Asian Women Rising - Let's take some actions together!
In the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion space, there often is a lot of talks and vents about how the status quo is not changin and not serving _insert minority_ . There can be a lot of beautifully designed D&I strategies and plans but not a whole lot of actions.
So at this second Asian Women Rising Brunch on 3 April in Auckland New Zealand, we have decided it is time for us as a community to do something about the challenges and the inequities that we face as Asian women in the workplace.
We are incredibly grateful to have had Xero’s sponsorship once again for this brunch and this time, due to covid, we switched out the office space for the roof top of MoveSpace to have our brunch in the sun!
We firstly covered off the challenges that we have discussed at our first Asian Women Rising Brunch. These were:
the pressure to conform
the lack of informal networks
the lack of role models
being stereotyped or typecast
Then we split into groups and got to work brainstorming solutions to overcome these challenges. We concentrated on the two biggest challenges, the pressure to conform and being stereotyped or typecast. We sticky-noted and drew on big pieces of paper. One idea flowed onto another.
Overcoming the pressure to conform
The pressure to conform goes beyond the awkwardness of not drinking at the Friday night drinks. It actually hits the core of our identity because we are so used to assimilating that we regard our cultural background as a barrier to succeed in the workplace.
The key to break out of this, we thought, is to own our brilliance and spread the impact wider. This starts with an internal appreciation of our culture and an understanding of how our differences are so valuable. We will vocalise our value. We will ask for more inclusion. We will ask leaders to be measured by their inclusiveness. We will be an ally to other minority groups, propping up their voices and highlighting their value.
We also talked about the importance of having a safe space and our own informal networks. We will work together with others to form a women of colour Aotearoa / New Zealand group. This will be our safe space where we can share, feel seen and heard.
Allies, do help us to say NO to being stereotyped
As Asian women, we can be perceived as incapable because we are women, women from a minority background, may have a young-looking face and a small figure. We also encounter a double bind because we are efficient task masters and can be seen as quiet and submissive. If we stay this way, we meet the expectations but won’t get noticed or promoted and if we break out of the mould and become louder and assertive, we can be seen as abrasive or bossy.
Being perceived as incapable or to only fit a certain role really limits the amount of opportunities we get access to. The harsh reality is that we passed on for opportunities and that we are not invited into the circle.
This is where you as an ally can come in and help. Being an ally means you work to understand your privileges and use them to end inequities. It's about recognising we have unequal starting places and taking action to address imbalances.
So for us to address the challenge of being stereotyped or excluded, we need to find allies and help the allies to educate others and ask them to bring us into the circle. We also acknowledge it is important for allies to feel like they have a safe environment to make mistakes too because diversity, equity and inclusion is complex and we are not going to get it right without trials and errors. A suggestion we had for allies at the International Women’s Day on 8 March next year is to bring a person of colour into a meeting, include them where they have been traditionally excluded.
Also we have decided that for our next in-person event, we will make it an open event where Asian women bring along their allies and we will share the challenges we have discussed so far and work together as a group to address these imbalances. So keep an eye out for that!
I am hosting a speaker panel on allyship and the practicality of that on 13 April. There will also be other diversity, equity and inclusion workshops and talks coming up too. Feel free to book me if you want to talk more about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that are at your workplace.