote, in particular, that attracted me was, "South Asian women in the workplace, especially in corporate settings, 'endure stereotypes unique to Asian women...On the one hand, [we're] considered very intelligent and technologically adept. But on the other, [we're] labeled as passive and submissive, unambitious and unassertive.'" (Trigg, 180) This is a very strong idea that Shyam claims by noting the pressures these women face on both ends of the spectrum. It seems that as being a part of this minority group of women, you are assumed to be smart and if you are do not live up to that standard then you are labeled dumb, for lack of a better word. And even worse, people assume you have no voice and no opinions to speak of because they believe you do not express confidence in the workplace.I personally did not think about the second stereotype on my own while reading this, but the first one has been an accepted as true throughout my whole adolescence. I never challenged this idea, however, or thought about the pressure it puts kids through if they don't fall into this mold. Again, it seems to be a theme transcending throughout this course, but can things really pan out as simple as black and white?