PI women in the shadows of Asian American Women - Meryllia Luavasa

Picture result after searching "Asian American" under images.

          The Model Minority Myth (MMM) is the the stereotype that all Asian Americans are educationally and economically successful. This myth has often been portrayed as something positive or flattering but it actually does more harm than good to the Asian American's. When people think of Asian Americans, the popular ethnicity's that come to mind are the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Filipino's but there is over 40 ethnicity's under Asian American racial category. With 40 plus different ethnic groups, the MMM is sure to be false.

          Asian Americans are often aggregated with Pacific Islander's (PI's)When the term "Model Minority" was created, it definitely didn't have PI's  in mind and I am not saying that in a negative way but in a sincere realistic way. PI's consist of the Polynesia, Melanesian and Micronesian people. In Shirley Hunes article "Asian Pacific American Women in Higher Education: Claiming Visibility & Voice" she uses the term "Asian Pacific American" when referring to how the Model Minority affects the women. However I know first hand that the "Model Minority" does not apply to PI's and if I am mistaken, the numbers are surely low. I don't see the use for trying to include the PI's in a struggle that isn't relevant to them.

Map of the Melanesian, Micronesian & Polynesian Islands

        Though this constant grouping of Asian American and PI's known as API's can be good for the sake of aggregation and having strength in numbers, it isn't when trying to figure out the needs for each community. Pacific Islander’s (PI's) for instance, when filling out standardized tests used to fill in the circle next to "Asian American/ Pacific Islanders" which was problematic because statistically PI's were doing great in school but in actuality they were struggling. The statistics were conveying the false notion that PI's were scoring high. Now however, the PI’s have a separate circle to fill in which really benefits the PI community because it is easier to discover what the PI students need support in.

"The Rock"

          In my Asian Pacific American Women's class today, Prof. Kwon asked the class to name five Asian American actors that are on TV nowadays and one of the biggest actors brought up was The Rock who identifies as Black and Samoan. Prof. Kwon used the Asian American as a term to embody both PI’s and Asian Americans because the two groups are usually compiled. Reference to Asian Americans and PI's gets confusing and frustrating at times because of the lack of consistency. Sometimes when authors say Asian Americans, PI's are not included and other times they are so there must be a consideration when terms such as API, Asian American, Asian Pacific American are to ensure clarity.

          In Laura Koss-Feder’s article “Diversity Efforts Often Ignore Asian Women” she specifically uses the term “Asian women” in her text to illustrate who her article was concerning which was women of Asian descent. In Monica Eng’s article “Succeed or Die Trying: Fear of Failure and Competitive Stress Haunt Asian American Women” she uses the term "Asian-American women" to refer to the Asian-American women who were pressured to obtain high achievement. It was clear in both of those cases that PI's were not included in their study. However in Hune's article, which articulates the overall message about the harm of Model Minority, tries to include PI's in her study. She uses the phrase "Asian Pacific American" to try and demonstrate who has been effected by the Model Minority. The inconsistency between these articles sends the message that Asian Americans aren't sure themselves about what term to use. Now granted, I know that every researcher isn't going to use the same terms but this confusion could all be avoided if the PI's just had their own racial category because being under the shadow of the Asian Americans is overpowering. My opinion is not at all in a tone of disdain but a tone of sincerity. I just want to be PI, not API.

-Meryllia Luavasa

The Struggles of AAPI Women in Higher Education by Mao Otajima

In “Asian American Pacific Islander Women From PH. D To Campus President: Gains And Leaks In The Pipeline” by Edith Wen-Chu Chen and Shirley Hune, the authors claim Asian American Pacific women are underrepresented in higher educational institutions. They face many obstacles such as hopeless promotions at faculty level. The “Leaky pipeline” means Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) women are likely to leave the profession without achieving their goals. Also, many students give up the process to gain PH. D. In fact, AAPI women have gained greater numbers of doctoral than their counterparts; however, they are already underrepresented than their counterparts at assistant level. Moreover, their representations decrease dramatically as the rank goes higher. The lack of high achievements are an example of the "glass ceiling". On the other hand, white males are overrepresented in higher education compared to the numbers of degree earners. They are likely to get promoted easily because of the social connections and racial prejudice. The glass ceiling and the white male domination in higher education institutions called chilly climate make it difficult for AAPI women to reach the top in academic field.

The glass ceiling keeps AAPI women from obtaining their PH. D or presidential position. Even though AAPI women have motivations to aim at these academic successes, it is still difficult for them because the academic field is highly dominated by white males. This is also statistically true according to the authors. In the faculty level, if the people of the section (usually tenure professors) that determines faculties’ promotion is heavily dominated by whites, they tend to promote same kind of people because of the social connections. AAPI women don’t have these social connections to get promoted easily. Moreover, their ability and achievements are often ignored because they are not considered as an important member of the department. Their Asian related papers are often considered not academic enough for experts’ works because such heavily Western minded faculties regard the East as subordination of their world. It is a natural tendency that for people to care and pay attention to same kind of people because they subconsciously are familiar with each other. For example, I would feel comfortable with Asian professors, especially if they are female than a white male professor. I just assume that Asian female professors are more aware of where I come from as an Asian person. Conversely, at the entrance level they are likely to be hired to represent racial equality. Even though the affirmative action is banned in California, equal representation of race and gender is considered. If we consider that white males are the top of the racial and gender social structure in this society, colored women like AAPI women are at the bottom. If an academic institute already have AAPI woman in their faculty, the personnel section would think that there is enough representation of minority people. AAPI women fill the categories of gender and race in apparent representation. In the other words, they hire AAPI women only because they are women of color regardless of their ability to prove that they are not racist. These obstacles keep AAPI women even at the bottom of the glass ceiling. It seems, it is impossible for AAPI women to enter the cycle of white domination. There are already white people dominating the educational environment, and they will hire their people. There is no way for AAPI women to sneak into this vicious circle. It is not only the problem for AAPI women, but for all the non-white people. This is one of biggest issue we have in this diverse country in 21st century. However, I don't want them to give up because I believe we can change the situation somehow someday in the future as long as we are trying to change.  

      Now, how does the chilly climate in higher education affect APPI women? As I already mentioned, the academic field is heavily dominated by white males. The White male culture emphasizes Western values. In terms of leadership, their emphasis is not qualified by APPI’s leadership style. Asian culture values harmony of people; therefore, a leader works as an organizer. A leader often just listens and analyzes the group. He or she is not required to have strong personality or opinions. On the other hand, western style of leadership requires aggressiveness and willfulness. He or she must be the one who is always loudly talking. Because APPI women’s leadership doesn’t qualify western leadership style, they are often considered that they have no rolls in a group. APPI women may have brilliant thoughts, but they sometimes don’t even feel like to be aggressive, and express their opinions because it simply doesn’t match with their values. Talking over people is considered rude in many AAPI culture. This difference keeps APPI women away from a leader position which means no promotion. Why don't we be a little bit smarter and adopt both of the leadership styles? There is nothing like which is bad or good. It is just different styles of leadership, and the Western type just happens to be accepted in this case because white people are majority in this particular environment. It may be hard to adopt a new way for the first time because you are automatically comfortable with the way you are grow up with, but it will be a huge development of self-cultivation as an individual, if you can successfully assimilate. If we know the difference and adopt strong points from both of them, we can produce greater capability of anything. Another obstacle is that APPI cultures often consider nurture and household chores as women’s job. Many APPI female students and faculties are sacrificing their time for their families while white females are concentrating their academic achievements. APPI women are disadvantaged because they can’t devote to academic work. It causes lower achievements than their maximum ability, so that they lose in academic competitions. Moreover, AAPI faculties face difficulty of gaining respects from students. They often look younger than what they actually are, and differ from typical image of a professor. Students may talk more casually than how they talk to a white male professor. The feedback from students also effect their promotion. These situations of chilly climate give APPI women motivations to give up their academic goals.

Overall, the “glass ceiling” limits APPI women’s possibility for highest achievements in academic field, and chilly climate makes the environment in the glass more difficult for APPI women; however, we should not give up our efforts because there are always ways to change the situations.

Mao Otajima

Wen-Chu Chen,Shirley Hune "Gains and Leaks in The Pipeline" By: Christopher Aba

          Does the intersection of race and gender play a role in the advancement of higher education? In my opinion yes, it does.

          The pipeline is a metaphor in academe to describe the progression of students, who serve as the talent pool into faculty positions. Basically what this means is, the pipeline is the students in academe who go into teaching positions. If that’s the pipeline, then leaks in the pipeline or the leaky pipeline means the loss of talent that occurs when individuals fail to advance or leave higher education for whatever reason.

          It is true that AAPI women, being both female and a radicalized group, affect their status and advancement or lack of such in higher education.

          I think it’s ironic that even though AAPI women are becoming better educated than their male counterparts, and make up fifty five percent of the graduates; you see them less as you progress in the pipeline. Also considering the fact that they outnumber the males in bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional degrees wouldn’t it be safe to assume that AAPI women, therefore represent a highly qualified pool to be recruited into potentially higher positions?

          I think the reason why they are underrepresented as a minority and this fact is overlooked, is because they are not considered in discussions on racial barriers. Another reason why this is overlooked is that they are thrown into a group as a whole (APAs) rather than smaller specific groups with specific needs.

          AAPI women have to deal with many barriers in advancing in their specific fields of study. Some of these include: Stereotyping, language, indifferent colleagues, the white male norms, and also splitting the demands of work and family. Because there are both racial and gender barriers these lead to the “leaks in the pipeline”. Discrimination and cultural family components cause these leaks as well.

          I mean even in this article they had statistics to show the ratio of AAPI women and AAPI men in different degrees, and the corresponding job positions. The bar graphs show that AAPI women outnumber the men in receiving the degrees and are more educated. However the graphs also show that at each level the men increasingly outnumber the women in the job positions.

So what is the cause for these leaks in the pipeline?

          Some of the women drop out because of the demands of mother hood and how the family demands fall solely on the woman. But even so that doesn’t mean they can’t return to their positions. I think that these leaks are caused directly by the white male environment, and how it alienated the AAPI faculty. This atmosphere is described as the, “Chilly Climate”.

          What’s interesting is that the gender discrepancy for AAPI’s continues to grow as the faculty increases for men. We end up seeing that for men the numbers remain constant in all levels of the pipeline, except it’s not till presidency that there is very little representation. For women they do pretty well getting the first level position as assistant professors, but their representation dramatically drops thereafter.

          AAPI males and females both have their challenges, but for the males it’s further down the pipeline. For females it’s not just race that matters, but gender too.

          The integration of racial and gender stereotyping is not only a problem from colleagues being indifferent, but also the students. These students give little respect to their female professors, and this leads to feelings of isolation and marginalization within these departments by faculty and students.

          This really shows that race and gender are both factors, and in my opinion there should be diversified faculty so that they can help ease the hurdles for incoming AAPI female faculty members.

Shattering The Glass Ceiling And Overcoming Suicide - Amanda Reyna

            Suicide is the second leading cause to Asian Pacific American (APA) women's deaths from the ages of 15 to 24 according to (Department of Health and Human Services).   Why is their suicide rate so high? The fear of not being successful, pressure from parents to make grades, and the Model Minority stereotypes. High suicide rates awareness and breaking the glass ceiling are overwhelming for Asian American women to consider because it is a risk that clashes with Asian American notion of "not rocking the boat." 

            The fear of not being successful is a common feeling many Asian Americans feel. What if I miss the boat to success or fail?  It’s overwhelming to think about.  Things fellow class mates say also has an effect on Asian American women. Such as "there's too many Asians in this class they are going to make the curve to high" can have an impact on APA female students.  The truth is APA female students are often neglected because of the assumption that they do not need academic assistance or guidance. However, APA women are suffering the most in English language skills in education (APA Women in Higher Education 10). 

            In this YouTube video, Eliza Noh talks about how she lost her sister to suicide in 1990, and discusses the reasons why she may have committed suicide.  Noh states that her parents put much pressure on her sister with school and that they wanted her to become a doctor but her sister was having trouble making the grades.  Noh's father is from Korea, and her mother is from Vietnam thus having high expectations for their children to succeed in this country. These pressures can be overbearing for one individual to take in; the grass always appears greener on the other side.  However a child can only do so much, my father has always encouraged me to do the best I can and that’s really all one can do.  I don't understand the concept of Asian American parents pressuring their children to the point of suicide.

            Model minority stereotypes also have an impact on APA women.  "The stereotype implies that all APA's are achievers who have overcome racism through hard work, and  therefore do not suffer discrimination in education and employment (Article APA Women And Higher Education pg.9)."  However even though the academic attainment of APA's is real, even they have to deal with obstacles of an discomfort and little support in colleges and universities.  The stereotypes of Asian women being exotic came from the white American men who seem young Asian women as foreign, sexual belongings. Asian women are seen as passive, reserved, and submissive companions, and stay at home mothers who don’t talk back. Individuals assumes that because of Asian women's culture values they are house wives that stay home and care for their children, and do household chores, while the man works, and goes to school to achieve higher degrees. This is true in a sense however Asian women also have a mind of their own and goals they want to accomplish before starting a family.

 APA women often have a difficult time balancing out the pressure of cultural, educational, and job values.  Breaking the glass ceiling could be stressful as well.  For example if  APA women do a good job and succeed they have to approach the boss in regards to promotion.  The wheel that makes noise gets the oil when it comes to APA women moving up the ladder.  Slowly Asian American women are overcoming the glass ceiling, and high suicide rates, through counsel at Universities for depression, and the overwhelming pressure of families expectations.  APA women are coming up in society. Michelle Wie, a professional Korean golf player , Kim Ng, Vice President and assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers  are examples of women who have broken the glass ceiling, there's hope!

           



Asian American Women reaching the Glass Ceiling by Karla Henry

        It is undeniable that there exists physiological differences between men and women. This truth is used to justify the unequal treatment of women on all levels of human interactions. The uneven treatment is clearly reflected and often ignored towards Asian American women.Many women insist that the glass ceiling is a real barrier to accessing male-dominated positions in business, many challengers say that it exists mostly because women choose to focus more of their time on family and, in the end, cannot dedicate as much time to their career.

The prevailing historical attitude of men towards women would have us believe that physiological differences limit women in their choice of career, their intellectual maturity, their credibility, as well as their ability to be effective contributors to the advancement of human society and that these differences warrant that women be treated differently from men.This term normally applies to women in workplaces who are unfairly paid lowly unlike the males even though they are both doing the same work. The term the Glass Ceiling is used to refer to discrimination which is done on the basis of gender, limiting women to inferiority and harassment by the society. The society which is stereotypical accepts the domination that is practiced on women resulting to weakening a woman both physically and mentally.

In the article by Laura Koss Feder “ Diversity Efforts often ignored Asian Women” says that professional women of Asian descent say their needs in the workplace are often overlooked and that these initiatives do not always include them as much as other women of color. The result is that Asian women say  is that they are often looked out of top jobs in the workplace. Compared to other minority groups, Asian women make up a particularly minuscule portion of Fortune 500 corporate officers. 

In higher educational level Asian American women also represent a small portion of their promotional levels. Even thou Asian American Women are the most likely to have graduate education and yet the least likely to have line or supervisory responsibilities or hold a position within three levels of the chief executive officer. In these effort to achieve higher levels of achievements Asian American Women suffer extreme fear of failure, unpleasantly competitive natures, withdrawal from society, stress related disorders and mostly they have the highest suicide rate in the nation amongst women 15 to 24 years old. 

For Asian American women to reach the glass ceiling looks a dream that might never come true. Looking at all these facts we can still see the inequality of how Asian American women are perceived. The inability to reach higher levels in their profession is not determined by the number of degrees they have but what others think of them. It is hard for me to see that this type of society still exist today because the idea of achieving a degree to get to a higher level is brought upon us in many ways, media, schools, etc., but still in the real world this is not what really happens. 

Money, The Reason Why Evil is Prevalent - Meryllia Luavasa

The world's crazy isn't it? Everytime the news is on, there's always someone doing something cruel. Ever wonder why?

Paul from the Bible explains it best, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evill" - 1 Timothy 6:10.

It's interesting how something people strive for everyday can be the root of all evil.

I know everyone isn't a Christian, but you have to admit, Paul wasn't lying when he made this statement way back in Jesus' day. It's the truth! The love of money makes people do evil things!

 In George White's article "Workers Held in Near-Slavery, Officials Say," my argument is illustrated. There were 63 Thai immigrants held against their will. These people were deceived into thinking they would come to America for an opportunity to make money only to find themselves working day and night for less than two dollars an hour. Even when they paid off their flight expenses, they still were held captive. The worst part about it was that the people responsible for this horrendous crime were Thai themselves. What's the root to this evil? . . . . . .  Money! I'm not saying that the people who enslaved these workers are evil, but the wrongful act they committed was motivated by money.

After reading Evelyn N. Glenn's article, "Cleaning Up/ Kept Down: A Historical Perspective on Racial Inequality in 'Women's Work'" it hurt to see the statistics of women of color compared to White women. Sometimes I wonder, will this discrimination ever end? The author made a statement that captured my attention. "Complicating matters more, White women may actually have a material interest in the continuing subordination of women of color in the workplace." The phrase "material interest" refers to money, so basically White women benefit financially from the discrimination of women of color in the work force. White women are not evil, but because they benefit from this subordination they take advantage of it and overlook it. Money not only can make one do evil, but can also make one overlook it as well.

The love of money being the reason for all evil is honestly nothing new.We all know that race was socially constructed long ago. White people wanted a reason to justify slavery so they used race as a way of creating seperation to say that slaves weren't equal to them. Slaves helped the Whites in the South make a lot of profit. They dehumanized the Black people because they knew what they were doing was wrong but they still yearned for that profit. Because the South wanted to continue to have that profit lead them to the civil war against the North. So many people died for what? Money.

The common theme illustrated in all these depressing events is the love for money. Because the Thai people wanted to become wealthy, they deceived and held Thai immigrants by force to work unimaginable wages. There's still unequal pay wages between women of color and White women, why? because the ones benefiting from the subordination are getting the material interest and don't want to speak out. All this evil however is nothing new, because it was the motive behind slavery. Having slaves made a lot of profit for the White men which inspired them to dehumanize the African people.

Post 2

Amanda Reyna

AAS 340

The Topic of Sweatshops

            In Sweatshops Immigrants are treated unfairly they are over worked, and under paid what happen to the concept of labor laws?  Employees often work seven days a week sometime seventy hours with no overtime it's inhumane. Workers often don't take breaks because they are not paid hourly, but rather by the amount of clothing they make.

             For example: Helen Wong  first arrived in Oakland from Hong Kong in 1988 with her husband and five children. She quickly got a job in a U.S. garment shop  in a tiny, ten machine store front near City Hall. Speaking no English Helen took the job even if it was low pay. She worked at a piece rate making and average of one or two dollars  a hour working seven days a week with no over time (Pg. 226). Being an immigrant often brings fear to the workers  not knowing their rights or labor laws some may have not even applied.  Most workers  were paid under the table so there was no documentation of the long hours they had worked. Some individuals took home clothing to finish even after working such long days.

          I have a friend whose mother moved to the U.S. from Vietnam her name is Sue she was born In the united states. However when her mother first moved to the U.S she worked in a sweatshop for a few years specking very little English. Until she had meet Sues Father and they became married after having her. Sue had told me stories about her mother and how she had to work very hard to support them while her father was  working only part time and going to school full time.  Her mother told her: "sometimes I, worked 12 hours a day without taking a break because I wanted to get as much garments as I could done. The working area is very small with many people it got very hot at times, and sometimes I took work home with me".  When Sue's Father received his PH D he became a doctor, and leased a business for his wife a Kiosk in Oakridge Mall in San Jose, CA  where she sold hats called JorCal it's fairly successful she's been doing it for about two years now.

             The garment industry is the largest manufacturing sector in San Francisco and employs over 25,000 workers.  Ninety percent of the works are women, and in San Francisco over 80 percent are not English speakers. Less than eight percent of the workers are unionized (Pg.226). Less than 8 percent part of a union that is ridicules. The sweatshop industry's went beyond U.S. border.  American consumers sports clothing went anywhere from Hong Kong to Mexico, Haiti, South Korea, the Philippines, Guatemala , and Costa Rica.  The Industry made a abundant amount of profit; considering how low the workers are paid,  the prices clothing was sold, and how much it cost to make.

            However jobs where cut in the U.S.  due to not being able to pay the employees at   third world wages.  The labor industry is cheaper in globalization. "Koret's San Francisco employed over three hundred workers making $6  an hour, as oppose to  a Guatemalan seamstresses making and average of $1.50 in an eight hour day...(Pg. 228)". This wages makes a big difference in profits made. Could you imaging doing that kind of labor for that little pay? In California minimum wage is at $8 an hour I believe; and that's not even enough money for food,  rent,  the price of College, and text books I got finical aid to help me.

            In conclusion it's unmoral for anybody immigrant or not to work so hard for such little pay, it's almost equivalent to slavery. Working over eight hours a day with no overtime making bellow minimum wage without taking a lunch or a break.  The employees working in sweatshops are treated unfairly it's depressing to think that they make the clothes I'm wearing where made under those conditions. But I suppose somebody has to do it  however they should have at least health care benefits and get paid more.