Mothers of Tradition: The Invisible Work of Cultural Continuity

When I was younger, I was frequently urged to wear traditional dresses for every celebration, while my older brother consistently wore a plain t-shirt and jeans. Whenever I wore the same, there’d always be a subtle nudge of disapproval from elder relatives. Across the world, in varying degrees and forms, women are often expected, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly, to keep culture alive. But what happens when that responsibility becomes more of a burden than a source of pride?

The Gendering of Culture

Tradition isn’t neutral. It’s often gendered. In many societies, preserving customs, rituals, and community falls disproportionately on women. They’re taught to cook “the right way”, speak the native tongue at home, raise children “with values”, and dress “appropriately” to represent their heritage. Meanwhile, men are more frequently permitted to modernise, to detach, to move on.

According to Dr. Nira Yuval-Davis, a leading scholar on nationalism and gender, women are often cast as “biological reproducers of the nation”, as well as the “symbolic bearers of culture” (Yuval-Davis, 1997). This is especially visible in postcolonial societies and diaspora communities, where cultural survival feels urgent and gender roles become tools of protection, but also control.

Cultural Pride or Unpaid Labour?

Many women find deep meaning in these roles. Preserving tradition can be an act of love, resistance, or healing, especially for communities that have experienced colonisation, displacement, or diaspora. Cultural continuity matters. But the issue arises when this work is not shared equally, when women are expected to be cultural stewards, while others are free to participate only when it suits them.

Anthropologist Sylvia Yanagisako’s research on kinship and labour shows how domestic and cultural reproduction, often viewed as “natural” women’s work, is deeply political and institutional (Yanagisako & Delaney, 1995). When culture is unpaid labour, it becomes invisible.

The Weight of Representation

This expectation can be especially heavy for women navigating multiple identities, immigrants, diasporic youth, women of colour, or those raised in multicultural households. They’re often caught in the middle: modernity on one side, tradition on the other. Say no to a cultural practice and you’re accused of forgetting your roots. Say yes, and you’re potentially reinforcing patriarchal or outdated norms.

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall writes that identity is not fixed; it’s “a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as ‘being’” (Hall, 1990). Yet for women, identity is often policed through their performance of culture: how they dress, speak, marry and mother. These performances are rarely optional. Not all traditions are benign; some reinforce restrictive gender roles or romanticise an inequitable past. Women often face the dual expectation of preserving culture while also questioning and modernising it without offending.

Sharing the Responsibility

Preserving culture should be a collective responsibility. Men, elders, youth, and everyone should play a role. The work of memory, storytelling, ritual, and representation must be recognised not just as a tradition, but as labour. And labour must be shared.

Scholar Leela Fernandes discusses how the “feminisation of cultural authenticity” in diaspora spaces can obscure inequality, where cultural authenticity becomes something women must “perform”, while men get to choose when and how they engage (Fernandes, 2011).

This doesn’t mean discarding tradition entirely. It means asking: Who is benefiting from this custom? Whp is sacrificing? Who gets to choose when tradition matters, and when it doesn’t?

Tradition doesn’t exist on its own; it's carried, often placing the weight on women as love or duty. What starts as care can become an obligation when cultural survival relies on women’s unpaid labour and silence about harmful norms. We must ask: Is this preservation or control? Honouring the past should never sacrifice the present lives of those expected to uphold it. Until we recognise this, tradition will remain a burden, a secret that only women are told to keep.

References

Fernandes, L. (2011). Transnational Feminism in the United States: Knowledge, Ethics, Power. NYU Press.

Hall, S. (1990). Cultural Identity and Diaspora (J. Rutherford, Ed.; Vol. 2). Lawrence & Wishart.

Yanagisako, S. J., & Delaney, C. (1995). Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis. Routledge.

Yuval-Davis, N. (1997). Gender and Nation. SAGE Publications Ltd.