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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is the Glass Ceiling Cracking?
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:09:49 PM)
sian Americans are nearly twice as likely as Whites (55% vs 29%) to graduate from college. For the past decade Asians have outnumbered Whites at UC Berkeley (40% vs 36%), UCLA (41% vs 37%), UC Irvine (56% vs 27%) and UC Riverside (55% vs 27%). Asians also collectively make up 28% of the enrollment at top 20 business schools. AA comprise 60% of Silicon Valley's professional and technical workforce.
The one area in which Asian Americans have traditionally been underrepresented is the corporate executive suite. Everyone has heard of Charles Wang, founder/chairman of Computer Associates, Jerry Yang, founder/co-chief Yahoo of Yahoo! and a half dozen other AA success stories. But they are the founders of the companies they head up.
Looking at the Fortune 1000, Asian Americans account for barely 1.5% of top executives, a third of our representation in the general population and far less than what one might expect from our success in college and professional schools. The only visible AA CEO of a top 50 corporation is Avon's Andrea Jung.
Undoutedly many factors contribute to Asian underrepresentation in the executive suites of American companies. The most frequently cited include the collective youth and inexperience of Asians in management positions, difficulty of fitting into the corporate cultures of old-line companies, propensity for leaving to work on startups, higher concentrations in technical fields and language deficiencies. Then of course there's the factor many suspect but few have been able to prove: racial stereotypes and prejudices.
Is the underrepresentation merely the product of benign sociological factors or is there still a glass celiing that keeps Asians from climbing above middle and lower management?
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Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
I've been through the glass ceiling questions as I've climbed the corporate ladder. I am now on the verge of entering the exec suite at my mid-sized manufacturing firm based on Illinois. I will be only the second non-white there when it happens at the end of the year (the other is a Black woman who is much older than me). I know it will happen because I have been instrumental in building up the company's most important revenue stream. I will be about 13 years younger than the average age of the other top execs in the company.
Based on my experience, I can say that race has never been a factor for me. I know that's hard to believe, but I have always been so far ahead of the curve in my performance, first as a junior account exec, then as a sales manager and so on up the ladder, that if anything I have always been treated as a "fairhaired boy" instead of an outsider.
The biggest strike against me has been my youth. Being better than everyone of yoru peers forces you to interact with men (and one woman) who are much older than you and I do believe there is a generation gap that can hinder communications at times. There is also not the same level of camaraderie and ease on both sides.
I have tried to encourage the hiring of more Asians into the firm, but frankly, I have simply not see many even applying on the sales/marketing side. I do believe our company is very receptive and even somewhat especially accommoating to those Asians who have applied. But as the article says, some tend to get impatient with the pace of corporate promotions and leave for smaller companies or to go into business.
All I can say is, I hope more AA will take the time to explore the advantages of working for a big established company. It requires immersing into the cultture and a good deal of patience, but the rewards are excellent, let me tell you. I believe my life is both more challenging and easier than those of my Asian peers who chose the lone-wolf path into the medical or tech or legal fields. I make as much as most of them and have many more fringe benefits (country club, travel, pensions, health & dental, etc), plus a lot fewer six or seven day work weeks.
AM Exec
Tuesday, Apr 23, 2002 at 19:22:41 (PST)
"Now, for the first time, the majority of American auto-workers are working for Japanese and German manufacturers. And in Japanese corporations, yes, most managers are Asian."
That is true. I know a white girl from Pittsburgh Ohio whose dad used to work for Firestone, but then when he got laid off he went to work for Hangook tires, a Korean tire company. His managers are Korean, and her family feel obligated to invited them and their families over for dinner. Its pretty cool, but I still find it hilarious that he has to kiss up to Asian managers. Talk about a blow to white pride, eh?
Interesting....
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at 03:46:46 (PST)
AAM:
"More diversity less corruption."
Umm ... too many counterexamples to list them all:
Hong Kong is 97% Chinese and one of the least corrupt places in the world ... either in public or private sector. Indonesia has hundreds of languages and ethnic groups and can't even get an aid package to remote areas without it being ransacked by every government official along the way. Mexico is the ultimate racial mixing pot, and hasn't produced any big international corporate successes (aside from Cemex, whose effectively monoracial board of directors has been kicking the hell out of the diverse American cement companies).
The market takes care of corruption if allowed to function, as we are seeing in recent days in the stock market - companies which keep issuing too many B.S. obfuscatory "earning revisions" have lost a LOT of shareholder confidence. Companies which are in bed with the government in order to assure their continued survival get swept away by free trade.
T.H. Lien
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 22:28:30 (PST)
be,
How long is the apprenticeship at the firm your with. Because it might be awhile before you can spread your wings.
AC Dropout
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 11:03:42 (PST)
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