English

Noun

bamboo ceiling ‎(plural bamboo ceilings)

1. Especially in America, a social barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a person of East Asian ethnicity.
   • 2005, Jane Hyun, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, ISBN 9780061983528 (2009 edition), Introduction (Google preview):

     The title Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling was selected because it acknowledges that Asian-Americans do indeed face obstacles in the workplace.

   • 2012 Nov. 1, Ethan Bronner, "Asian-Americans in the Argument," New York Times (retrieved 28 April 2014):

     Schools where admission is purely through a test, like the elite public New York City high school Stuyvesant, often have large percentages of Asian-Americans. The University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles are more than half Asian. That doesn’t help them integrate effectively, to pierce what some call the bamboo ceiling in the corporate and political worlds.

   • 2014 April 14, Ed Silverstein, "Asian-American GCs meet in Chicago to expand career opportunities," Inside Counsel (retrieved 28 April 2014):

     Many Asian American attorneys are finding they may have excelled in law school and were able to land their first job, but their careers are not moving forward the way they would like. It has been described as a “bamboo ceiling.”

2. In East Asia, a social barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for women.
   • 1995, Mahnaz Sarachi, "Women: Being and Becoming" in The Emergence of Women Into the 21st Century (P. Munhall and V. Fitzsimons, eds.), ISBN 9780061983528, p. 9 (Google preview):

     Nonetheless, women are definitely breaking through what has variously been called the glass ceiling, the bamboo ceiling, or the old boy's network.

   • 2000 May 14, Stephanie Strom, "Rising Internet Use Quietly Transforms Way Japanese Live," New York Times (retrieved 28 April 2014):

     She says the changes brought by the Internet will help crack the bamboo ceiling. "The business practice of face-to-face negotiation and drinking sake together into the night has made it difficult for women to advance in the business world," she said.

Hypernyms

• glass ceiling