Hold that memory for a second.
Many people have commented on my imminent class appearance as a feminized witch for Halloween.
On Monday, we will discuss sexualized occupations in employment law (e.g., Southwest Airline's initial use of young female flight attendants wearing "hot pants"); but in our afternoon class, we will also examine this interesting passage in my course on immigration and employment (below).
But first, a brief background. The picture above? That’s “Hop Sing,” a Chinese cook and man-lady of the house on a huge TV hit in the 1960s, Bonanza. I never gave this strange work-connection much thought until I started to read about Caucasian gold and silver miners (1860s-1880s) who used violence and intimidation to drive Chinese immigrant workers from mining (and other male-only) jobs.
A sociologist, Terry Boswell, explains:
"Where the Chinese had been pushed into non-mining wage labor, they were tolerated by the white independent miners. White migrants from the East had made the trek to the West Coast to seek their fortune, not to work as laborers or servants. The Chinese were particularly welcomed in positions that the white miners (who were almost all male) considered female work, such as cooking, housekeeping, or laundry. Chinese immigrants were accepted in domestic service even though only a handful were women. What was a gender-based division of labor in the East was reproduced as a racial division on the West Coast where women were disproportionately rare."
***
Hop Sing’s first job in America was probably in a mine. He was probably driven from that work by angry white men. He probably could have returned to China; but he probably chose to stay in America because, even with rampant discrimination, life was much better. As a maid and a cook, he probably was not a threat to any man on the Ponderosa Ranch.
“Dagnabit,” as Hoss would say, “now, why’d you have to go bring that up?”
PHOTO CREDIT: Hallmark
PHOTO CREDIT: Hallmark
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