by Staring Down the Tiger- Stories of Hmong American Women (retail) (epub)
Change Framework
At Hnub Tshiab, we believe there must first be awareness and acknowledgment that gender, as a social construct, is a powerful force that shapes the lives of members of the entire community. By focusing on understanding ourselves, our families, our culture, and our community, we can begin to reflect on and start the systemic change necessary to improve the lives of Hmong women and girls. We create knowledge through dialogue, reflection, and self-study. We provide leadership and advocacy to build coalitions and community focused on social change to improve the lives of those around us. By starting with a shared vision of a better world for Hmong women and girls, coalitions for change can occur to inspire, leverage, and ensure equity. The change framework is linked to the belief that we have the power to create and strengthen our own community.
Hnub Tshiab’s Beginnings
Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together is about empowering Hmong women. We have gone through a twenty-year journey in our understanding of empowerment. Some argue that because of exposure to Western notions of feminism and women’s equality, Hmong women now impose these Western ideals onto our own culture, causing it to be judged and pathologized. However, many of our mothers will argue that they have always realized their positions of powerlessness and wished to have the same rights as men; they just never had the option to do anything about it. Now that we are in the United States, we have legal rights to support us to utilize our agency, take action, and harness our own internal power. We didn’t need Western culture to teach us about women’s lack of equality—we were already aware of it—but we did need to be in a land that allowed us to exercise our basic human rights: the right to equality and autonomy and the freedom to speak up. We are not pathologizing our own culture; we wish to change the parts that are no longer helpful to a majority of its members and empower those who have lacked power for so long.
Empowerment is a process of moving from a position of powerlessness to mobilization, where one is able to take action to create change in one’s life.1
Empowerment begins with a realization of one’s own position of powerlessness. Hnub Tshiab started in 1998 as the Hmong Women’s Action Team, a group formed under the umbrella of Ramsey County Initiative for Violence-Free Families. During this time, Hmong women identified concerns they faced, most notably the need to end domestic violence against Hmong women and girls. Hmong women had already realized their powerlessness within Hmong culture, and we knew the forces behind this powerlessness.
Following the next stage of empowerment, we began to critically analyze our own predicament, including the beliefs that are passed down to us, rather than accepting the status quo. The Hmong Women’s Action Team put new words to Hmong women’s status. Hmong women were too afraid to share their experiences publicly, fearing the tigerbite. In 1998, the results of a survey of thousands of Hmong community members were documented in a report titled, “Taking a Public Stand: Completing the Journey from War to Peace: Through the Ending of Violence: A Community Action Plan to Prevent Violence in the Hmong Community.” The findings extrapolated cultural practices that result in the devaluing of Hmong women and support a power imbalance that perpetuates women’s lower status in Hmong society. The findings of this report included:
First, daughters and sons are treated differently. There is a general lack of respect for females and a lack of support for daughters because they will marry out of the clan. Often our community stays silent about sons or males who actively maltreat or degrade females.
Second, educated wives are not valued, and their contributions go unrecognized. Educated, older wives are seen as uncontrollable and too independent. Young, teenage wives who are more vulnerable and easier to control are sometimes valued more.
Third, marriage is valued above physical and emotional safety in an abusive relationship. There is little support and few resources for Hmong women who want to get out of an abusive relationship. Few men and women believe a husband is guilty for hitting his wife. A woman is usually stigmatized if she leaves an abusive marriage. Being divorced is worse than being a widow or a second wife because of the value of marriage. As a widow or a divorcée, a woman has no social status in the Hmong community because she is not associated with a man.
Fourth, having many children is valued above the reproductive health or rights of women. In some families, the woman does not have control of her own reproduction. Often, having many children is a result of her powerlessness or her ambivalence in controlling unwanted pregnancies in the face of pressure to have more children.
Fifth, males are believed to be born with more power than females. Families tend to reinforce through parenting that girls are weaker and should be subservient to men. Women often blame themselves, believing they deserve punishment when abused. Men learn it is their right to expect obedience from women.
And finally, marriage structures set the stage for violence. Large age differences between husbands and wives, such as men who are in their thirties or forties marrying teenagers, sets up a power dynamic that may lead to violence.
Teens forced to marry because of a pregnancy or to save face are cut off from many opportunities. Family violence may result from community tolerance of second/minor wives and women marrying men who are already married. According to some participants, early marriage is a form of violence against women, especially if the bride is young and forced into the relationship. Marrying young and birthing children early limits her opportunities for social, emotional, and economic growth.
Based on these findings, the Hmong Women’s Action Team was created with the mission to end violence against Hmong women and girls by ending sexism. This mission was revised in 2007: to be a catalyst for lasting cultural, institutional and social change to improve the lives of Hmong women. By raising awareness of their own predicament and their own self-empowerment work, the women of the Hmong Women’s Action Team took ownership of the language used to describe their own predicaments and conceptualized the solution as one that focused on empowering the women rather than tackling the sexism. Again, this framework represented a different means to the same goal.
The third stage of empowerment is to develop a group consciousness. We needed to raise awareness and bring more women into this new awareness. We did this through one of our first newsletters, Hnub Tshiab (A New Day; pronounced: Hnoo Chia), which we distributed throughout the Twin Cities. Other efforts to raise awareness included speaking at conferences and collaborating with mainstream groups such as the Women’s Consortium and the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.
These awareness-raising efforts helped to form a group consciousness among Hmong women, leading to the final stage of empowerment, which is mobilization. In this stage, the oppressed organize and prepare to take action in order to create change within their own lives. Mobilization came in the form of increasing women’s status within the community. Hmong Women Achieving Together convened a second group of Hmong women in 2005 in Sandstone, Minnesota, where we identified that the same issues (sexism, violence, etc.) continued to plague Hmong women. Following this retreat, Hnub Tshiab chose to move the organization to a new level, incorporating with our new mission in 2007. We envision a world where Hmong women and girls are valued and supported to achieve their highest potential in all their roles.
We are no longer just victims of patriarchy and sexism; instead, we have inherent power simply because we are autonomous humans, and we can create change within the social systems to which we, too, belong. We have a role in these systems, as do men. We CAN create change to improve our own lives in partnership with men, our families, and our community. We can’t empower others if we are unable to enact our own sense of agency. We must be able to harness our self-power as an inherent part of this work. We are BEING empowered as we are DOING empowerment.
We are empowering Hmong women by developing leaders. In 2008, we created the Hmong Women Leadership Institute, from which graduated our ninth cohort (a total of 108 women) in 2019. Our Hmon
g Girls Leadership Training Institute was launched in 2017 and graduated in its first cohort twenty Hmong girls who will continue the work of Hnub Tshiab. We also recognize Hmong women leaders through our Hmong Woman of the Year award and provide leadership training through our board. We reach out to Hmong families and men through the Intergenerational Retreat and Family Dialogues, and we collaborate with several community entities to further our work. We increased and maintained our network of Hmong women through our breakfast series with the graduates of the Hmong Women Leadership Institute as well as through outreach and collaboration with other organizations.
Our next goal is to build a space for Hmong women. We envision a house, a safe space where Hmong women can gather, in the spirit of the settlement houses that American women created for other women in our early history. These settlement houses became community centers that still exist today.
1. Here and below: Lorraine M. Gutiérrez, “Working with Women of Color: An Empowerment Perspective,” Social Work 35, no. 2 (1990): 149–53; Carr E. Summerson, “Rethinking Empowerment Theory Using a Feminist Lens: The 1mportance of Process,” Affilia 18, no. 8 (2003): 8–20.
Hnub Tshiab Board Members
Pa Der Vang (2000–Present)
Dr. Pa Der Vang is an associate professor at St. Catherine University/University of St. Thomas School of Social Work, coordinator of the critical Hmong studies minor at St. Catherine University, and a cofounder of Hnub Tshiab. She received her master’s degree and PhD in social work from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She practiced as a clinical social worker for eight years before starting her teaching career. She has published articles on the effect of teenage marriage on Hmong women and cultural change among Hmong in America. Her current research is on Hmong Americans and the effects of acculturation.
Kao Ly Ilean Her (2007–Present)
Kao Ly Ilean Her is the chief executive officer of the Hmong Elders Center, an adult day center serving Hmong seniors in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area. As executive director of the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans, Kao Ly was at the forefront of establishing legislation, policy, and programs to address the community’s critical needs. She has founded the nonprofits Allies for Mentoring Asian Youth, Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together, and the Heritage Center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and served as a trustee of the Minneapolis Foundation, the Asian Pacific Endowment of the St. Paul Foundation, and Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
Cindi Yang (2015–Present)
Cindi Yang oversees child care assistance, child development services, and the Office of Economic Opportunity at Minnesota’s Department of Human Services. She leads work to promote the well-being of children and self-sufficiency of families. Cindi served as director of programs and public policy at Neighborhood House, whose programs help stabilize the lives of families and break the cycle of poverty. Cindi was a community faculty professor at Metropolitan State University’s department of social work. She cofounded the Minnesota Hmong Social Work Coalition, creating a space to develop Hmong social workers as leaders in their field.
Gao Thor (2015–Present)
Gao Thor, a psychology major and educational studies/religious studies minor at Macalester College, is the capacity associate for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation’s Youth Leadership Initiative, a multicultural program that provides young people the opportunity to build skills and qualities needed to be agents of change. She has more than five years of experience in tackling community issues through youth leadership development, facilitating dialogues around personal narratives, and facilitation training. Gao received a Davis Projects for Peace $10,000 grant to design and facilitate a program with young Hmong women about personal narratives to address gender equity in the Hmong community.
Leona Thao (2016–Present)
Leona Thao is an evaluation specialist with Minneapolis Public Schools, supporting the district’s equity framework and ensuring that it has equitable policies, practices, procedures, and budgets. Leona brings not only her passion for gender and racial justice but experiences in evaluation and public policy to the Hnub Tshiab board. She graduated from Hnub Tshiab’s Hmong Women Leadership Institute Program in 2014. Leona earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University and a master’s in public policy from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
Ma Xiong (2017–Present)
Ma Xiong is a corporate compliance associate analyst with Allianz Life Insurance Company. She is passionate about empowering girls of color to lead their own lives and contribute to the success of their communities. Ma received her law degree from Mitchell Hamline School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas with majors in entrepreneurship and legal studies in business. She has experience in the nonprofit, legal, and corporate sectors.
Chee Lor (2017–Present)
Chee Lor was born in Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand, was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned her master’s in social work at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is passionate about empowering Hmong girls and women to be the leaders they want to see and enabling them to be their most authentic selves in reaching for their dreams. She is an alumna of Hnub Tshiab’s Hmong Women Leadership Institute and has found her calling in doing work that supports and lifts Hmong girls and women much like herself.
Yer Lor (2017–Present)
Yer Lor was born and raised on the east side of St. Paul and has a degree in political science and Spanish studies with a minor in leadership from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She is director of community partnership for Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys, overseeing their ConnectZ program, which provides the Girl Scout experience to girls who often face access barriers. She also worked at Neighborhood House as a program facilitator and at United Family for All Families as a youth organizer. Yer is an alumna of Hnub Tshiab’s Hmong Women Leadership Institute.
Reading Guide
The tiger is considered a mystical character, eliciting wonder, mystery, and awe in Hmong culture. The tiger is feared and respected for its strength and prowess, yet the tiger is vulnerable, as it has been outwitted by humans in Hmong folktales. Although the tiger is considered a quiet, solitary animal, in folklore it is often portrayed interacting with Hmong in very complex ways.
Hmong believe the tiger should not be approached; that is why in folklore, when Hmong are depicted interacting with the tiger, there is often a sense of fear, ambivalence, courage, awe, mystery, and danger. The term tigerbite (tsov tom), often considered a slur in Hmong culture, is used to refer to individuals to indicate lack of foresight, impulsiveness, malice, and lack of intelligence. Someone who is a tsov tom would actually approach a tiger—and get bitten.
1. Why would staring down the tiger elicit the accusation that one is a tsov tom (impulsive, lacking foresight, lacking intelligence)?
2. How do individuals challenge this notion that to stare down the tiger is to lack intelligence? What might staring down the tiger imply of a person’s character, capacity, resilience, strength, and resources?
3. Staring down the tiger may be a metaphor for taking on risks, challenging norms, or pushing boundaries. Under what circumstances might someone choose to challenge social norms and push social boundaries?
4. How do the women in the stories in Staring Down the Tiger challenge their prescribed roles as wife, mother, daughter, Hmong woman?
5. Because Hmong culture is interdependent and collectivist, it is often frowned upon to speak about one’s successes. Why should these stories be told, and what can we learn from them? What do we lose if we do not make room for these stories to be told?
6. How do the stories collected here inform our communities? What impact might these stories have on individuals who read them?
7. How else can we interpret a Hmong woman’s choice to stare down the tiger?
8. In what other ways do H
mong women stare down the tiger?
9. In what ways do women from other cultures stare down the tiger?
10. How do you stare down the tiger in your own life?
11. What might be some consequences of staring down the tiger at the individual level? Consider personal factors such as emotional consequences, psychological consequences, or loss of opportunity.
12. How might a woman risk harm to or loss of relationships by staring down the tiger? What are the competing pressures for women to conform, and what risks do women take by pushing social and cultural boundaries that seek to inhibit them?
13. What other situations could the metaphor of staring down the tiger represent?