04/01/2015
When Asian Women Consider Career Options...
By Cheri Butler
The Asian Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA) was formed to facilitate collaboration between countries in that region to promote career development and share ideas and best practices. Four members of APCDA from different Asian countries will provide insight into the challenges of women in their countries at the 2015 NCDA Global Career Development Conference in Denver. As a 20+ year career professional and moderator of this panel, I am struck by the fact that our Asian female peers are struggling with issues that we have dealt with in years past and partially overcome. I submit to my fellow Americans: What can we do to assist our counterparts in Asian Countries? Do female Asians struggle with the same issues if they immigrate to the US and, if so, as career professionals, can we assist them? We all hope to be culturally sensitive and understanding the nuances of cultural values for people from other countries makes us better counselors.
As Hsiu-Lan (Shelley) Tien explained at the 2014 APCDA Conference, a higher value is placed on collective social needs in Asian cultures For women, the importance of independence and differentiation must be weighed against collective social needs, such as caring for family. The Asian culture expects women to assume most of the responsibility for child-rearing and homemaking, so they must find a way to fit their career goals into this rigorous schedule. Often, these family demands cause them to consider a narrower range of career options.
Women who perform well in the professional world often encounter a "chilly climate." They find that they must perform better than men in order to be judged excellent in their field. They also encounter gender-role boundaries, with the expectation that their family should take precedence over career advancement.
In order to understand the way these pressures affect women, Tien provides this cultural comparison between the related issues men and women must consider when planning a career:
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Asian Males |
Asian Females |
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Financial concerns |
Concerns about sacrificing career for children, child-concerns, and role conflict |
|
Career success is primary goal |
Marriage and family pressure are primary goals |
|
More likely to be perceived as career-oriented |
Perceived as needing special accommodation for family responsibilities |
|
More emphasis on career success |
More emphasis on caring for spouse, children, and parents |
|
Career success is for his family |
Career success is for herself |
Dr. Tien is most familiar with life in Taiwan, but these pressures are similar in other Asian countries. Megumi Ohkubo, who is a career counselor in a career center at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, points out that Japan formerly had strict regulations, under the pretext of protecting women, that limited job opportunities and the hours that women were allowed to work outside the home. Now these regulations are gone, but Japanese women still feel an invisible ceiling which limits their ability to get promoted in the work place. They feel a tacit pressure to be a good wife and wise mother, and participate in their community. Many Japanese women unconsciously choose to pursue a good marriage rather than a career, and those who do start a career often give up their careers when family pressures increase.
According to Eunmee Hwang, Commissioner, Special Commission on Youth Employment Promotion, for the Republic of Korea, the economy and the difficult employment situation also impact the career choices of women. Often, women's attitude toward family responsibility is related to their generation, with older women feeling more responsibility toward the family and younger women feeling more freedom to explore other options. The government provides significant support for career services for women, including programs to help women reenter the workforce after their careers have been interrupted by child-rearing. Recently research focusing on women as managers provides additional information which will be useful to counselors.
Carla Siojo, Director of the Office of Placement and Career Services at the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, points out that Filipino women face the pressures described by Dr. Tien, but also feel a heavy responsibility to provide for their families financially. But aside from the need to augment family income due to the rising cost of education and living, more Filipino women now look for careers that will also satisfy their personal needs and provide a sense of fulfillment from work success. Attitudes and values help Filipino women make career decisions.
If you attend NCDA Conference Presentation #501, these four experts will elaborate on these ideas. To assist our dialogue, in addition to their individual presentations, the following questions will be asked of our panelists:
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What is the most critical challenge facing women in your country regarding their careers?
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What has been the biggest change in your country regarding women and their careers in the past 10 years?
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If you had the ability to change one thing to improve the prospects for women and their careers, what would you change?
We invite you to attend this engaging conference session in Denver, and I am confident we will all increase our cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity as a result of this presentation.
#501 When Asian Women Consider Career Options
This panel of Asian career practitioners will describe cultural issues which affect career choices of the women they counsel in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and Korea. As these women seek meaning in life, their cultural and gender perspectives affect their choices. Each country presents unique cultural concerns, but also common themes.
Marilyn Maze, Asia Pacific Career Dev. Assoc.; Cheri Butler, Asia Pacific Career Development Association; Hsui-Lan (Shelley) Tien, Asia Pacific Career Development Association; Megumi Ohkubo, Rikkyo University, Tokyo; Carla Siojo, Ateneo de Manila University; Eunmee Hwang, Commissioner for the Special Commission on Youth Employment Promotion, Republic of Korea.
Career Convergence welcomes articles with an international connection.
Cheri Butler, President-Elect of APCDA, is a career and personal development counselor, coach and educator with over 20 years experience working with individuals and organizations creating successful career, leadership and life paths. Proven ability to identify, design and deliver educational and developmental programs for clients young and old and at various life stages. Excellent leadership and mentoring skills with both professional and para-professional staff. National and International speaker and trainer. She is a Past President of NCDA. She can be reached at cbutler0923@gmail.com
Hsiu-Lan (Shelley) Tien, President of APCDA, received her Ph.D. in Counselor Education from the University of Iowa. She is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at the National Taiwan Normal University. She was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland. She is currently the editor of the Bulletin of Educational Psychology and an ad hoc reviewer for the Career Development Quarterly, Asia Pacific Educational Review, and Journal of Career Development. She was awarded the Chinese Guidance and Counseling Association’s Best Scholarly Performing Award in Taiwan (2004) and Service/Practice Award (2003).
Megumi Ohkubo is a Japanese career counselor/advisor. She used to work in a Japanese job-search firm. She assisted many females in their job-hunting activities and supported them to resolve their troubles at the workplace. Now she works as an office manager in RIBLS, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. She assists many female undergraduate students and alumnae for their career design.
Eunmee Hwang is Commissioner for the Special Commission on Youth Employment Promotion, Republic of Korea; President, Career Consultant Forum (CCF); and President of EM Consulting. In 2010, she was awarded the CEO Award for Excellence in Sustainability Management by the Korean Academic Society of Sustainability Management hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and SMBA (the Small & Medium Business Administration).
Carla Siojo is the Director of the Office of Placement and Career Services at the Ateneo de Manila University and is committed to helping students transition from school to work. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry: Family Ministry and Counseling at Ateneo de Manila University. She has a Professional Diploma course in Pastoral Ministry from the Center for Family Ministries, Inc., a Continuing Education Provider (CPE) accredited by the CPE Council for Guidance and Counseling of the Philippine Professional Regulation Commission.