According to a recent study by the ILO (2001), women’s share of the labour force is increasing worldwide. Today, women’s participation rate in the labour force is over 40 per cent of the global workforce. Higher educational levels and falling fertility rates have contributed to this increased participation. There is also some evidence that women in some Asian countries may be less marginalised in their advancement into top managerial positions than their counterparts elsewhere. As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. This book examines the opportunities and barriers for women managers in Asia and presents an update on their progress in management. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Asian Pacific Business Review.

By necessity, understanding of leadership has been based on who used to be business leaders, namely men. In the last few years, Asian women have been making their mark in corporate America. Although Asian women have become part of the American workforce, and some have achieved spectacular success, there is little discussion about them. Many of these women could be first general immigrants, still balancing the strong pull of two cultures. Even for second or third generation immigrants, Asian cultures can often exert immense pressures. Thus, the achievement of these women deserves far more attention than it has received, and comprehensive research on these advances should be presented. Asian Women in Corporate America: Emerging Research and Opportunities traces the history of Asian women’s presence as executives of major American corporations, presents biographical sketches of a select few, draws upon factors (individual, corporate, and societal) that influenced their journeys, and links to past theories on business leadership. The chapters serve to bring attention to a minority group in leadership and extricates factors that helped in the success of Asian American women in these prominent roles. While highlighting topics such as existing leadership theories, gender and ethnicity in leadership, models of theories regarding Asian women, and their involvement in major corporations, this book is a valuable reference tool for managers, executives, researchers, practitioners, academicians, and students working in fields that include women’s studies/gender studies, business and management, human resources management, management science, and leadership.

This book explores the unique socioeconomic challenges encountered by female leaders in China, India, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries where traditional cultural expectations and modernized values coexist. It provides insight into gender inequality and underutilization of female talent as well as ways to develop highly qualified women in organizations. Chapters from expert contributors analyze the similarities and differences between each Asian country, the organizational and institutional challenges for women in the workplace, and how they balance work-family relationships. It will appeal to researchers and students in human resource development, management, leadership, Asia studies, women’s studies, and political science, among others.

What Asian women face in business and what tools managers need to maximize this important segment of the workplace.

This book is an interdisciplinary anthology grounded in scholarly research that offers a concise but in-depth examination and exposition of leadership that helps readers better grasp the basics of the various aspects of Asian leadership and examines the practices of Asian women leadership across sectors in Asian and western countries. While many leadership books effectively describe leadership styles and/or outline various approaches to leadership, this book focuses on Asian women leadership and illustrates performed styles, experiences, opportunities, challenges and management strategies across sectors ranging from higher education, business, nonprofit organizations, the media industry, politics and social movement to immigration, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. It can serve as a handy reference for aspiring women leaders, academic researchers, general readers and students who want to study Asian women leadership, work in Asian societies and/or work with Asians.

The influence of Asian cultures and religious traditions has often been used to explain Asian women’s under-utilisation and under-representation in management. This book examines the influence of culture and tradition on organisational and management practices, and how these affect the progress of women in management in Asian economies. This book, written by prominent scholars of the Asian region, explores which organizational and management practices are universal, and which other aspects (such as human resource practices) are culture specific, and how these in turn affect the advancement / representation of women in the Asian region. Higher educational levels, falling fertility rates and sectoral changes have contributed to women’s increasing participation in the labour force. As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. The Asian economies covered by this up-to-date collection have undergone rapid economic transformation. Until now, most research on contemporary women managers has been drawn from studies conducted in developed countries. Covering case studies in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, this book uses different perspectives to examine the constraints, opportunities and challenges for women managers in the Asian context and presents an update on their progress in management.