Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Advancing Asian Women Leaders in Academia

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Through the collections of autoethnography by Asian women leaders, this symposium scrutinizes the “bamboo ceiling” where they are highly qualified, yet lack representation or success in leadership positions in academia. It explores how stereotypes about Asian women negatively impact their leadership, what an aggression-filled climate is like that prevents Asian women leaders from succeeding, how they use code-switching to fit in a traditional leadership role, how Asian women leaders use Suda - open-ended nonhierarchical conversational and deeply emotional storytelling - to advance themselves in leadership roles, and how their hyphenated-identities are positioned in “neither here nor there” in leadership spaces. The ultimate objective is to construct a collective mechanism to break the bamboo ceiling and advocate for Asian women leaders’ career advancement.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Education and Research

Chair

• Yukari Takimoto Amos, Eastern Michigan University

Papers

• Asian Women-Specific Stereotypes and Their Impact on Leadership Opportunities - Candis Eckert, Pierce College

• Navigating Micro- and Macro- Aggressions: A South Asian Female’s Experiences as an Educator and Leader - Rupam Saran, Medgar Evers College - CUNY

• Reflections on Asian Women Leaders’ Code-Switching - Emily Lin, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Constructing Educational Leadership Development Possibilities through Suda - Julie Kang, Seattle University; Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa

• Hyphenated Leader Identities in Higher Education - Sumi Hagiwara, Montclair State University

Discussant

• Rachel Endo, University of Washington - Tacoma