Batak is one of the patriarchal ethnic cultures in Indonesia that has strong gender norms applied within its ethnic group. Second-generation Indonesian Batak-American who live in both Batak gender norms and Egalitarian gender norms might have a different perspective about their ethnic gender norms due to the impact of their assimilation into American ways of life and culture. This research aims to find out how assimilation to American egalitarian culture affects the second-generation Batak-American’s view on Batak-Ethnic gender norms
The research applies digital ethnography for collecting and analyzing data. The data are gained by interviewing ten second-generation Batak-American immigrants, aged 17 to 28, who lived in Loma Linda, San Bernardino, California. The data are analyzed with Segmented Assimilation theory by Portes and Zhou to understand the assimilation impacts on second-generation immigrants and how second-generation immigrants got affected by the assimilations in viewing Batak gender norms and family structure. This research also analyzes the family structure and the gender norms that are experienced by second-generation Batak-American immigrants.
The result of this research finds that assimilation impacts second-generation Batak-American immigrants’ perspective about Batak gender norms in which they adapt more to the American Egalitarian gender norms and American Egalitarian family structure because of the human capital advantages that they have. The human capitals are living environment (liberal state), family, education, gender discrimination, and educations. The research also finds that the family structure and gender norms experienced by second-generation support them in assimilating more to the Egalitarian gender norms.