Bucking the ‘Trend’
Asian women’s success disproves claims of ‘white male supremacy’
THE progressive left’s belief that the United States is a country rampant with white supremacy and misogyny has gained a lot of cultural traction. However, newly released statistics from the US Department of Labor repudiate this narrative.
For the first three quarters of 2021, Asian women’s median weekly earnings surpassed those of white men, a trend that only began last year. In the most recent quarter (July to September), Asian women earned close to 10 percent more than white men. The highest-earning Asian female groups are Taiwanese, Indian and Chinese.
Asian women are hardly outliers. According to the latest 2019 census data, women of various Middle Eastern backgrounds out-earned their white counterparts: full-time working Iranian, Turkish and Palestinian women's earnings were higher than those of white women. Moreover, a 2017 University of Michigan study found African-born black women had both higher earnings and income growth compared to white women in the US.
What explains these jarring disparities? Aren't people of color and women both marginalized groups in a society that privileges the “straight white male” above everyone else? According to the theory of intersectionality, ethnic women are subject to double-disadvantage due to their intersecting victimized identity traits. But this trendy “woke” neo-Marxist ideology emanating from academia, could not be further from reality.
Whenever an ethnic group under-performs — in education, employment, economics — the left blames external causes, arguing that society has discriminated against this minority and stunted their full potential. So how does the left explain the growing success of Asian women? They don’t even try, because there are internal, cultural attributes and behavioral patterns behind their extraordinary rise.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth.
Several studies show Asian communities emphasize personal responsibility and self-made success more than other groups. For example, a Pew
Research Center survey found that Asian Americans were significantly more likely to believe “most people who want to get ahead can make it if they are willing to work hard" than the general public. When it comes to Asian women specifically, it is no wonder why they are achieving such success in the labor market. Compared to other female groups on average, they have fewer kids, and have kids at a later age in life. They are least likely to have kids out of wedlock and, due to multigeneration Asian family dynamics, they have more support in raising their kids from their parents and extended family. All these cultural traits translate to less family constraints and more time devoted to advancing one’s career. Wai Wah
Chin, Charter President of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Greater New York, said she is unsurprised by the latest labor data.
“The majority of Asian Americans are foreign-born and retain classic immigrant values,” Chin told me. “Hard work and extra work are mere facts of life. It's part of survival, it's part of facing higher hurdles, particularly in education where high-performing Asians are told they don't belong in top schools. Still, immigrants from Asia, both male and female, prize education. They bring greater training and respect for STEM skills, which are in demand globally. The traditional immigrant family structure also allows better focus on work. Barring distortions such as biases and quotas, workers of any race, gender and ethnicity with skills in demand and who do good hard work, are naturally better compensated.”
The demographics of Western society are rapidly evolving, upending historically marginalized groups into positions of power and influence. While sexual harassment in male-dominated corporate environments or racial discrimination in various contexts are far from extinct, we live in a time where minority groups across the spectrum have more freedom and dignity to pursue their potential than at any time in history or elsewhere on the planet.
Their progress deserves just as much — if not more — focus than the woke’s obsession with narratives about the patriarchy and white supremacy.