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LA CROSSE, Wis. — Maysee Yang Herr was not yet a year old when she moved to Wisconsin from Thailand in 1976, and as a “1.5” generation Hmong American, she has seen firsthand the evolution of the Hmong-American family.

“Traditionally, the Hmong had an agrarian lifestyle, so you had large families to have more helping hands. But when people moved to the U.S., they learned it was more of a liability than a help. Now many younger generations have only a few children,” Herr said during a presentation Tuesday to UW-L’s Centennial Hall that was part of Global Initiatives Week.

“The boys were sent to school to bring prestige back to the family,” she said. “If a woman went, that prestige would be passed on to her married family, so why bother? Today Hmong parents understand education is important for both boys and girls.”

The first in her family to pursue higher education, Herr is grateful for the shift in perspective and conducted a study of a mix of 63 first- and second-generation Hmong-American mothers to see how their parenting styles differ. Mothers were placed across a wall from their children and directed to describe a shape to them, which they would draw from instructions.