What different challenges do Asian American women face as opposed to “white” or African-American women?
The heavy weight of family bears down hard on most Asian American women, whether they are young and trying to pull away from family to find themselves, whether theyre new mothers trying to bring up their children, whether theyre choosing the right partners, jobs, or lifestyle, whether theyre children are respecting their wishes. Many of us come from extremely male-oriented families where sons have been given most of the attention, and we have to deal with the anger of not being viewed as equally valuable. Trying to put family patterns into perspective is one of the important themes in Warrior Lessons. We face other challenges as well. Stereotypes about our submissiveness cause a glass ceiling effect in the workplace, making it hard for us to proceed to managerial ranks. The assumption is that we are bad managers, but we make great good worker bees. To fully explore this, we have to examine where those stereotypes come from. Where eastern values tell us to be humble and self-deprecating
