馬來西亞華裔已婚女性多重角色與女性自我之探究

本研究目的欲透過研究參與者多重角色的生命故事敘說，從一個被聽見、被看見的生命裡去探討其女性自我。在父系社會裡，中國女人在族譜裡本就沒有名字，而身處在種族主義色彩濃厚、傳統父權體制主宰之社會文化脈胳底下的馬來西亞華裔女性，是一個被性別與族群雙重邊緣化的群體，也是一個難以現身的個體。因此研究者選擇透過敘說故事來呈現身負多重角色之女性生命經驗，並從故事中獲取意義以及對未來有新的選擇與展望。　　本研究以半結構式深度訪談兩名已婚華裔女性，以敘事研究的方法進行研究參與者多重角色的生命經驗敘說，以「整體－內容」的故事呈現其多重角色與女性自我的生命經驗與挑戰，再以「類別－內容」的閱讀方式分析整理研究參與者的敘事資料。　　本研究發現，多重角色是社會建構既存的事實，而女性承擔多重角色是一種能力的展現，也是中年已婚女性期待從多重角色中擴大自我的發展。馬來西亞牢固的父權傳統枷鎖中，已婚華裔女性在家庭中角色有較多東方華人文化裡對一名妻子、媽媽、女兒或媳婦角色的要求與期待，其自我是被消解、忽略、壓制的，惟在現代文明的社會，性別平權的影響下，女性與男性有了相等受教育的機會，教育讓一名女性有機會接觸到家庭傳統文化以外的社會文化以及自我知識的建構，這對女性的自我意識的提昇給出了一條更寬廣之路。　　其次，教育機會喚醒了女性更多的自我意識，也讓女性有機會晉身職業市場，從一個無薪酬的家庭角色因應各個不同的專長與專業能力選擇個人的職業，也讓女性的自我意識往前更上一層顯露，經濟獨立使女性更有自主能力與條件為個人與下一代的權益發聲。　　與此同時，新一代女性承接著傳統，在母職角色裡融入更多女性自主意識的新面貌，並且走出一條符合現狀，讓自身自在愉悅的路。這同時也說明在母職裡，可保有著同等的價值，但是在經驗裡，卻帶著「角色創造」去拓展更健康快樂的母職與其他多重角色。　　總結以上，「自我」是依靠社會給出的「角色」存活，而「角色」與「角色」間的互動即產生了「關係」，人們的自我就是在諸多互動關係中呈現，因此，角色－關係—自我，彼此緊緊相扣，是互為一體的共生共存之社會有機體。

關鍵字

馬來西亞華裔已婚女性；多重角色；女性自我

並列摘要

This study aims at using the research participants’ narrative of their life stories regarding multiple roles to explore women’s self in their lives as heard and seen. In the patrilineal society, Chinese women do not have their names included in the genealogy. Malaysian Chinese women, who live within a socio-cultural context heavily influenced by racism and controlled by traditional patrilineal systems, are a group that is doubly marginalized by gender and ethnicity, as well as individual units that find it difficult to make themselves visible. The researcher has thus chosen to use story narrative to present the life experiences of women with multiple roles, and to obtain from these stories the meanings as well as new choices and outlooks into the future. This study focuses on an in-depth semi-structural interview of two married Chinese women and employs the narrative research method to study the research participants’ narrative of their life experiences in assuming multiple roles. By using the ‘totality-contents’ story, it presents their life experiences and challenges in dealing with their multiple roles and women’s self. Subsequently, it relies on the ‘type-contents’ reading method to analyze, organize and study the narrative information of the research participants. The study finds that multiple roles constitute an existing fact of the social structure whereas women’s act of assuming these multiple roles is a demonstration of their capabilities and also an expectation of middle-aged married women to expand the development of their self-awareness beyond their multiple roles. In addition, educational opportunities awaken greater self-awareness of the women and also allow women to have chances of entering the job market. From assuming a family role for which they receive no pay, they can now choose their personal careers in accordance with their various special skills and professional capabilities. This has also made it possible for the women’s self-awareness to advance to higher levels, showing that economic independence can allow women to have better control of their capabilities and qualifications to voice out for their own rights and those of their next generation. At the same time, while carrying on the traditions, women of the new generation are able to infuse into their role as mothers more new paradigms of women’s self-awareness and to tread a path that is in line with the existing situations, thus enabling them to feel free and delighted. This also explains that in their role as mothers, they can maintain the equivalent values, but in their experience, they carry with them the ‘role creation’ to expand into healthier and happier jobs as mothers and other multiple roles. In conclusion, ‘self’ survives by relying on the ‘roles’ as given by the society whereas the interactions between ‘roles’ will give rise to ‘relationships’. The self of an individual is manifested in the many interactive relationships. As such, role—relationship—self is a closely interlinked chain and an organic social structure of mutual existence and survival.