Introduction

I am a student in WGST 199 learning about how to edit Wikipedia articles properly. My topic of interest is the "Bamboo Ceiling" and its impact on Asian American women. Here is a link to that specific article: Bamboo ceiling.

Possible Topics

1) "Bamboo ceiling"

This is my top choice Wikipedia article for the semester because it has a lot of work that needs to be done on it. Only one person other than myself has posted on the talk page. This article needs a lot more substance especially in the subheadings of "Political under representation" and "Under representation in business".

2) "Women in government"

This is also another article I am considering working on because I am interested is government. From the talk page, it is clear that a good amount of people are contributing to this article. A section within this article that I would like to work on is the opening because it does not match the length of the rest of the sections.

3) "Genderqueer"

This is another one of my choices because it is a topic I would like to learn more about. Only a few people have posted in the talkpage but most of those people have had extremely long posts. I would like to add to the general length of the article.

Resources

"ACE Helps Leaders Break the Bamboo Ceiling." Presidency, vol. 13, no. 1, Winter2010, p. 8. EBSCOhost. In this proceeding produced by the American Council on Education, the issue of underrepresentation of Asian Americans in education is addressed. The argument of this proceeding is that there is a lack of Asian Americans in leadership positions because they are not groomed to become leaders. A statistic provided to defend this statement is that only 15% of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders go to formal leadership training events while about 50% of African Americans do. This source will be useful to my edits in the section titled “underrepresentation in education” as it can supplement to my already existing argument formed by the other sources. I do not have any hesitations of the legitimacy of this article as it was released by a highly respected company and provides many statistics to readers instead of merely listing arguments.

Chong, Christina Shu Jien. "Where Are the Asians in Hollywood? Can §1981, TITLE VII, Colorblind Pitches, and Understanding Biases Break the Bamboo Ceiling?." Asian Pacific American Law Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 29-79. EBSCOhost. In this article by Christina Shu Jien Chong featured in the Asian Pacific American Law Journal, the difficulties faced by Asian Americans in the entertainment industry because of the bamboo ceiling are explained. Chong argues that Asian Americans cannot integrate into Hollywood because of stereotypes put in place by the white males who often run the film/entertainment industry. The article also does a very good job of explaining the definition of the bamboo ceiling and how it differs from the more well known glass ceiling. This source will be useful in editing my wikipedia article by having yet another solid definition of the bamboo ceiling that also gives insight into a different area of focus. The article is also very credible as the author is a professor of law and director of the law program at the University of San Francisco (USF).

Hyun, Jane. "Leadership Principles for Capitalizing on Culturally Diverse Teams: The Bamboo Ceiling Revisited." Leader to Leader, vol. 2012, no. 64, Spring2012, pp. 14-19. EBSCOhost. In this article by Jane Hyun, the stereotypes that plague the Asian American community are once again addressed. Hyun, explains that because of preconceived ideas that white Americans have about Asians in the workplace, more specifically regarding leadership ability, many talented workers are unfairly pushed to the side. This article will be useful during my edits because the points on leadership qualities in the Asian American community can be used in any section of the Wikipedia article. As for the credibility of Hyun’s work, I do not believe it is for question because of how highly respected she is as not only an author, but career coach. Hyun is clearly an expert on this topic as she has been published several times.

Li, Peggy. "Recent Developments Hitting the Ceiling: An Examination of Barriers to Success for Asian American Women." Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice, vol. 29, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 140-167. This academic writing by Peggy Li, a former summer fellow at the Berkeley Law Foundation, helps to give readers a general understanding of both the glass and bamboo ceilings as social barriers for women and Asian Americans. In the article, the author argues that neither of the movements around these barriers help Asian American women and fail to acknowledge people with different intersecting identities. Li's piece will be helpful to the research process by allowing me to analyze the lack of intersectionality in the movement towards cracking these social barriers and identifying ways to combat this issue. The credibility of the article is not a concern as it is a part of a research journal associated with The University of California Berkeley, one of the top colleges in the nation.

Mundy, Liza. "Cracking the Bamboo Ceiling." Atlantic, vol. 314, no. 4, Nov. 2014, pp. 28-32. This article written by Liza Mundy, a New York Times bestselling author, describes the viewpoint of an Asian American male on cracking the bamboo ceiling. Throughout the article, the author proves the point (unknowingly) that men are the decision makers of the movement to break the bamboo ceiling. One example of this is when Mundy states that four members of the lean in group were men while only two were women. Mundy’s piece is an example of how women's issues within the Asian American community are addressed but only because they overlap with challenges faced by men. This source will be useful as proof of how men often have much more say in social movements because they are in a majority of the positions of power. The article is rather reliable because it is pulled from a very well respected magazine. However, the writers of the magazine do tend to lean towards the left of social issues which may lead to bias in some articles.

Oguntoyinbo, Lekan. "Breaking through the Bamboo Ceiling." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, vol. 31, no. 7, 08 May 2014, pp. 10-11. In this source written by the award-winning journalist, Lekan Oguntoyinbo, the stories of Leslie Wong and Frank Wu. These two men were both of Asian descent and broke their personal bamboo ceilings when becoming the President and Dean of two institutions of higher learning. A particular.argument that resonated with me was the "perpetual foreigner syndrome” introduced by Frank Wu. The perpetual foreigner syndrome is one explanation for the lack of Asians in positions of power in any given field. It basically states that because Asians will always be seen as people who are not American even if they are fifth, sixth, or even tenth generation,they will never be accepted into higher level positions.This would be another useful source if I decide to add to the area of under representation in education. I had not previously considered adding to the section of education but there seems to be a lot of information on it and I think it would be fun to work intersectionality into the discussion. As for the credibility of the source, I am extremely confident as both men interviewed are powerful and obviously educated while the actual writer of the piece is well respected and well known in the world of journalism.

Khator, Renu. "Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling." Presidency, vol. 13, no. 2, Spring 2010, pp. 28-31. This article written by Renu Khator, the President of the University of Houston and one of the few female Asian American University presidents, addresses the lack of proportional representation in top University positions for Asian Americans. The main point of this piece is for the author to explore her own personal struggles with breaking the bamboo ceiling and then addressing the causes of the barrier’s existence in the first place. This would be a useful article if I decide to add to the subheading on the Wikipedia article that covers underrepresentation in education. However, I can also use it as an example of how the bamboo ceiling is designed to work for men as even she does not acknowledge the struggles as a woman but only as an Asian American. Renu's piece may present some bias as she is left to tell her story on her own to readers. She may have over-exaggerated in areas or left important pieces out which means the article will have to be looked at carefully to pull only facts.

Ramakrishan, Karthick. "The Bamboo Ceiling." Economist, vol. 417, no. 8962, 31 Oct. 2015, p. 20. EBSCOhost. In this letter to the editor titled “The Bamboo Ceiling” by Karthick Ramakrishan, the issue of college admissions working against Asian Americans is addressed. Ramakrishan explains that the admissions process hurts Asian Americans by having a certain expectation for these students because they are believed to be the “model minority”. In this, if an Asian student does not fit into the stereotypical mold, they are seen as useless to the college. This article will be useful in my Wikipedia edits by giving more information on the process of college admissions under the section of “underrepresentation in education”. This article is very reliable as the author is a professor in the school of public policy at University of California, Riverside.

Contribution Plan

Article background

The wikipedia article, “Bamboo Ceiling”, gives an overview of the social barrier that keeps Asian-Americans from reaching their full potential whether it be in the business field, educational field, and/or government field. The “bamboo ceiling” consists of things like stereotypes associated with Asian people, blatant racism, and cultural differences.

Areas of Focus

According to the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure, “Bamboo Ceiling” would not be a high quality article because it lacks two major elements. First, the article’s lead section is not very successful in giving a broad overview of the content that will follow. The section is very choppy and ends by going into the specifics of one part of the entire article. In addition to this, some sections of the article are extremely drawn out while other sections only have one to two sentences. One section that I would like to add more too is “Underrepresentation in Education”. Although it is not the shortest section, it is still lacking content relative to most of the other sections. I feel I could make a substantive contribution to this portion of the article. Lastly, going away from the brochure, I would like to add a section addressing the common criticism of the concept of the “Bamboo Ceiling”- lack of intersectionality. I feel this would be a useful section because understanding the role of intersectionality will give readers a better understanding of the concept as a whole.

Lead Section

For the lead section, I will first delete the closing sentence that is extremely out of place. Next, I will look to improve the general sentence structure for a better flowing opening which will ultimately influence a reader’s overall view on the following material. Lastly, I will add to the general definition of the bamboo ceiling using the article “Recent Development Hitting the Ceiling: An Examination of Barriers to Success for Asian American Women” by Peggy Li. This author gives an easy to understand definition of the concept and explains the barrier in great detail.

“Underrepresentation in Education”

Even though there are many other sections that need to have information added, Underrepresentation in Education” is a smaller section that I have been able to find several sources on and now have a strong interest in. In order to add to this portion of the article I will pull from two sources: "Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling" Presidency by Renu Khator and "Breaking through the Bamboo Ceiling." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education by Lekan Oguntoyinbo. Both pieces have good statistics on the disproportionate representation of Asians in University positions and share the stories of two people who have apparently “broke” their personal bamboo ceilings. In addition to this, these two articles give a different look on Asian-Americans in education as the content under this subheading focuses solely on college admissions. Looking at the lack of  Asian-Americans in leadership positions in the educational field may help readers to make their own connections about the admissions processes of different colleges and/or universities and how they allegedly work against Asian-Americans.

Intersectionality

In this new section I plan to summarize the common point of criticism on the bamboo ceiling which is its lack of intersectionality. In doing this, I will also use Peggy Li’s article  "Recent Developments Hitting the Ceiling: An Examination of Barriers to Success for Asian American Women” which explains (with many examples) how the movement to break the bamboo ceiling completely ignores Asian American women. In addition to this source, I plan to use "Cracking the Bamboo Ceiling." by Liza Mundy as an example of how Asian-American men are the face of the movement’s leadership and this often leads to the lack of acknowledgment of intersecting identities.