Author, N. Va. native Helen Wan on the ‘bamboo ceiling’
In our discussions, we focus mainly on the inequities that students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds face in high school and in those comparisons, Asian/Asian American students often seem to be doing "better" than other ethnic groups (better test scores, high school graduation rates, etc.). But it was interesting to read that despite those benefits in high school, Asian Americans are equally underrepresented in corporate America (which, admittedly is already a pretty privileged subsection of society):
In the annals of American employment discrimination, “quiet” and “hardworking” may not seem like the worst way to be characterized, Wan acknowledges. But such seemingly benign stereotypes, much like the term “model minority,” mask a less benign truth backed by reams of research: Members of the country’s most highly educated racial group are among the least likely to make it to the top in corporate America....Despite higher educational attainment, however, Asian Americans fare as poorly as other minority groups when it comes to the top jobs at the nation’s 500 largest companies. Only eight of those companies are led by Asian Americans, and only 2.6 percent of the seats on the corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies are held by Asian Americans, according to research by DiversityInc and the think tank Catalyst. (Six African Americans are Fortune 500 CEOs, and 7.4 percent hold corporate board seats; eight Hispanics are Fortune 500 CEOs, and 3.3 percent hold corporate board seats. Nearly 87 percent of corporate board seats at the companies are held by white workers.)
Anyways, just shows that change needs to happen systemically everywhere - not just in high school or in pre-K or for a certain group of students or for a certain city or area.
