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There is a paucity of research on Asian American women's progress in higher education as faculty. This chapter contextualizes Asian American women as “Other” faculty who because of their race, gender, and presumed “foreigner” background are not seen as normal faculty. In disrupting traditional student–faculty relations where White males are considered normal and hold positions of power, Asian American women as women faculty of color are subject to being contested in the classroom. I examine here their classroom experiences with attention to student resistance and faculty agency through critical feminist, race, and intersectionality frameworks.

The study is based on a secondary data analysis of qualitative studies on Asian American women's classroom experiences in predominantly White institutions. It finds that students of all racial/ethnic and gender backgrounds may resist their faculty role, oftentimes through uncivil behaviors. Students hold racial, gender, and ethnocentric stereotypes and biases of their teaching capabilities and course offerings. Teaching race–gender–class–nation courses can contribute to lower or mixed course evaluations. In claiming their rightful place, Asian American women faculty seek to make a difference through student-centered learning, innovative pedagogy, and new curricula that prepare students for a diverse and global society. They demonstrate their authenticity, authority, and agency in the ways they navigate challenging classroom situations and serve as role models for all students and faculty.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the current literature uncovering specific factors associated with self-harm and suicidality among young Asian-American women, as well as to present the Fractured Identity Model as a framework for understanding these factors. This paper offers concrete suggestions for the development of culturally competent interventions to target suicidality, substance abuse, and mental illness among young Asian-American women.

Empirical studies and theory-based papers featured in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014 were identified through scholarly databases, such as PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. Of an original 32 articles, 12 were chosen for in-depth empirical review due to relevance to the topics at hand, quality of research, and significance of findings.

The paper identified several factors associated with suicidality among young Asian-American women: family dynamics, or having lived in a household where parents practice “disempowering parenting styles,” substance use/abuse, and untreated mental illness(es), which are exacerbated by the stigma and shame attached to seeking out mental health services. The Fractured Identity Model by Hahm et al. (2014) is presented as a proposed causal pathway from disempowering parenting to suicidal and self-harm behaviors among this population, with substance abuse playing a significant mediating role.

The review focussed on Asian-American women, substance use among Asian-Americans, and mental health among Asian-Americans. Literature that focused on Asians living in Asia or elsewhere outside of the USA was excluded from this review; the review was limited to research conducted in the USA and written in the English language.

The complex interplay among Asian-American culture, family dynamics, gender roles/expectations, and mental health justifies the development of a suicide and substance abuse intervention that is tailored to the culture- and gender-specific needs of Asian Pacific Islander young women. It is imperative for professionals in the fields of public health, mental health, medicine, and substance abuse to proactively combat the “model minority” myth and to design and implement interventions targeting family dynamics, coping with immigration/acculturative stresses, mental illnesses, suicidal behaviors, and substance abuse among Asian-American populations across the developmental lifespan.

This paper provides specific suggestions for interventions to adequately respond to the mental health needs of young Asian-American women. These include addressing the cultural stigma and shame of seeking help, underlying family origin issues, and excessive alcohol and drug use as unsafe coping, as well as incorporating empowerment-based and mind-body components to foster an intervention targeting suicidality among Asian-American women in early adulthood.

To determine gendered patterns of preventive medical care (physical and dental/optical) use among pan-ethnic U.S. Asian and Latino adults.

Using National Latino and Asian American Study (2004) data, we apply Andersen’s (1995) Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to assess how preventive care use among Asian and Latino men and women varies as a function of predisposing, enabling, and need-based characteristics. We explore whether adjustment for these factors mediates gender disparities in both physical and dental/optical check-ups, and test whether certain factors operate differently among men versus women.

A higher proportion of women reported a routine care visit last year, especially among Latinos. Adjusting for predisposing, enabling, and need-based factors explained the gender difference in reporting a dental/optician check-up, but not a physical check-up, among both Asian and Latino adults.

Our findings illustrate how gender patterns in routine care use differ by race/ethnicity, and highlight the fundamental importance of enabling characteristics (especially health insurance and having a regular doctor) for shaping routine care use between men and women, both Asian and Latino. Limitations of this chapter are that the data are cross-sectional and were collected before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and measures are self-reported.

This chapter focuses on Asian and Latinos because they represent the fastest growing minority populations in the United States, yet few studies have evaluated gender differences in preventative health care use among these groups.

Though female labour force participation (FLFP) rates have been widely analysed across countries, the analysis of migrant women's participation has been consistently ignored in the literature. The few studies that have been conducted concentrate largely on sociological and anthropological aspects of migrant women (see Foner (1976)). This article will investigate immigrant FLFP rates, which are generally found to be different from their counterparts in the immigrants' country of origin. To evaluate the immigrant FLFP rate we analyse and quantify the nature and significance of its various demographic, socio‐economic and cultural determinants.

Even though an increasing number of British South Asian women have moved into paid employment over the years as a reflection of social and cultural mobility and change, their work‐family experiences are not widely reported. This paper examines the experiences of British South Asian full‐time managerial or professional women combining work and family life. A qualitative study based in the north‐west of England was conducted utilising semi‐structured interviews with 17 women. Five themes are discussed: cultural influences on domestic responsibilities; additional responsibilities and commitments to extended family and community members; work‐family priorities and “superwoman syndrome”; stereotypes of roles and responsibilities at work; and experiences of discrimination. Managerial or professional British South Asian women are subjected to the same cultural family commitments and expectations as other non‐professional British South Asian working women. Practical implications of the findings are related to managing diversity approaches and organisational culture change.

This paper looks at the experiences of first‐generation South Asian women who entered the UK to marry and then suffered domestic violence. It is based on an innovative and collaborative trans‐national project, carried out in two stages. In the first stage, a range of immigrant South Asian women, who had experienced domestic violence, were consulted. This consultation aimed to ascertain what they believed would have been useful information, if available prior to immigration, about the UK and the life they might expect there, including what might happen in cases of marital discord and difficulties. The second stage of the project consisted of feeding that information back through meetings and consultations to relevant women's and state agencies in India, including the police, the media and women's organisations. While there is no evidence to suggest that immigrant black, minority ethnic and refugee women experience more domestic violence than majority white women, their experiences of abuse are different due to cultural factors, language, immigration status and lack of contact with natal families. The paper makes key recommendations on policy developments that would assist women in this situation, raising the voices of South Asian immigrant women in the UK, and highlighting their views and advice for policy‐makers and for other women considering such marriages.

This paper describes a survey carried out by a South Asian women's voluntary organisation to identify the physical and mental health needs of its users. The results confirm research findings that suggest a high proportion of South Asian women suffer from psychological and somatic symptoms that are commonly associated with anxiety and depression. A considerable number had experienced racial discrimination and several had suffered sexual discrimination. Problems reported by participants included eating disorders, marital difficulties and domestic violence. The majority did not know where to seek help for mental health problems. Respondents wanted confidential talking and complementary therapies to be provided in services run by South Asian staff, and for health education and health promotion to be provided in their own ethnic language. The paper ends with a consideration of the implications of these findings for the delivery of mainstream mental health services, from health promotion through primary care to specialist services.

This study aims to identify the specific challenges that North American female professionals of Asian descent face in building executive presence and make recommendations for mitigating those challenges.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 female executives of Asian descent in diverse U.S. and Canadian organizations. The goal was to explore their perceptions of Asian organizational stereotypes and identify how these perceptions, shaped by their cultural and gender identities, have created unique challenges relating to executive presence. Interviewees provided in-depth examples of their challenges and detailed recommendations for neutralizing them. Interview data were coded and analyzed using the Gioia methodology.

Results revealed that deferential, reserved and hardworking are the top three perceptions attributed to female professionals of Asian descent working in North America. These perceptions are not commendatory or derogatory by themself. They can be associated with either positive or negative leadership qualities, depending on the specific behaviors exhibited and how those behaviors are interpreted. The authors’ analysis maps the relationship between these perceptions and behaviors associated with the executive presence literature. The respondents’ three key recommendations for neutralizing the negative connotations of these perceptions are discussed.

The results of this study reinforce the need to develop influence, communication and relational skills (e.g. executive presence) in women of Asian ethnicity. The study respondents’ recommendations provide a foundational curriculum guide for doing so. The results also support the need to train hiring managers to become ever more aware of their cultural biases, focusing on how these biases impact their hiring, performance evaluation and promotion practices.

There is a dearth of research regarding the career experiences of Asian women working in North American corporations. This qualitative study provides insight into relationships between cultural identity, executive presence and career success and lays the groundwork for future quantitative studies that deepen a theoretical understanding of the relationship of executive presence to impression management and cross-cultural theories.

Background: suicide prevention is a priority for health services in England. A high rate of suicide in South Asian women and a dramatic rise in young Afro‐Caribbean's has been reported in the UK.Aims: the aim of this selected review is to present the cultural context of suicidal behavior and possible preventive strategies for the South Asian and Afro‐Caribbean's living in the UK.Methods: relevant data about the cultural context of suicidal behavior in the two ethnic groups is reviewed.Findings: our findings suggest that socio‐cultural factors in women of South Asian origin and social risk factors and situational stress in Afro Caribbean's appears to be related to acts of self‐harm.Conclusions: we could not identify any published studies of effective suicide prevention strategies or on any treatment programmes for the two ethnic minority groups. Addressing the cultural, linguistic and religious need of these groups should be of paramount importance.

This article presents a study of the social, emotional and physical health lifestyle behaviours of a socially marginalised segment of Canada's population: retired, widowed, immigrant mothers from a South Asian country. Using a narrative research process, we explore how present physical, emotional and social health leisure activities are influenced by behaviours from their childhood, with emphasis on migration to Canada, retirement and widowing as lifestyle behavioural change points. Our sample of immigrant women were living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada during the time of the study. The study employed narrative inquiry, which is often used in migration studies. Our qualitative data analyses uncovered themes that linked present social health activities and early life behaviours and the influence on them of cultural constraints or stimulants. Three forms of sociocultural influences, gender segregation, patriarchal protection and early preparation for marriage, shaped adolescence and adult life as less physically active but more emotionally and socially healthy. Later life events, migration, retirement and widowing, enabled women to gain freedom to renegotiate and reconstruct late‐life styles to be more physically and socially active through ethno‐cultural social networks they had built after migration. The concluding discussion makes recommendations for health and social programme planning to draw attention to cultural realms that could help these women become physically active after migration without compromising traditional social behaviours.