As Asian Pacific American Heritage Month draws to a close, I’d like to share reflections on the struggles Asian-Americans face when reaching for leadership positions. Let’s talk about the Bamboo Ceiling, the Glass Ceiling, and the Sticky Floor.
The “Bamboo Ceiling” refers to an unconscious bias against hiring or promoting people who have Southeast Asian backgrounds. After all, bamboo is a type of grassy plant native to Asia. The word bamboo comes from the Chinese language, meaning “to bend.”
This bamboo ceiling — this unconscious bias — comes from racial stereotypes. This form of discrimination cuts across so, so many industries: sports, politics, law, science, education, business, media and the arts.
Asian-American women may also face discrimination at work due to their gender. This limitation for women — dubbed the “Glass Ceiling” — slows them from reaching higher levels within their company or organization.
During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I spoke on my experience about what it’s like to be an Asian-American man as physician, leader, and mentor. We also discussed joys and challenges in work life — such as the Model Minority Myth, the Bamboo Ceiling, and cultural stereotypes. You can listen to The DEI Shift episode hosted by Dr. Tammy Lin and Dr. Tiffany Leung at the podcast link above; I’ve also distilled my experiences below.
How the Bamboo Ceiling traps Asians
Similar to the term “glass ceiling” for women and other historically oppressed cultures, the term “bamboo ceiling” describes obstacles and barriers that Asian Americans face in reaching the upper echelons of leadership and management.
The result of this “bamboo ceiling” is a lack of leadership representation amongst Asian Americans. This still happens even if they — as a demographic group — are more likely to have a college degree than the general population.
The bamboo ceiling in the United States is a subtle and complex form of discrimination. These groups are often subject to “model minority” stereotypes and viewed as quiet, hardworking, family-oriented, high-achieving in technical fields. Society may view them as passive, non-confrontational, and submissive. This sounds suitable for engineering, sciences, and healthcare jobs!
But Asian-Americans aren’t all alike: each Asian-American has their own set of cultural struggles and traumas. All of these are based on when they immigrated to the U.S., why they immigrated, and from where. This means that — within the umbrella of Asian-Americans — there are wider disparities amongst subgroups. But very little of this is studied or even represented in a meaningful, significant way in American society.
How to break the Bamboo Ceiling
American society may view Asian-Americans as a model minority—that they’re successful, that they have a high level of income, and that they’re well-educated. In fact, I became a software engineer at a startup myself, but few Asian-Americans comprised my company’s leadership ranks.
Why was that? I think back to that first job as a software engineer, and my times in both college and graduate school. I was always quiet & always very shy. And I did what I was told. The Asian-American upbringing emphasizes these cultural values: to be polite, to be obedient, and to do what you’re told. And throughout business and medical school, I followed these Asian cultural values of “getting along and putting your head down.”
There’s also the concept of assimilation — where persons who immigrate adopt a new culture. Often, becoming a minority in a totally different culture leads one to feel they don’t belong and don’t fit in. Others may inflict microaggressions or outright violence upon them, as evidenced by history of assaults on persons of AAPI descent, Japanese incarceration in World War II, and other historical wounds. It feels safer to remain silent and keep quiet.
But as I enter my middle-age years, I realized I needed and wanted to improve my career, serve my family, and advocate for my friends. I gradually formed my own self-identity, my values, and learned how to get things done by making my own opportunities.
I sought out mentors such as communication coaches and classes, enrolled in business school, and listened to leadership training videos. Business school gave me the technical and soft skills in managing teams and communicating with people. Learning from a mentor and going outside my comfort zone helped me grow. Mentoring is the process of helping another person grow and develop into their best self, while also learning from them. It’s about sharing knowledge, experience, wisdom, and resources with someone who wants to improve themselves.
And, I learned to step forward whenever health catastrophes affected my colleagues and my family: I became more proactive at finding solutions.
If Asians are model minorities, why not naturally advance into leadership?
As Asian-Americans, we’re less likely to obtain leadership roles. We’re stuck in the “middle”, which is how we hit “the bamboo ceiling.” The stereotype of Asian people as “shy” and “introverted” has been around for centuries, making them seem like leadership is not their forte. As a result, Asian-Americans over-represent front-line healthcare and workers.
Another similar term equivalent to “the bamboo ceiling” is “the sticky floor.” When applied to the Asian-American experience, the “sticky floor” keeps young professionals of Asian descent trapped in low-level, low-mobility jobs. Certain subpopulations of Asian Americans graduate from universities in high numbers, and organizations might hire them in high numbers as well. However, within a few years, many might find themselves continuing to stay on the “sticky floor,” stuck in dead-end careers. Ultimately, there’s limited chance to obtain upper-level careers.
What fuels the lack of Asian-American leadership representation? Misconceptions and biases. Asian-Americans — stereotyped as smart — face perceptions that they lack social skills, acting unfriendly, and unemotional. These harmful stereotypes make Asians less likely to advance into leadership positions.
How “FOMO”—Fear of Missing Out—are linked to the “Model Minority” & the Bamboo Ceiling
I also learned how to get rid of “FOMO,” that worry about being left behind by others. With social media — especially LinkedIn — I got to view others’ accomplishments while feeling left behind. This caused a great deal of anxiety.
It would seem like the “model minority myth” would give Asian-Americans a certain advantage. It helps reinforce particular stereotypes with positive reinforcement. This positive reinforcement can come praise for being a good worker, praise for being great at generating clinical revenue, praise that otherwise makes it hard for people to grow into leadership roles.
Why grow beyond that? That positive reinforcement can keep someone from realizing their full potential. They aren’t given other opportunities to go grow beyond their current position. The “Bamboo Ceiling” grows and traps them in, and the “Sticky Floor” grows even stickier, like a frog sitting in boiling water.
So, I had to learn how to say “no” to low-value opportunities. I set boundaries. Although I’m still overcoming the “people pleaser” mentality, a long time ago, I was quite the doormat and would take on roles to satisfy others. Setting boundaries helps me find a balance between working hard and challenging myself without compromising my mental health and energy. (I teach more about this in my course, Hack Productivity.)
Call to action: Take-aways for the audience
I ended the podcast with some words about understanding and learning from the Asian-American experience:
My parting advice would be to never stop learning... Try out different ways of learning. Mentorship, mentorship courses, well, maybe once travel starts again, by traveling to a different regions and seeing how different people operate. Asian-Americans are not all the same.
Asian Americans from mainland United States are definitely different from Asian Americans in Hawaii, where they are they are the majority culture. And so recognizing that — and learning others peoples’ stories — is helpful.
Credits:
Co-hosts/Producers: Dr. Tammy Lin, Dr. Tiffany Leung
Check out the companion podcast: “At the Intersection of Asian + American + Female + Physician + Leader”
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