The term "bamboo ceiling" is a concept that describes the barriers faced by many Asian Americans in the professional arena, such as stereotypes and racism, particularly with ascending to top executive and leadership positions. The term was coined and popularized in 2005 by Jane Hyun in Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians, where she addresses those barriers while also providing solutions to overcome them.[1][2] Hyun defines the bamboo ceiling a combination of individual, cultural, and organizational factors that impede Asian Americans' career progress inside organizations.
Since the publication of Hyun's book, a variety of sectors (including nonprofits, universities, and the government) have discussed the impact of the ceiling as it relates to people of Asian descent and the challenges they face. As described by a senior writer at Fortune magazine, "bamboo ceiling" refers to the processes and barriers that serve to exclude Asians and Asian-Americans from executive positions on the basis of subjective factors such as "lack of leadership potential" and "lack of communication skills" that cannot actually be explained by job performance or qualifications.[3] Articles regarding the subject have been written in Crains, Fortune, The Atlantic and Forbes (2016).[4][5][6]
The term is a derivative of the glass ceiling, which refers to the more general metaphor used to describe invisible barriers through which people of marginalized genders, and/or Black, Indigenous, and racialized peoples can see managerial positions, but cannot reach them. Similar metaphor includes canvas ceiling[7] posed on refugees and their workforce integration efforts.
Based on publicly available government statistics, Asian Americans have the lowest chance of rising to management when compared with African Americans, Hispanics, and women in spite of having the highest educational attainment.[8][9][10][11][12][13]