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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is the Glass Ceiling Cracking?
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:09:48 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?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
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.]
To everyone:
Do read Deborah Woo's "Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans." She's got some of the evidence you've always suspected but could not document.
Asian Dominatrix
Tuesday, July 16, 2002 at 21:49:13 (PDT)
AM exec,
By denying that the glass ceiling exists you are doing many people a diservice. I hope you can sleep with yourself.
JC Wong
Thursday, July 11, 2002 at 06:35:10 (PDT)
AM exec,
Don't dish out that drivel. It is hard to keep your nose tothe grindstone when you see less qualified, lazier white counterparts rocket up the rungs of management when Asians do not. I was the highest ranking minority male in a well-known multinational company and continued to see people who joined the company after me leapfrog me. You are deluding yourself and others. Why do you think so many asians at big companies get so frustrated and leave to start their own companies.
Reality
Thursday, July 11, 2002 at 06:33:19 (PDT)
The National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) is conducting a study with Indiana University to better gauge the degree with which this happens. If you want to make your voice heard, I highly encourage everyone to download the PDF and to participate in this study. The deadline for study submissions is the first week of June, 2002.
Edward Yang
Edward_Yang@naaap.org
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 20:43:23 (PDT)
MLK,
Unfortunately, in my experience there is really no substitute for long, uncomplaining service when it comes to real advancement up the higher rungs of the corporate ladder. It's in the nature of the beast. A corporation is an entity that depends on a certain degree of institutional relationships and memory for continued viability. It would be disasterous in most cases to promote people without regard to loyalty, commitment, etc.
But if you really want to move up faster in a corporate environment, you might want to try moving to a smaller company. Smaller companies have to be quicker about taking advantage of risky opportunities in order to get an edge over bigger rivals. So they are much more open to taking gambles on managers that show promise without considering their track record over the years.
Good luck!
be,
Yes, luck does have something to do with it, but luck tends to even out over a period of many years. I don't consider it to have been a primary factor in my success here. I've worked too hard and long to believe that.
AC Dropout,
I certainly do keep my eyes open for young Asians in my neck of the woods as it would give me a lot of satisfaction to help them along. I have not seen more than a few coming through, however. That's one of my few regrets in having cast my lot with an oldline company in the midwest.
AM Exec
Sunday, April 28, 2002 at 18:42:19 (PDT)
be,
I think you need to rethink your philosophy on how a corporate environment works. I mean "fair" is nice and good and all.
But in practice AM Exec brings up a good point that it was someone from above who pulled him through the ranks. Granted his above average performance in his firm, might have gotten him noticed by that executive in the first place. But the other aspect of his rise was that the executive endear himself to the promotion of AM Exec.
AC dropout
Sunday, April 28, 2002 at 12:30:23 (PDT)
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