Is the US’ ‘bamboo ceiling’ slowing East Asian career progress?

A closer look finds East Asians significantly behind South Asians in climbing corporate rungs in the US
One difference could be that modesty, reticence and other traditional East Asian attributes are seen as weaknesses in the brash, self-promoting West

Mark Magnierin New York

Published: 8:30pm, 11 Mar 2024

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When Yinuo Li made partner at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company in 2012, she was proud of her accomplishment. A classic overachiever, she had graduated from Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University in 2000 and received a PhD in molecular biology at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004 before joining McKinsey the following year.

But as she looked around, she couldn’t help noticing that there were only two East Asians who reached the lofty heights at McKinsey, out of some 3,000 partners worldwide. Nor was McKinsey alone in those odds. According to the Executive Parity Index, white women and men are more than twice as likely to reach the executive suite than their Asian counterparts.

Despite attaining some of the highest educational levels, median incomes and lowest unemployment rates in the US and being seen as the “model minority” – a mixed blessing – Asians’ record on breaking through the “bamboo ceiling” into the top rungs has been underwhelming.

Although it is easy to blame racism and bias in the white-dominated culture, no doubt a factor, the reality is more nuanced. While Asians have traditionally prided themselves on their maths and science prowess, a closer look finds East Asians significantly behind South Asians in breaking through, as seen at Google, Microsoft and IBM, not to mention Starbucks and Novartis. Across S&P 500 companies, South Asians even lap whites in the ratio of CEO to population.

South Asians also do well in politics. While East Asians are hardly absent, including US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, some 130 South Asians have positions in the administration of President Joe Biden.

In addition to a stereotype that East Asians lack leadership skills, studies suggest they are seen as lacking in creativity, assertiveness and communication skills and, while competent, are not warm and sociable.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook look on as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a meeting with senior officials and CEOs in the East Room the White House on June 23, 2023. Photo: AFP

One problem is that many of the attributes traditionally valued in Confucian East Asian societies – modesty, reticence, thinking of others first, letting your work speak for itself – are perceived as weaknesses in the loud, brash, self-promoting West, particularly the United States.

The point is not to pit different Asian minorities against each other, said Li. But having a strong point of view, seeking visibility, being assertive and vocalising opinions with conviction – common ingredients of success in the US – do not always come naturally to East Asians and can even appear rude among those taught not to challenge authority figures.

Some studies suggest East Asians also tend to be more insular than other ethnic groups, socialising more among themselves than with outsiders, undercutting the social networks and reputation needed to forge broader leadership credentials.

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Li was among several successful East Asians brought together recently by the Committee of 100 civic group for a bit of soul searching on their own struggle with bamboo ceilings. As their careers played out, most said they developed workarounds.

Former US ambassador to China Gary Locke said he realised as a young prosecutor that it was not enough to win a criminal case, it was vital to spend time building a social network of colleagues from other ethnic groups and communities, building trust and recognition that helped as his political career advanced.

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Mari Yoshihara, the first Asian woman to head the American studies department at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, cited the importance of trying to improve access for other Asians on your way up – without fostering exclusivity – even as you pursue individual ambition. And for Brian Wong, an entrepreneur and founder of independent media company RADII, it is about feeling self-confident and believing you have a right to sit at the table with everyone else.

East Asians can also be victims of their history and culture, rooted in Confucianism and principles of hierarchy, harmony and virtue. While this may engender a belief, even feelings of superiority, that the East is ordered, relative to the aggressive, upstart West, this mental architecture can also slow adaptation. East Asian societies are hardly free of brutal competition, it just takes different forms, said Li, pointing out that a pretence that the Cultural Revolution was not assertive, if not downright aggressive, is illusory.

Perhaps a real sign that the bamboo ceiling is crumbling will come rather paradoxically when East Asians and other immigrants feel comfortable being average, a point made by Vietnamese Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and others.

Minorities too often bear the burden of having to represent their entire community in public roles, said Yoshihara. “Asians should have the luxury of mediocrity.”

Mark Magnier is the Post’s US deputy bureau chief