Chicana Gang Members: Resistance to Traditional Women's Roles

This is an ethnographic project designed to explore the lives, needs, and struggles of three Chicana gang members in the Lower Yakima Valley in Washington. The intersections of race, class, and gender are discussed and viewed through the narratives of these young women. The objective was to explore whether the gang is an outlet for resistance to social structures and traditional women’s roles. Though each of these Chicanas were in different stages in their development, it is nevertheless clear that each experienced the gang as a “safe agency” in which they were free to resist traditional roles and incorporate nontraditional roles while continuing to struggle for acceptance in terms of mainstream values.Acevedo, Patricia and Steven R. Burkett. Chicana Gang Members: Resistance to Traditional Women's Roles. WSU McNair Journal. Volume 1 (Fall 2001), p 1-7