The responsibilities they must take just to survive and make a living for their children ostracize them from the traditional definition of Khmer women. To deviate from the definition, the image so entrenched in Khmer literature and culture, a women ceases to be defined as Khmer. The backlash in response to resettlement in America has been an adamant urge to control younger Cambodian women from attaining a higher education, from entering the work force and from leaving the family home. Older Cambodian men complain of an increasing generation gap and say that younger people have lost their culture and no longer listen to their parents. What they do not realize is that the demands on the Khmer woman have changed dramatically.
Traditionalists feel their own power has been undermined by the resettlement.
The children, who have learned the language and have adapted to American lifestyles have become the family spokesperson in dealing with social worker or figures of authority or have become the delinquent, the gangsta out for retribution. The Khmer family structure has altered for both genders, but because Khmer culture has invested so much in the preservation of their culture through women, the gender changes have been exceptionally astonishing for the community in search of its old identity. Like the smashed sculptures along the walls of Angkor, the Khmer women's identity has been an intimate concern of all Cambodians. And the image's deterioration has direct consequences to each person's identity. Unfortunately, the women, caught between the responsibility of fostering the Khmer identity for future generations and finding their place within the new power stratum, are blamed and blame themselves for the reshifting of gender roles.