Silicon Valley’s Bamboo Ceiling
By Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man
Here’s an interesting article in the San Jose Mercury News that pokes some holes in the generally accepted notion of “success” among Asian Americans living and working in Silicon Valley: Despite their success, Asians not rising to heights of Silicon Valley’s corporate world.
A survey of local executives reveals that while Asians make up more than a third of the work force at some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies, they only represent about 6 percent of board members and about 10 percent of corporate officers of the Bay Area’s 25 largest companies.
According to a new study, among the 25 largest Bay Area companies by revenue, 12 had no Asian board members, and five had no Asian corporate officers. Despite the growing prominence of Asians at Silicon Valley tech companies, they’ve made no gains in the share of seats on the boards of large tech companies since 1999. What’s up with that?
It’s the dreaded Bamboo Ceiling, of course. You’d think that of all places, the Bay Area, where Asians are at least 23 percent of the work force at Silicon Valley companies like Cisco Systems, Intel, Sun Microsystems and eBay, we’d see more Asians at the upper levels of management. But it’s
the same old story!
–
Photo of Palo Alto employees Buck Gee and Wesley Hom from the San Jose Mercury News
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Katie wrote:
Agggghhhh – can we NOT call it the bamboo ceiling?
That is so irritating!
Posted 05 Jun 2009 at 1:33 pm ¶
Eric wrote:
Seriously. The phrase “Bamboo Ceiling” is a really unfortunate choice of words.
Posted 05 Jun 2009 at 2:08 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Re: Bamboo Ceiling.
I hear you. Carmen also hates the term, but AAM and others do use it as a way to specifically denote the racial aspect of the issue.
If you all have an idea for an alternate term, I’d be happy to use it when we cover this issue for the site.
Posted 05 Jun 2009 at 2:12 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
Why not just “glass ceiling for Asians/Asian Americans”? I didn’t think that the term “glass ceiling” applied only to any particular group. I’m not trying to imply that the author of the piece is any less aware of the problematic nature of the new term, but I don’t see a reason to give it any more airplay than necessary.
Posted 05 Jun 2009 at 4:21 pm ¶
Chris Diaz wrote:
Why not just call it what it is for all people of color, the white ceiling?
Alot of white people are great people, but the white “system” in America is like the flu virus. It’s everywhere, comes in many strains, mutates into new forms, and requires constant attention to at least run some kind of interference to the damage it causes.
Only in this case, whtie people washing their hands of it actually makes the problem worse.
Posted 05 Jun 2009 at 8:30 pm ¶
RJG wrote:
Going to add my +1 to the “Bamboo ceiling” term inducing eye rolls.
But they we enter this awkward situation where it’s Asian people coining the phrase (it seems), so this white dude has no fucking idea how to approach that.
BUUUT then again, term aside, it’s not like anything else is wrong. Focusing on the term it’s given seems like a huge tangential that would really distract from the real issue.
Posted 06 Jun 2009 at 12:55 pm ¶
Katie wrote:
Yeah, the term is secondary to the issue at hand. There is not only a barrier for Asians, it seems, but also maybe a barrier for Asian women. The two people in the picture are both men.
Posted 06 Jun 2009 at 2:07 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:
@ Katie:
Excellent point on the invisibility of Asian women in Silicon Valley’s engineering networks and industries where Asians and Asian Americans are employed. I remember reading a piece on Silicon Valley’s ethnic associations which were largely established to counteract the effects of the “bamboo ceiling.” (It was referred to as the “glass ceiling” in this piece . . . though I’ve seen the “bamboo ceiling” before.) One person in the article: “Why do you think there are so many Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley? Because they know that sooner or later they will be held back.” If you can, look for it and read it: “The Origins of Silicon Valley’s Ethnic Networks.” Or I can scan the reading and distribute it if any of you are interested. Of the few people interviewed, only one was female. I don’t think the piece really touched on how race and gender could factor into one’s inability to ascend higher levels within the corporate world.
But the article is good at explaining the ethnic networks and their origins and why they are necessary.
Posted 06 Jun 2009 at 8:16 pm ¶
octogalore wrote:
Interesting piece. I see that in the legal world as well. There are a decent number of Asian partners, and there are more Asian equity partners via demographic percentage than female partners, but they’re not often the ones in the corner offices. And the infrequent ones in the corner offices (eg, Morgan Chu who is head of Irell or
Rohan S. Weerasinghe who is head of Shearman) aren’t Asian women.
Having worked in Japan, I wonder how much of this is the ceiling (I think this is necessarily a hefty component) and how much is the higher emphasis on self-promotion in the US culture vs the Asian culture. When I was at IBM-Tokyo, execs would introduce themselves first by mentioning IBM, then their name and possibly rank, and there is more of a modified lockstep promotional formula than an eat-what-you-kill formula as we have here, although I think this is changing.
I also think that the entrenched leadership at Fortune 500s is white male and they tend to pass on the reigns to folks who look like them. Additionally, the Fortune 500s (the ones discussed in the article) are less lean and mean than VC companies and high tech companies. I think the composition of the latter in the Silicon Valley, including at the highest levels, is much more heavily representative regarding Asians, especially Indian Americans.
Katie’s point re Asian women is a key one, I think. The Valley culture is a boys’ club, and the racial barriers are intensified for women.
Posted 06 Jun 2009 at 9:23 pm ¶
dan wrote:
I’m sure a good number of Asians in the American tech industry are raised in America for most of their lives and likely have adopted American values, so the point on cultural differences is moot.
Posted 07 Jun 2009 at 3:53 am ¶
PureGracefulTree wrote:
Here’s the perspective of a female Silicon Valley engineer:
I would agree that culture is a large part of it. My first boss was a young, energetic Asian man who, although he had a pretty strong accent, was very extroverted and knew how to “schmooze”; he quickly zipped up the corporate ladder and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does end up in an executive position someday. It was his opinion that his fellow Asians were responsible for their own lack of success, because you’ve got to play the game like Americans to make it in America.
Is anyone out there familiar with the work of Eric H. F. Law? His books (The Wolf Shall Dwell With the Lamb, etc.) are on multiculturalism and spirituality, but the analysis can be applied equally well to the corporate world. As octogalore mentioned, in Asian cultures the standard is generally NOT to promote oneself, but to do good work and wait to be noticed. But that’s not going to work in America, where everyone’s too busy promoting himself to pay attention to how well others are doing. In a clash of cultures, the Western style is going to win.
I think technical success is less dependent on personality and culture, which is why a geek with no social skills or a recent immigrant with poor English ability can nonetheless excel on a technical track. But when we start talking about management roles, it’s a different game altogether where the old boys’ network comes much more into play. There are many fields in which the workforce demographics are diverse or even minority-heavy, but those at the top are still white men.
As for being female, I’ve found that I experience far less sexism in the corporate world than I ever did as a graduate student in physics. When you’re in a highly specialized field, people tend to respect you if you can do the work, even if they’re skeptical initially. But again, once you start looking at executive positions, they’re almost exclusively dominated by men, and the few that are held by women are almost all white women.
Posted 07 Jun 2009 at 6:02 am ¶
Ed Y wrote:
“they’ve made no gains in the share of seats on the boards of large tech companies since 1999″
How much turnover have those boards experienced since 1999? Or even 1989? I can easily imagine that many of those boards still comprise the founding members of those companies.
Also, how many Asians qualified to sit on a board simply go off instead and start their own companies?
Posted 07 Jun 2009 at 3:26 pm ¶
kate wrote:
i feel that ascribing to predominately “cultural” explanations unfairly places the onus on the Asian Americans, as in “they aren’t doing enough to promote themselves,” rather on the higher ranking members of the board, as in “they aren’t doing enough to ensure that they aren’t only promoting people who look like them.”
Posted 07 Jun 2009 at 5:06 pm ¶
Ed Y wrote:
Note too, board members are often voted into their positions by the shareholders.
Posted 07 Jun 2009 at 7:34 pm ¶
Restructure! wrote:
@PureGracefulTree:
Do you mean far more sexism instead of far less? The first sentence doesn’t seem to match the rest of the paragraph. I thought being a graduate student in physics would involve being in a highly specialized field, and looking at executive positions would apply in the corporate world.
Posted 08 Jun 2009 at 8:40 am ¶
Restructure! wrote:
I’m not sure this is about “Asian cultures”, as it assumes that all Asians are foreigners and no Asians are born and raised in the West. In Western culture, women are also encouraged to do good work and wait to be noticed, and are discouraged from promoting themselves compared to men. Perhaps there is also a racial hierarchy, and people of color who promote themselves are shot down as being uppity.
I worked in a tech environment where I was the only Asian female among Asian males, and so gender, not race, became foregrounded. At first I thought that if I did good work I would be noticed, and whenever I challenged a male, he assumed that I was in the wrong because I was female. I thought that to keep work relations from becoming hostile, I should just do good work and avoid power struggles. Soon after, I got pissed off by the sexism and didn’t care to lose my job, and so I became a bitch who told men what they were doing wrong; I knew it offended their male tech egos to be corrected in technical matters by a woman.
It happened to work, as I knew what I was doing. I think some people hate me, but if I didn’t promote myself, they would continue to think I was an incompetent female.
My point is that I worked in a tech environment that was dominated by Asian males, and I was confronted with the male culture of competition. Maybe it would have been subdued if white men were the majority, or maybe the glass ceiling for Asians is similar to the glass ceiling for women.
Posted 08 Jun 2009 at 9:10 am ¶
PureGracefulTree wrote:
@ Restructure: Both my academic and corporate life (as an engineer, not an executive) have been in “highly specialized fields.” I’m an electronic design automation engineer, an industry which employs many science and engineering Ph.Ds. And I did mean LESS sexism. In my experience—which I recognize isn’t shared by all women—a company that cares about its bottom line is going to hire the best engineer for the job, and in a specialized industry where there aren’t many candidates for a given position, passing up a qualified person just because she’s female is just plain stupid. (Not that people can’t be stupid when it comes to personal prejudice!) It’s more of a meritocracy than in either academia or on an executive track, I think.
Either that, or the “females aren’t good at math and science” and the “Asians are good at math and science” cancel out, so that an Asian female is actually pretty neutral in terms of stereotypes.
Posted 08 Jun 2009 at 3:21 pm ¶
Steve wrote:
@12 and @14 — i disagree with your assertion that there is low turnover in tech companies’ boards from 1989 or 1999. by SEC regulations public companies at least need to have majority independent boards, which eliminates the possibility that its mostly the original founders who are on the board.
as for shareholders choosing — its true that they vote for or against persons but in practice most shareholders simply fail to vote (which due to the current broker non-voting rules allows them to be cast in favor of the company slate in any non-proxy fight situation) or vote for the company slate so in reality the board’s nominating committee has almost a certain chance of deciding who fills a vacancy. while its true that SEC regulations require public companies to put in their annual reports the way in which you can send recommendations to the nominating committee, those are simply recommendations and the nominating committee can reject them within their discretion.
private company boards are almost always the founder and the VCs who are currently into the company/any strategics that came alongside. shareholder vote concepts are sort of irrelevant there because the shareholding is basically concentrated between founders/money and those 2 power groups drive the appointments.
so in the end its always existing executives or existing board members that can help shape who gets put up (in public situations) or straight up elected (in private situations) and because most existing executives and directors are white and male, the boys club effect continues to hurt the chances of minorities to get those positions.
Posted 08 Jun 2009 at 4:26 pm ¶
PureGracefulTree wrote:
@ Restructure 16: good point about the assumptions about “Asians”. I’d assumed that the article was referring to first-generation immigrants who came to the U.S. for college or graduate school, not second-gens or those who immigrated as children, like Jerry Yang. If even relatively assimilated Asian-Americans aren’t making it to the top, then I think it is important to examine whether it’s a matter of race as well as (or at least in addition to) culture.
Posted 09 Jun 2009 at 5:02 am ¶
Ed Y wrote:
“its always existing executives or existing board members that can help shape who gets put up”
However, even in public corporations within the technology industry, don’t those execs and board members hold fairly substantial shares of equity in their respective enterprises?
Posted 12 Jun 2009 at 1:37 am ¶
mT wrote:
It’s sad that we attribute the disparity in Corporate America to cultural differences. However, what is even sadder is that there’s this notion that in order for Asian Americans to break through this ceiling, Asian Americans must immerse themselves in this corporate culture, play the corporate game, and “promote” themselves more. I think that some of us recognize that when we talk about having the ‘chops’ to cut it in Corporate America, we are not simply talking about being more aggressive, extroverted, or rubbing elbows with the bosses and higher ups. Instead what we are often talking about is a complete buy in and adoption of a psychotic corporate mindset with very conservative and right wing, republican values that favors those minorities who happily succumb to the entrenched power hierarchy and the proverbial ‘good old boys’ office politics.
So this good old boys network includes free market self serving white men (driven by their egos and personal wealth accumulation) and their minority agents. Minority agents are women, minority women, and minority men who have abandoned their values and roots and have accepted the social and class paradigm to obtain status, wealth, power, the American dream, or whatever it is that this paradigm promises them. Racism in Corporate America occurs across many different types of industries, companies, and geographic locations because the corporate and business world in general is based on the same corporate mindset and value system. Though granted some types of industries or businesses will have more deep rooted and prevalent racist employment, promotion, and hiring practices, it only takes the right or wrong mix of people at the top in management and or the board room to produce racist and bias organizational structures and behaviors. And in today’s environment, the racism is not as clear cut as ‘oh, the black guy wasn’t hired because he is black’ or ‘hey, the Asian guy wasn’t promoted because he’s Asian’. It’s much more sinister, manipulative, and covert than that.
I worked for a metal stamping manufacturing subsidiary of a huge conglomerate parent company on the East Coast. Everyone there including the hourly direct labor people were conservatives who all voted against Obama because they all believed in at least one of three things; that Obama would interfere in Corporate America, that Obama would increase taxes to support more social programs, or that a black man would not make a good president. This sentiment extended beyond just the subsidiary and could be found in much higher management and executive levels as I would often take part in meetings with the divisional vice president, the group CFO, the group President of Operations, etc and saw first-hand the inner workings and thinking of the good old boys club.
The General Manager of my subsidiary when in work conversations with me would refer to the Group Controller at the time as a “whore”, a “slut”, and a “cunt”. I much later on understood that it was a kind of good old boy club / loyalty test. I much later on revealed these specific comments among other unprofessional and frankly illegal behavior from the GM to the HR manager who happens to be a white woman. Her response to the sexist, derogatory comments was that it all depended on context and what the GM meant by it. She said that she would not report, document, investigate, or follow up on the comments unless I specifically wanted to. It was pretty obvious that I was in a no win situation. This is what I mean by blind minority agents who have accepted their role in the system.
Another example of this great American corporation was when my divisional boss who was from Michigan and who also worked out of Michigan, on a few occasions with no context, unprovoked, out of the blue, and probably out of insecurity would say things like “You must think I am stupid, a simple country bumpkin, but I am really smart” or “This company is the only MBA I have ever needed.” But the best line of all occurred when I argued, fought, and objected as best I could to the half ass promotion they gave me after they had lied for months up to the week of the actual promotion about the promotion they would give me. They lied about the bonus policy as they denied me any bonus participation. Nothing about my competence or work performance was brought up as they couldn’t even give me a half decent and logical explanation or answer to any of the points I brought up. Instead, the Michigan boss got really heated and looked me in the eye with a lot of hate and disdain and shouted out of nowhere as if it was a subconscious inner battle he was having “You must think I’m some stupid hick from the Midwest!” I had no idea that he would play the ‘stupid hick from the Midwest’ card at all because it’s usually us colored folks who baselessly do that type of thing. I guess he had to resort to something when he couldn’t intelligently, maturely, and professionally address any of my concerns about the half ass, token promotion he had given me. I am the one getting screwed over and got set up, and he’s mad about some insecurity he has about his Midwestern upbringing. It was so rich. It was so surreal. Needless to say things didn’t work out and I soon left the company. I went from being praised by the chairman of the conglomerate parent company to being ousted because I won’t play the role of the subservient minority. I seriously thought about legal action, but it would have been very hard to win legally and I don’t have a fortune to afford good legal representation for an extended period of time.
After I left, they gave all of my work to my direct report who I hired and trained so well, and who happened to be Asian. My Michigan boss especially likes her for a few reasons. And it wasn’t until later that I understood what one of these reasons was. She and her husband are card-carrying Republicans and she basically hates blacks. I found this out through a conversation I had with her after she was hired. I could not make up any of this stuff in my wildest dreams. Anyway, they are screwing her over just like they screwed me over. But the difference is besides the fact that she shares the same politics as the company, she is the epitome of the model minority who truly believes in the system. She should be able to reach a certain level in the Corporate world before hitting the class ceiling, be obliviously content about the peak, and happily oblivious to how she got there or what it all means.
There was a very real and alive institutionalized system of racist corporate bullsh^t existing not only at the subsidiary, but throughout the division and the rest of the companies of this large conglomerate. How far reaching it extended was anyone’s guess, but I have a feeling it goes pretty deep.
I think anyone who aspires and actually reaches great heights in the corporate world have sold out in some respect. But it is because minorities are faced with so much more adversity, that they actually sell out more to get to where they are or want to be. And I find that very discouraging. It’s also somewhat tricky when addressing disparities and inequality in the workplace and in Corporate America because some of the issues involve classism (which we haven’t even really touched upon) and the acceptance of success in a system that marginally and falsely rewards its minority agents.
Posted 14 Jun 2009 at 5:44 am ¶
mT wrote:
It’s sad that we attribute the disparity in Corporate America to cultural differences. However, what is even sadder is that there’s this notion that in order for Asian Americans to break through this ceiling, Asian Americans must immerse themselves in this corporate culture, play the corporate game, and “promote” themselves more. I think that some of us recognize that when we talk about having the ‘chops’ to cut it in Corporate America, we are not simply talking about being more aggressive, extroverted, or rubbing elbows with the bosses and higher ups. Instead what we are often talking about is a complete buy in and adoption of a psychotic corporate mindset with very conservative and right wing, republican values that favors those minorities who happily succumb to the entrenched power hierarchy and the proverbial ‘good old boys’ office politics.
So this good old boys network includes free market self serving white men (driven by their egos and personal wealth accumulation) and their minority agents. Minority agents are women, minority women, and minority men who have abandoned their values and roots and have accepted the social and class paradigm to obtain status, wealth, power, the American dream, or whatever it is that this paradigm promises them. Racism in Corporate America occurs across many different types of industries, companies, and geographic locations because the corporate and business world in general is based on the same corporate mindset and value system. Though granted some types of industries or businesses will have more deep rooted and prevalent racist employment, promotion, and hiring practices, it only takes the right or wrong mix of people at the top in management and or the board room to produce racist and bias organizational structures and behaviors. And in today’s environment, the racism is not as clear cut as ‘oh, the black guy wasn’t hired because he is black’ or ‘hey, the Asian guy wasn’t promoted because he’s Asian’. It’s much more sinister, manipulative, and covert than that.
I worked for a metal stamping manufacturing subsidiary of a huge conglomerate parent company on the East Coast. Everyone there including the hourly direct labor people were conservatives who all voted against Obama because they all believed in at least one of three things; that Obama would interfere in Corporate America, that Obama would increase taxes to support more social programs, or that a black man would not make a good president. This sentiment extended beyond just the subsidiary and could be found in much higher management and executive levels as I would often take part in meetings with the divisional vice president, the group CFO, the group President of Operations, etc and saw first-hand the inner workings and thinking of the good old boys club.
The General Manager of my subsidiary when in work conversations with me would refer to the Group Controller at the time as a “whore”, a “slut”, and a “cunt”. I much later on understood that it was a kind of good old boy club / loyalty test. I much later on revealed these specific comments among other unprofessional and frankly illegal behavior from the GM to the HR manager who happens to be a white woman. Her response to the sexist, derogatory comments was that it all depended on context and what the GM meant by it. She said that she would not report, document, investigate, or follow up on the comments unless I specifically wanted to. It was pretty obvious that I was in a no win situation. This is what I mean by blind minority agents who have accepted their role in the system.
Another example of this great American corporation was when my divisional boss who was from Michigan and who also worked out of Michigan, on a few occasions with no context, unprovoked, out of the blue, and probably out of insecurity would say things like “You must think I am stupid, a simple country bumpkin, but I am really smart” or “This company is the only MBA I have ever needed.” But the best line of all occurred when I argued, fought, and objected as best I could to the half ass promotion they gave me after they had lied for months up to the week of the actual promotion about the promotion they would give me. They lied about the bonus policy as they denied me any bonus participation. Nothing about my competence or work performance was brought up as they couldn’t even give me a half decent and logical explanation or answer to any of the points I brought up. Instead, the Michigan boss got really heated and looked me in the eye with a lot of hate and disdain and shouted out of nowhere as if it was a subconscious inner battle he was having “You must think I’m some stupid hick from the Midwest!” I had no idea that he would play the ‘stupid hick from the Midwest’ card at all because it’s usually us colored folks who baselessly do that type of thing. I guess he had to resort to something when he couldn’t intelligently, maturely, and professionally address any of my concerns about the half ass, token promotion he had given me. I am the one getting screwed over and got set up, and he’s mad about some insecurity he has about his Midwestern upbringing. It was so rich. It was so surreal. Needless to say things didn’t work out and I soon left the company. I went from being praised by the chairman of the conglomerate parent company to being ousted because I won’t play the role of the subservient minority. I seriously thought about legal action, but it would have been very hard to win legally and I don’t have a fortune to afford good legal representation for an extended period of time.
After I left, they gave all of my work to my direct report who I hired and trained so well, and who happened to be Asian. My Michigan boss especially likes her for a few reasons. And it wasn’t until later that I understood what one of these reasons was. She and her husband are card-carrying Republicans and she basically hates blacks. I found this out through a conversation I had with her after she was hired. I could not make up any of this stuff in my wildest dreams. Anyway, they are screwing her over just like they screwed me over. But the difference is besides the fact that she shares the same politics as the company, she is the epitome of the model minority who truly believes in the system. She should be able to reach a certain level in the Corporate world before hitting the class ceiling, be obliviously content about the peak, and happily oblivious to how she got there or what it all means.
There was a very real and alive institutionalized system of racist corporate bullsh^t existing not only at the subsidiary, but throughout the division and the rest of the companies of this large conglomerate. How far reaching it extended was anyone’s guess, but I have a feeling it goes pretty deep.
I think anyone who aspires and actually reaches great heights in the corporate world have sold out in some respect. But it is because minorities are faced with so much more adversity, that they actually sell out more to get to where they are or want to be. And I find that very discouraging. It’s also somewhat tricky when addressing disparities and inequality in the workplace and in Corporate America because some of the issues involve classism (which we haven’t even really touched upon) and the acceptance of success in a system that marginally and falsely rewards its minority agents.
Posted 15 Jun 2009 at 8:01 am ¶
Integra wrote:
mT, thanks for the perspective and real life example.
Posted 20 Jun 2009 at 4:54 pm ¶