Eastern-Western Women’s Self-Concept

Although cross-cultural influences on human behavior have been the subject of many scholarly works, few studies have focused on the life experiences of women from hyphenated cultural identities and how these experiences inform a woman’s view of herself as a sexual being, in particular, the influence of cross-cultural experiences on women with combined Western and Eastern culture references. This study analyzes four interviews with first-generation Israeli-Iranian women, who describe how their sexual self-concepts evolved as a result of living between both cultures, in the “space of the hyphen.” I used the Listening Guide methodology to inform the interviews and the data analysis, which reveal the influence of family power, patriarchal social practices, and the women’s desire to distinguish themselves from cultural norms. It introduces multilayered views and processes associated with each woman’s outlook of her evolving sexual self-concept.