The task of being content: expatriate wives in Beijing, emotional work and patriarchal bargain.(Report)

Abstract

Based upon an ethnographic study of western expatriate (expat) wives in Beijing, this paper describes these women's 'patriarchal bargain' and the emotional labor it involves. Relocation entails pressures to support the husbands' careers in various ways, interruption of their working and social life, and increased economic and social dependency. At the same time, however, it also allows them to enjoy leisure and prestige, and to conduct a privileged life style. This bargain demands an emotional labor on the women's part: an ongoing effort to feel good with their life in Beijing. The study focuses on the strategies the women use in order to cope with ambivalence, to be content, and to demonstrate contentment.

Keywords: expatriate wives, emotional work, patriarchal bargain.

Introduction

This study analyzes the ways in which western women who relocate as a result of their husbands' professional assignments, cope with being expatriate (expat) wives. The women studied are middle-class, highly educated, many of whom enjoyed successful careers and independent social roles before their relocation. They find themselves in a situation in which they are pressed upon to devote a large share of their time and energy to serving their husbands' careers, while neglecting most of their own previous social and occupational positions. They cope with these circumstances in a strange environment, away from their previous social and family networks, with very little support from their spouses, who are busy with their jobs.

The specific case that this work explores is the case of expat wives who live in Beijing. In many ways the lives of these women resonate with the lives of expat wives all over the world, and in some aspects the lives of expat wives elsewhere might be even more complicated and restricted, for example, in some African countries (e.g. Nigeria) where spouses of western expatriates are enclosed in compounds because of the danger. Still, the case of China has specific complexities that emphasize major difficulties faced by expat wives. First, the large cultural and linguistic gaps isolate the spouses from the local society much more than women who live in countries where English is more widely used or at least familiar to the local population, or where the local languages are more familiar to western women. The tradition of isolationism that characterizes the Chinese culture, the old reservations about integrating people from foreign cultures into the society, and the typical Chinese attitude of looking down at foreigners (Brady 2000, Dikotter 1992, Fairbank et al 1965), strengthen the cultural gaps. These traditional attitudes towards strangers find expression in the local regulations that restrict foreigners' ability to integrate into the local society or to find a job in the labor market. Work permits are controlled and restricted by the authorities, and the few possibilities of obtaining work in the local labor market, such as English teaching jobs, are rarely pursued by the expat wives, partly due to the relatively low salaries. Another characteristic of the China case is that whereas in general women are estimated as comprising 14 percent of the overseas workforce (Stroh et al 2000), 96 percent of the working expats in Beijing are men. This means that almost every expat family in Beijing consists of a man who arrived for a job and a wife (and children) who accompanied him. Hence, talking about expat spouses in this case actually means talking about women's experiences. Apart from all the above, my work deals specifically with expat wives in Beijing because I, in fact, was one of them. For a year and a half I lived in Beijing, and I personally witnessed and experienced this special situation and the various ways that women found to handle it.

The central argument I want to make in this paper is that expat wives are not passive victims of the situation, but active agents who take part in a patriarchal bargain (Kandiyoti 1988; 1991). They cooperate with a structure that excludes them, but at the same time they enjoy numerous economic and social privileges. Based on an ethnographic study that I conducted while living in Beijing (between 1996 and 1998), I will explore a few aspects of this bargain, and focus on the emotional work (Hochschild 1979) done by the wives in order to produce and express content, and thus ensure the success of the bargain.