Fathering Latina Physicians: Gendered Cultural Pathways into a Non-traditional Field

• In Event: 375 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. Of Course They Wear White Coats: White Space in Healthcare, Implications for Education and Practice

Abstract

Prior research underscores that college-educated Latinas are hyper-segregated into highly feminized occupations. Yet a small, but growing number of Latinas are steadily entering reputable non-traditional careers and white spaces. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 20 Latina physicians of various ethnic and generational backgrounds in California, I examine how Latino family dynamics, in particular fathers, played a vital role in encouraging their daughters to enter non-traditional occupations such as medicine, reflective of fluid gendered expectations within Latino families. I document competing gendered expectations that Latina physicians explained their fathers demonstrated by focusing on three main themes: (1) competing gendered ideologies; (2) espousing financial and social independence for their daughters; and (3) sexual policing and monitoring. I find that patriarchal gendered ideologies formulated in the home country, are reconfigured by Latinas educated in the United States who pursue the white coat.

Author

• Glenda M. Flores, University of California, Irvine