Do Asian American Faculty Face a Glass Ceiling in Higher Education?

Abstract

The term glass ceiling refers to artificial barriers to achievement. Previous research on the subject suggests that, as racial minorities, Asian American faculty in higher education would encounter a glass ceiling. In this article, the glass ceiling hypothesis is evaluated on the basis of data from the 1993 National Study of Post-Secondary Faculty (NSOPF-93). The sample consists of full-time instructional faculty and includes 1,019 Asian Americans and a comparison group of 14,381 non-Hispanic Whites. Faculty salary is the dependent variable. Six models of an earnings function are estimated. Controls are included for the following kinds of differences: demographic, life cycle, human capital, productivity, field of specialization, institutional, and regional. Contrary to expectations, no consistent evidence for a glass ceiling emerged. However, additional evaluation of the effects of independent variables produces a more complex picture. Asian Americans do not derive comparable benefits from several characteristics associated with higher salaries for Whites and appear to have more limited pathways to higher salaries. Data limitations caution against concluding that Asian American faculty either face or do not face a glass ceiling. However, given the lack of research on Asian Americans in academe, this article provides new and important baseline findings to guide future research on the glass ceiling in higher education.