Asian American women in higher education face unique challenges because of their dual identities as female and an Asian American. What I learned in my research of Asian American female faculty was that cultural values, family ties and responsibilities, and work pressures contributed to their stress.
All the Asian American women I spoke to stated that their responsibilities to take of families came first and they had an obligation because of cultural roles. Their department chairs could be insensitive to their need to balance work and family and how they spent their time. The pressure to publish, maintain their program and work constantly created marital stress because their spouses complained they were not home enough. Because students had stereotypes of Asian American women, one Asian American female faculty described how she was perceived as weak because she was soft-voiced though being quiet did not mean she was submissive. This is consistent with research on Asian American women faculty; they struggle daily with gender stereotypes that converge with racial stereotypes and images of the exotic or erotic Asian American woman negatively affect their experiences, because they are “orientalized” and seen as quiet, sweet, and obliging to others (Hune 1998).
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