Exploring Sikh Punjabi Canadian Women’s Experiences of Navigating Salient Familial and Cultural Expectations

Abstract

Several South Asian women in Western contexts navigate significantly challenging gendered expectations from their families and cultural communities pertaining to academics, career (Baggulay & Hussain, 2014), domestic responsibilities (Mustafa et al., 2020), family management, cultural preservation, marriageability, marriage, and children (Mehrotra, 2016; Somerville, 2019). The expectations can be significantly distressing (Grewal et al., 2005; Mafura & Charura, 2021; Mehrotra, 2016; Somerville, 2019), yet there is limited research specifically exploring the experience of navigating them. Sikh Punjabi Canadian women are one such South Asian cultural group that navigates challenging familial and cultural expectations. Through an interpretative phenomenological analysis of semi-structured interviews, the present study explored five Sikh Punjabi Canadian women’s strengths and coping strategies in navigating salient familial and cultural expectations. Findings revealed participant experiences of expectations to be consistent with existing literature and identified four group experiential themes capturing participant strengths in navigating gendered expectations. Strengths included (1) recognizing expectations as unfair and harmful, (2) gaining the courage to resist expectations, (3) engaging in strategies to alleviate distress and enhance emotional wellbeing, and (4) balancing care for self and care for family. These strengths and coping strategies provide several potential avenues for exploring culturally aligned interventions that draw on the existing resilience of Sikh Punjabi Canadian women, and thus, support the self-empowerment of the Sikh Punjabi Canadian community.