Sexism in the Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

In traditional Chinese culture, many judgments were made about a person just by observing their sex. The woman was looked upon as an inferior being and she had little or no status in society. Furthermore, very little was expected from women and they were discriminated against when they tried to stand up for themselves. Chinese culture was customarily male dominated; the male was expected to do most of the work, and the woman was expected …

…Ying-Ying's daughter absorbed some of the sexist assumptions. Lena is a mere associate in the architecture firm that she helped her husband to establish and so she is only making a fraction of her husband's salary. She subordinated herself to her husband, but she can't do anything about it since she has the values of male-dominated Chinese society deep inside of her. Naturally, these values come from her mother, but Lena herself doesn't recognize it.