Why the wage gap differs among Asian American women

April 5 marks AAPI Equal Pay Day; on average, AAPI women earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by White men. Under the AAPI umbrella, there are some of the highest earners among women — and the lowest. That obscures the economic realities of Southeast Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women.

By Chabeli Carrazana and Jasmine Mithani
Originally published by The 19th

Sparse economic data on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women has painted an inaccurate reality of economic well-being and hampered communities’ efforts to address disparities. It’s an issue that AAPI Women’s Equal Pay Day on April 5 attempts to spotlight.

On average, AAPI women earn 80 cents for every $1 earned by White men when looking at both full- and part-time workers, more than any other racial group of women.

But that figure obscures the harsher realities faced by Southeast Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women, who see some of the largest wage gaps in the country. The 80 cent average captures an enormous range: Taiwanese women earn more than White men, about $1.08 for every White man’s $1, while Nepalese women earn 48 cents on the dollar. The AAPI umbrella encompasses the varied experiences of people across continents and oceans, missing the unique experiences of those communities in the United States.

Stereotypes about AAPI communities have undermined efforts to make the case for better data collection, said Yvonne Hsu, the chief policy and government affairs officer for the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

“The ‘model minority’ myth that has been assigned to our community — that Asians do well and Asians are successful — when you look at the numbers disaggregated by ethnic groups, you can just see that is just flat out not true,” Hsu said.

In reality, AAPI women are overrepresented in low-wage work. They are 3.8 percent of frontline workers though they are 2.9 percent of the overall workforce, according to a study by the National Women’s Law Center. They also work disproportionately in health care, service and retail jobs, salon and nail tech positions and as personal care aides, including as hairdressers and child care workers. And in those jobs, they typically earn less than their White male counterparts, said Jessica Mason, a senior policy analyst with the National Partnership for Women and Families.

“And on the other hand, they are underrepresented in a lot of higher paying jobs, or within those jobs, maybe they have some entry into STEM fields, but they really face a lot of barriers to advancing into higher levels of those fields,” Mason said.

Even when they do have access to higher paying jobs, discrimination — gender, racial or both — blocks them from advancing, Mason said.

But because sample sizes in national surveys are so small, it’s hard to disaggregate that data further to understand exactly which jobs, rather than larger job categories, communities are working in. It gets even harder to do when you layer gender, as well.

Part of the challenge is ensuring that surveys are in a multitude of languages and that community organizations and the US Census Bureau have the resources to do appropriate outreach. The other part, Mason said, is combating fear within those communities to interact with the federal government.

“The problems with discrimination and xenophobia that a lot of AANHPI women in their communities are experiencing [is part of it], because for communities that are being especially targeted right now for anti-Asian hate and and other forms of discrimination, being presented with an official survey might in itself be a little bit scary if you're not sort of sure what it is or whether it's trustworthy,” Mason said.

In the data that is available, it’s clear many AAPI women are also breadwinners who live in multigenerational households, responsible for both child care and elder care. About 56 percent of AAPI mothers are primary, sole or co-breadwinners in their families. But many work in jobs with little access to paid leave, health care or time off.

There is also some evidence that cultural norms and immigration status may play a role in depressing wages.

How communities arrive in the United States, what benefits they have access to and what the pathway to citizenship looks like helps determine their economic outcomes. Chinese and Indian immigrants who came to the United States after immigration laws loosened in the 1940s and 1950s under visas set aside for “high-skill” workers see close to no wage gap today. Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants who came to the United States as refugees, many of whom were low-wage before moving, face significant gaps. And language matters, too: Indians and Filipinos had access to English education as former British and American colonies and now face fewer barriers, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

It bears out in the numbers. Chinese women earn 83 cents on the White man’s dollar, Indian women earn $1.07 and Filipino women earn 79 cents. Vietnamese women earn 56 cents and Cambodian women earn 63 cents.

“With immigrant communities often what opportunities or connections the first few groups of immigrants or refugees might have access to is sort of what they are then able to connect the next group of people to,” Mason said.

NEW YORK DEPT. OF LABOR

Nail salon workers are among the lowet paid AAPI women.

Nepalese women, who have one of the largest gaps of any group of AAPI women, are highly concentrated in nail tech positions. Overall, about 70 percent of manicurists and pedicurists are Asian American.

Pabitra Dash, a senior organizer at the Adhikaar Center in Queens, a community organization that represents about 1,400 Nepali-speaking nail salon techs, said part of the reason they work those jobs is existing networks and part of the reason is cultural. Husbands, boyfriends and partners are not threatened by nail tech jobs because the clientele is largely women, and that job is considered appropriate for women, a reflection of traditional gender norm culture in Nepal.

“My husband encouraged me to work in the industry because I’m working with women — he is so secure,” she said.

Many also don’t speak English, which relegates them to less desirable jobs at smaller salons where the pay and tips are lower. Language barriers also impact the quality of tips workers get from their clients, Dash said.

It’s part of why the Adhikaar Center led the charge to pull nail techs in New York City out from under a tipped wage classification that meant they were paid less than minimum wage with the expectation that tips made up the rest. Although they were successful, many salons have now reduced workers’ hours to comply with the $15 an hour minimum wage.

It’s common then, Dash said, for techs to work second jobs cleaning their clients' homes, for example, to make some extra income. Almost none of the positions they work in offer benefits, setting women back long-term.

“What is their retirement plan? Nothing. What is their health insurance? Nothing. What is their [access to] health and safety [regulations]? Nothing,” said Dash, who is working to pass a bill in New York that would create a council of nail salon workers to develop minimum standards for the industry.

It’s a similar story for Southeast Asian women, many of whom came to the United States as refugees and now work in low-paid sectors with few benefits, but where English language requirements are lower, such as manufacturing and service jobs, said Kham Moua, the national deputy director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, a national civil rights organization advocating for Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese American communities.

Most immigrants from those countries came as refugees or as the families of refugees to the United States, typically very low-income and with little to no formal education or English-speaking ability. In particular, those who came after the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s, which targeted educated professionals, academics and largely men, were often single, low-income mothers who spoke little to no English, Moua said.

That history is part of the reason Southeast Asians also have some of the lowest rates of educational achievement among Asian Americans, while also facing significant mental health challenges.

“Populations that started in poverty and continue to live in poverty generally have a hard time getting out,” Moua said.

For those communities, culture also plays a role in the positions women take. Southeast Asian Americans have the largest average family size of any AAPI group at nearly 5 people on average, suggesting high rates of multigenerational living. Care work is still seen as traditionally women’s work, but women are also expected to hold jobs while caring for family. Because child care and elder care are so expensive and inaccessible to so many communities, that puts up guardrails regarding what types of jobs women can take.

“That is also seen with the way that the daughters in some of these communities are treated, as well — things like going to college close to the home so they can still continue to do some of the home care work,” for example, Moua said.

Creating pathways for those women workers to enter into other jobs and into higher-paying positions is a multi-pronged challenge. There is the underlying gender discrimination that has stagnated all women’s economic advancement. In 20 years, the gap has barely narrowed because gender discrimination in the workplace is still so pervasive.

RELATED: 

• The pandemic has widened the gender pay gap
• Equal Pay Day for AAPI Women 

But layer race, language and culture on top of that and solutions are even less clear. Businesses can’t address their pay gaps if they don’t know why the gaps exist in the first place.

That’s especially difficult for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) women, said Estella Owoimaha-Church, the executive director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities, a nonprofit that works to advocate for Pacific Islanders in the United States. The organization has been involved in designating a separate day for NHPI women to highlight how significant their gap is compared to other Asian American women.

“We don't have access to strong disaggregated data,” Owoimaha-Church said. “I actually can’t say anecdotally why our pay continues to be so much lower because I don't think in most professions or career spaces we are even seen as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. If I ask a Fortune 500 company why you pay your PI women less than everyone else, I imagine the answer would be, ‘PI? Who's that?’”

A study of the 2020 census by the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice found that despite an overcounting of the AAPI community nationally, states and localities were still undercounting AAPI people. NHPI people, in particular, were likely undercounted in states in the upper Midwest, Northeast and the South, and in communities like Hawaii and Los Angeles where they are heavily concentrated. San Francisco Unified School District passed a resolution in 2020 to direct more services and staff to NHPI students after it was clear many students were being undercounted.

Owoimaha-Church herself is Nigerian and Samoan, and she said she doesn’t show up in the NHPI data, but rather in the multiethnic data.

Based on anecdotal evidence, many NHPI women work in service industry jobs, at airports, in nursing positions and in community advocacy, Owoimaha-Church said. They have limited access to higher education and many households are also multigenerational.

Immigration and country of origin plays a major role in access to benefits and citizenship. People from Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Hawaii are U.S. citizens with full access to benefits, while people from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Republic of Palau can work in the United States legally, but aren’t considered citizens and have limited access to benefits. American Samoans qualify for most benefits and can work legally in the United States, but must obtain citizenship to get access to full benefits. Other immigrants need to apply for legal permanent resident status to work and live in the states and have to wait five years to apply for public benefits.

Understanding what sets NHPI women back is understanding that they are facing “a multitude of layered oppressions,” Owoimaha-Church said. “We live these intersectional lives and it’s that stacked on or layered with not having language access to different resources.”

Unraveling those realities will be crucial to helping NHPI women prosper, she said. So will questioning why these groups of women are so far behind their Asian women counterparts in the first place.

“What happens when we frame the conversation differently? Not about chasing where a White man is” she said. “I struggle with justifying continuing to frame the conversation in this way. Since we are dealing with the lack of equitable data disaggregation, my first thought is, ‘PI women compared to Asian-American women and what is that disparity and how do we first remedy that?’”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Read more by The 19th, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

Supreme Court rules against Roe v. Wade; shakes up and angers AANHPI communities

A woman wept after hearing the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade.

Even though the Supreme Court's decision on a woman's right to make decisions about her own healthcare was expected, today's ruling sent shockwaves reverberating throughout the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)  condemned the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women Health Organization. Today’s final ruling overturns nearly 50 years of legal precedent on federally protected access to abortion.

“This is a direct and pernicious assault on people of color, including Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities where the path to abortion care is riddled with language barriers, cultural stigmas, and low rates of insurance coverage among our most vulnerable community members,” says Isra Pananon Weeks, interim executive director and chief of staff of National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). 

The radical conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on Friday, ending the constitutional right to abortion in those states restricting abortion and threatening access to reproductive healthcare nationwide.

The NAPAWF statement was issued after the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was issued along ideological lines, with all three liberal justices in opposition.

"With sorrow—for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent," wrote Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer in their seething 59-page dissent.

“We believe in a Constitution that puts some issues off limits to majority rule. Even in the face of public opposition, we uphold the right of individuals — yes, including women — to make their own choices and chart their own futures. Or at least, we did once,” wrote the three moderate justices.

About one-fifth of pregnant Asian Americans may seek an abortion, a rate comparable to that of non-Hispanic white women, according to a study by City University of New York.

The restrictions approved by SCOTUS could take effect almost immediately in 13 states who have laws waiting for the Supreme Court ruling.

Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming—Republican-controlled legislatures have put in place "trigger bans" designed to outlaw abortion once Roe is overturned.

“This is a dark moment for our country,” said Caliofrnia's Attorney General Bonta, the first Filipino American AG for the state. “This court’s decision is outrageous, unprecedented, and dangerous. It blasts our nation back into the dark ages. Millions are now facing a stark reality when it comes to their right to choose. People all across the nation — their bodies, futures, and families — will be hurt by this decision."

California is home for the largest number of AANHPI in the country making up about 17% of the population, or about 6 million, based on the 2020 Census.

"In California, we refuse to turn back the clock and let politicians exert control over a person’s body. Despite the decision, abortion remains fully protected here in California," says Bonta. "We’ll keep fighting to strengthen and expand access to safe and legal abortion. ... Abortion remains a legally protected right in our state and, in California, we won’t backslide.”

“The cultural, economic, and logistical barriers for AAPI community members, especially those working for low-wages in frontline, service jobs, make traveling and getting an abortion often difficult if not impossible,” says Weeks.

AAPI women are overrepresented in the frontline and service industry, often working without health insurance and paid medical or family leave. Sixty-six percent of Asian Americans and 30% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders also speak a primary language other than English at home which creates difficulties in accessing health care due to overwhelming language barriers. In addition, nearly two-thirds of Asian Americans and one-fifth of Pacific Islanders are foreign-born.

Nikki Tran of Maryland protested outside the Supreme Court last May. Since then, Chief Justice
John Roberts joined the five Justices on her poster in today's ruling.

“As the country’s fastest growing racial and ethnic group, a third of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders now live in one of the 26 states where abortion access has vanished. Gutting Roe cuts off access to abortion care and puts the well-being and financial stability for millions of AAPI women and families at tremendous risk,” says Weeks. The AAPI population, for instance, in Georgia and Texas has grown 138% and 128%, respectively since 2000. Both states are now primed to ban abortion following today’s Supreme Court ruling.

“The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization is tragically wrong – overturning decades of established precedent, eroding basic human rights for millions of Americans and taking our country backwards and endangering many other civil liberties we take for granted," said John Yang, president of Advancing Justice, legal rights advocates. 

"We filed an amicus brief in this case with the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum because of our concern for the Asian American and broader immigrant community," continued Yang. "Given that Asian Americans are among the fastest-growing populations nationwide with nearly two-thirds of the population being foreign-born, we have grave concerns about the impact this decision will have on our communities. 

"Bans on abortion care are going to heighten fears of adverse immigration consequences for undocumented individuals, refugees, and other immigrants regardless of their immigrant status. We will need to come together to find a way to support our communities while we explore every course of action to reclaim this fundamental human right.”

Justice Thomas' opinion said that he and his fellow right-wing justices are not done  taking away Americans' rights in other areas, as well.

“Today’s devastating reversal is not only about reproductive rights, but protections for the LGBTQ community, voting rights, and marriage equality. With legislators across the US repealing early voting and mail-in ballot expansions, and the Supreme Court refusing to protect the Voting Rights Act, AAPI interests, including the right to an abortion, are being sidelined,” says Weeks.

“After two years of increasing anti-Asian hate, NAPAWF is no stranger to legislators overlooking our concerns or witnessing attacks on our health and safety," continued  Weeks. "We will not back down. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, other communities of color, and a majority of all voters support legalizing abortion. It is time for elected officials to act on our interests.”

"The Supreme Court has now mandated forced pregnancy, taking away an intensely personal freedom for pregnant people to make decisions about our own bodies with a doctor or loved one, and instead bringing politicians into your decision and your bedroom," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "Every woman, every family, every pregnant person should fear what this means for their futures."

"It is important that Americans understand that this Supreme Court and Republicans in Congress will not stop here," Jayapal continued. "In the opinion, the [conservative] justices say explicitly that the court should reconsider 'all substantive due process precedents,' including the right to contraception, to same-sex marriage, and to same-sex relationships."

EDITOR'S NOTES: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Over a million rally against Supreme Court's upcoming ruling that could take away abortion rights

TWITTER

Washington DC had one of the largest rallies Saturday.

Over million people in over 400 events across the nation Saturday demonstrated in support of abortion rights. The rallies were parked by a pending Supreme Court decision that could deal a serious blow against abortion rights.

A leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women Health Organization written by Justice Sam Alito indicated that a majority of justices intend to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision which has established a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

"If Roe is overturned, the impact would be swift and devastating and would severely limit abortion access in at least 26 states and territories, leaving nearly 40 million individuals without access to a crucial part of reproductive care," says the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

“Now, more than ever, it is imperative we protect our right to choose and access safe and legal abortions –especially in the midst of the growing assault on abortion access and, most recently, with the leaked draft opinion by Justice Alito signaling intention to overturn Roe v. Wade," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

"I am especially invested in this fight as I know that the impacts of these abortion bans are felt most acutely by communities of color, including the Asian American Pacific Islander community," Chu continued.

"Roe cannot and must not fall," says Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). "The path to proper abortion care is already arduous for AAPI communities – filled with language barriers, cultural stigmas, and low rates of insurance for our most vulnerable members. Although opportunities to defend abortion rights in court are shrinking, we can still protect abortion access state by state."

WOMENS MARCH SAN FRANCISCO

Hundreds of demonstrators marched in San Francisco, one of 450 rallies held in the U.S.

The Guttmacher Institute in 2021 released the first-ever study to detail abortion rates among specific Asian populations in the United States. The study, which focuses on Asian groups in New York City, finds that the abortion rate for Asian women is lower than the rates for most other major ethnic and racial groups.

• During 2014-2015, the abortion rate for Asian women in New York City was 12.6 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 years, lower than the rates for other major racial or ethnic groups (33.8 for all women, 15.7 for White women, 63.5 for Black women and 33.9 for Hispanic women). 
• Among country-of-origin groups, Indian women had the highest rate (30.5 abortions per 1,000 women), followed by Japanese women (17), Vietnamese women (13), Chinese women (8.8), and Korean women (5.1). 
• The abortion rate for U.S.-born Asian women was about 1.5 times higher than for foreign-born Asian women, although differences varied by country of origin. For example, the abortion rate for U.S.-born Chinese women was nearly twice as high as that for foreign-born women, while among Japanese women, there was a nearly five-fold difference in the abortion rate between foreign-born and U.S.-born women. 

"Our most vulnerable communities, including people of color, low-income communities, and survivors of abuse will bear the brunt of the consequences of this unlawful and unjust rollback of set precedent," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA., who is one of four members of Congress who had an abortion. "We cannot and will not go back on decades of reproductive freedom because of extremist, right-wing Justices trying to infringe on our constitutional right to choose.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

AANHPI women alarmed at SCOTUS' draft calling for overturning Roe v Wade

EPA

Asian American women protest Texas' restrictions on abortion rights.

UPDATED: 2 a.m., May 4, 2021

A leaked draft of a Supreme Court majority opinion has sent shockwaves across the nation, including the AANHPI communities.

Drafted by conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the historic Roe v. Wade decision "was egregiously wrong from the start.” 

The draft, which was released Tuesday, was confirmed as authentic by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who said, "Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”

“This opinion speaks to the unprecedented and alarming nature of the assault on our reproductive rights. Banning access to abortion care further jeopardizes the well-being and financial stability for millions of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and families," said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director fo the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

The draft, which was circulated among the nine Justices Feb. 10 ruled in favor of Mississippi in the closely watched case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, over that state’s attempt to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

"It's really quite a radical decision," President Biden said. “It's a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence."

"Every other decision based on the notion of privacy is thrown into question," Biden told reporters.

The President said the same arguments Alito used in the draft could also raise questions to other issues not specifically mentioned in the Constitution including the right of gays and lesbians to marry, interracial marriage, as well as constitutional protections for birth control.

If adopted as drafted in February the SCOTUS would end a half-century guarantee of federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion. As of today, 24 states have similarly worded anti-abortion legislation in the pipeline.

Most observers believe the majority of the activist conservative SCOTUS will weaken Roe v. Wade with the Republican-appointed conservative Justices in the majority and the three Democratic appointees in the minority.

“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” wrote Alito.

“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” the justice wrote.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes

"Roe cannot and must not fall. The path to proper abortion care is already arduous for AAPI communities – filled with language barriers, cultural stigmas, and low rates of insurance for our most vulnerable members," Choimorrow continued in her statement.

"Roe ensures a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion," said Vice President Kamala Harris. "It also, at its root, protects the fundamental right to privacy. What is clear is that opponents of Roe want to punish women and take away their rights to make decisions about their own bodies. Republican legislators in states across the country are weaponizing the use of the law against women.

"The rights of all Americans are at risk," Harris said. "If the right to privacy is weakened, every person could face a future in which the government can potentially interfere in the personal decisions you make about your life. This is the time to fight for women and for our country with everything we have."

In September, 2021, a “friend of the court” brief, NAPAWF and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, representing 29 community and civil rights organizations, as well as bar associations, was filed representing the interests of Asian American and Pacific Islander women .

“We know that abortion access is already difficult for AAPI women. The cultural stigma and shame that comes with talking about abortion, let alone getting one, is compounded with significant language and economic barriers that can make accessing abortion care a harrowing and terrifying experience,” said Choimorrow when the amicus curie was filed.

“This is especially true for AAPI women who are over-represented in low-paying, service jobs and are more likely to not have health care coverage to begin with.” In 2020, AAPI women experienced the highest rates of long-term unemployment among minority women since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Given that AAPIs are among the fastest-growing populations nationwide with nearly two-thirds of the population being foreign-born, we have grave concerns about the impact of this case on our community,” said Niyati Shah, Advancing Justice – AAJC’s Director of Litigation. “The anti-immigrant sentiment will only further stoke the fear of AAPI women that they will face adverse consequences regardless of their immigration status.”

Overturning Roe v. Wade will effectively end legal abortion in at least 24 states, several of which are home to large and growing AAPI communities. For instance, the AAPI population in states with abortion restrictions or bans, such as Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina, has grown 138%, 128%, and 154%, respectively, since 2000. The rolling back of reproductive rights by banning access to abortion care will jeopardize the well-being and financial stability for millions of AAPI women and families.

TWITTER

California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined San Francisco activists protesting the
prospective Supreme Court ruling Roe v Wade.

After the draft was published by Politico, spontaneous protests occurred across the nation including in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC.

The amicus brief filed last Fall emphasizes the unconstitutionality imposed by pre-viability abortion bans and the need to protect the constitutional right for continued access to abortion care for AAPI women. The barriers to safe reproductive care will become even more profound if Mississippi’s pre-viability abortion ban is upheld due to laws that unfairly target pregnant AAPI women for criminal prosecution.

A series of studies by CUNY's Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy found that roughly one-fifth of pregnant Asian Americans may seek an abortion, a rate comparable to that of non-Hispanic white women.

A separate study suggest that this CUNY's findings may be an underestimate. For example, the Center for American Progress contends that as many as one-third of pregnancies in the AAPI community may end in abortion.

Another study found that the AAPI community is the only racial community in which abortion usage hasn’t decreased in the last 15 years.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views frm an AAPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Study: 75% of AAPI women have experienced racism last year

A memorial for Michelle Go, who was pushed into the path of a subway train was held in
New York City's Time Square last month.

With Women's History Month underway, a new survey found that 3 out of 4 AAPI women have experienced racism and/or discrimination over the past 12 months.

A report spotlighting the experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women with discrimination, harassment and violence also report that about half of all hate incidents occurred in a public space, such as sidewalks, public transportation, markets, shopping centers and restaurants.

“The most recent deaths of two Asian American women in New York, nearly one year after the Atlanta shootings, is yet another reminder of a wave of violence targeting not just Asian Americans, but Asian American women,” said NAPAWF’s executive director Sung Yeon Choimorrow. “This past year, our community has experienced a 339% jump in hate crimes – with AAPI women disproportionately being the targets of this hate and violence.”

The groundbreaking survey, The State of Safety for Asian American and Pacific Islander Women in the U.S., was released by National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) Thursday (March 3). It surveyed over 2,400 AAPI women from every region of the country and across four ethnic subgroups: East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI).

The report was released days after a man attacked seven AAPI women within a 2-hour period in New York City. The suspect, Steven Zajonc, 28, was arrested and charged with seven counts each of assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment, and harassment. 

Last month, deadly attacks heightened the fear among AAPI women. Christina Lee was fatally stabbed over 40 times in her apartment and Michelle Go was pushed off a subway platform into the path of an oncoming train. Sunday, GuiYIng Ma died weeks after being bashed in her head with a rock, and Julia Lee was sitting in her car when she was shot in the head.

READ a full copy of the report is available at: napawf.org/stateofsafety

Hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have risen sharply since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the two years since the arrival of the coronavirus to the U.S., over 10,000 hate incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a community-based organization collecting the data. AAPI women face a disproportionate burden of anti-AAPI hate with 62% of all national hate incidents being reported by AAPI women.

The NAPAWF study reports almost half (47%) incidents taking place in public, such as restaurants and shopping centers. Respondents also reported encountering incidents in familiar places where safety may be less of a concern including schools, healthcare facilities, workplaces, places of worship, and even their own neighborhood.

Additionally, almost 40% of AAPI women report experiencing sexual harassment in the past twelve months. “Although these experiences are shared across our diverse community, they are not the same for everyone — over half or 52% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing sexual harassment, more than any other demographic subgroup,” said NAPAWF’s Research Director Dr. Drishti Pillai.

When asked about their safety in public spaces, over half (51%) of East Asian respondents said they felt less safe today than at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — almost twenty points higher in comparison to 33% across other AAPI subgroups.

In a sobering reflection of the current state of safety for AAPI women, 71% of respondents report feeling anxious or stressed due to fear of discrimination, harassment, or violence.

“This is not new or surprising for many of us,” said Choimorrow. “AAPI women have long endured misogyny and racism for centuries and these findings show how this history continues to bleed into our grim present.”

When asked about elected officials’ responses, 36% and 29% of AAPI women believe that the Biden administration and their local elected officials, respectively, have sufficiently addressed anti-AAPI hate and threats to their safety. However, the survey results revealed a path forward. Over 90% of AAPI women agree that elected officials need to better understand the experiences AAPI people have with discrimination, harassment and violence. Similarly, over 90% agreed that elected officials should act on that understanding by investing more resources in the communities most impacted by this hate.

“We applaud President Biden for bringing national attention to anti-Asian hate and violence in his first State of the Union address,” says Choimorrow. “And we look forward to continuing our work with the president and other elected officials to address its disproportionate impact on Asian American and Pacific Islander women.”

The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) helped fund the survey, seeking to support NAPAWF as it sheds much-needed light on the experiences of AAPI women today.

“AAPI women everywhere are living with an unbelievable amount of anxiety and fear over our personal safety," said TAAF’s board member Sonal Shah. "Every time we step out in public — whether it’s at work, walking our kids to school, or shockingly, standing on our front steps — there’s a possibility that we’ll be targeted. "

Kyung B. Yoon, president of Korean American Community Foundation, concurred: "The results of this survey are striking and far reaching. The climate of fear and anxiety created by persistent discrimination, harassment and violence is more than an issue of safety for AAPI women — it endangers their mental health, wellbeing, and happiness.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.

Asian Americans add their voices to SCOTUS case that could overturn Roe v. Wade

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Pro-choice advocates demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court.

Asian American groups are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a call by the state of Mississippi to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow individual states to ban or end the legal right to abortion.

“We know that abortion access is already difficult for AAPI women," said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) in filing a friend of the court brief in 

"The cultural stigma and shame that comes with talking about abortion, let alone getting one, is compounded with significant language and economic barriers that can make accessing abortion care a harrowing and terrifying experience,” she said. “This is especially true for AAPI women who are over-represented in low-paying, service jobs and are more likely to not have health care coverage to begin with.” 

The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC), filed an amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is slated to be heard on Dec. 1.

Also on Monday, the Department of Justice sought permission to present oral arguments when the nation's highest court hears challenges to Mississippi's strict abortion law, as the DOJ called on justices to uphold Roe v. Wade.

Overturning Roe v. Wade will effectively end legal abortion in at least 22 states, several of which are home to large and growing AAPI communities. For instance, the AAPI population in Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina, has grown 138%, 128%, and 154%, respectively, since 2000. The rolling back of reproductive rights by banning access to abortion care will jeopardize the well-being and financial stability for millions of AAPI women and families.

The amicus brief filed Monday emphasizes the unconstitutionality imposed by pre-viability abortion bans and the need to protect the constitutional right for continued access to abortion care for AAPI women. The barriers to safe reproductive care will become even more profound if Mississippi’s pre-viability abortion ban is upheld due to laws that unfairly target pregnant AAPI women for criminal prosecution.

The DOJ's brief backs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, in its fight over the state’s attempt to ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Since Roe v. Wade became law, it has survived a plethora of challenges. However, abortion foes are betting that the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority will abolish Roe v. Wade.

In 2020, AAPI women experienced the highest rates of long-term unemployment among minority women since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Justice sought permission Monday to present oral arguments when the Supreme Court hears a case challenging Mississippi's strict abortion law, as it called on justices to uphold Roe v. Wade.

Earlier this month, all three of the activist conservative Justices who were appointed by Trump, voted in the 5-4 majority vote taken in the middle of the night decided to not hear challenges to a controversial Texas law that would ban most abortions after five weeks, thus allowing it to become law in Texas. Chief Justice Roberts sided with the liberal Justices.

Underlining the Biden administration's support of Roe v. Wade, on Monday,  administration cited that law as it formally backed the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would shield abortion rights across the country.

“In the wake of Texas’ unprecedented attack, it has never been more important to codify this constitutional right and to strengthen health care access for all women, regardless of where they live,” Biden’s Office of Management and Budget said in a prepared statement.

“We will not allow this country to go backwards on women’s equality,” said the statement. 

Texas abortion ban puts health and safety of Asian American and Pacific Islander women at risk

In the dead of night Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition to block enforcement of the most restrictive and punitive abortion ban in the nation.

The Texas law, or SB8, took effect on September 1, after the Justice voted 5-4 to not act on the challenge.  Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberals in dissent.  

The new law bans all abortions after six weeks when most women don’t even know they are pregnant. The law gives private citizens the right to sue anyone who helps someone get access to an abortion in Texas, not just health care providers, but neighbors, family members, and even strangers.

“This law disproportionately impacts communities of color, especially black communities in Texas. It also impacts Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs)," said Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director at the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF).

Choimorrow was not alone in her assessement. President Biden called the law that bans any abortion after six weeks an "unprecedented assault on a woman's constitutional rights."

"Complete strangers will now be empowered to inject themselves in the most private and personal health decisions faced by women," said Biden in a statement. "This law is so extreme it does not even allow for exceptions in the case of rape or incest. And it not only empowers complete strangers to inject themselves into the most private of decisions made by a woman—it actually incentivizes them to do so with the prospect of $10,000 if they win their case."

Biden said in his statement he was directing the office of the White House counsel and his Gender Policy Council to review how the government could "ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions... and what legal tools we have to insulate women and providers from the impact of Texas’ bizarre scheme of outsourced enforcement to private parties.

"During a time of increasing anti-Asian American hate and harassment, particularly against Asian American and Pacific Islander women, the Texas law creates fear and confusion by intimidating people out of getting the abortion care they need,” said  Choimorrow, 

“It further stigmatizes abortion in our community and puts abortion care out of reach for those who are unable or don’t have the wherewithal to travel out of state. This is especially dreadful for undocumented community members who may not have health insurance or depend on in-language support.”

There are approximately 1.5 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living in Texas. Of this, 12% lack health insurance and 11% live in poverty. According to research from AAPI Data, as of 2017, 17% or nearly 150,000 AAPIs living in Texas are undocumented. The most common countries of origin for AAPI undocumented individuals in Texas are India, China, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam.

“Asian American and Pacific Islander women are angry and tired of the long-standing efforts to restrict reproductive and abortion access,” said Choimorrow. “NAPAWF will continue fighting until all AAPI women have complete access to the health care they need.”

In her scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor minced no words  saying the court's failure to stop the bill is "stunning" and that it "rewards tactics designed to avoid judicial review."

"Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny," Sotomayor continued, "a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand."

Under the Texas law, private citizens will be able to file civil lawsuits against abortion providers or anyone who helps or advises women get an abortion, including those who escort a woman to a clinic or help her pay for the procedure. If a plaintiff is successful in such a suit, they are entitled to at least $10,000, according to the bill.

In effect, Sotomayor wrote, "The Texas State Legislature has deputized the state's citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors' medical procedures,"

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more commentary and references, follow me on Twitter @dioknoed.

Report: AAPI women suffering the most from COVID-19 job losses

Asian American and Pacific Islander women have experienced the highest rates of long-term unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans due to increased morbidity, mortality, and unemployment rates. Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in particular, have been significantly disproportionally impacted by the pandemic, facing an alarming increase in race/ethnicity- and gender-based discrimination, violence, and job losses.

Government data reveal that AAPI women experienced the highest rates of long-term unemployment of any racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. in 2020, concludes a report by the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, NAPAWF.

 

Almost half (44%) of all AAPI women who experienced job losses in 2020 have been out of work for longer than six months. This staggering statistic is likely a result of the intersectional effects of a number of factors such as race- and gender-based discrimination, immigration status, and working in jobs that make them more susceptible to both workplace harassment and job losses. 

AAPI women are overrepresented in both the front-line and low-wage workforces: they make up 3.8% of the front-line workforce, despite only making up 2.9% of the overall workforce, and are typically paid less than their white male counterparts in the same occupations, says the NAPAWF analysis.

UCLA 

These "essential" frontline occupations include, but are not limited to, restaurant workers, salon workers, retail workers, and personal care aides, that includes nurses and caregivers to the elderly. Not only were the aforementioned jobs disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but working in such jobs also makes AAPI women increasingly susceptible to anti-AAPI violence and discrimination. 

Among the employees in who have continued to work, they often having to take health risks by continuing to interact with customers, patients and the public, says a study by UCLA. Among non-essential workers, many were able to work remotely from home. This is particularly true for white-collar employees and professionals. The group hit the hardest economically were non-essential workers who could not work remotely or worked for a fIrm that shut down. 

Racist incidents targeting AAPIs increased by 150% between 2019 and 2020. A staggering 70% of the incidents reported in 2020, the height of the coronavirus pandemic, were by women or gender nonbinary individuals with many of these incidents happening in workplaces and in places of business.

The NAPAWF-conducted national survey found that nearly 78% of AAPI women have been affected by anti-AAPI racism in the last two years. A fear of facing violence and discrimination at the workplace, especially in low-wage jobs, further reduces AAPI women’s ability to re-enter the workforce. 

In December 2020, the economy lost 140,000 jobs – all of them women’s jobs, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

"Many times Asian women have an especially high burden of domestic work and child care responsibilities in families, and with all the children at home, it's just been harder," Alexandra Suh, executive director of the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance in Los Angeles, told USA Today. "They also have more involvement with elder care. There's so many pressures with the pandemic."

AAPI women’s immigration status also plays a significant role in their employment, especially during the pandemic. From March 2020 through February 2021, immigrant women experienced the largest unemployment rates of any group in the United States, including US-born men, US-born women, and immigrant men.

In May 2020, the unemployment rate for AAPI immigrant women increased to 17%.

Disaggregating data

Given that nearly 70% of adult Asians in the U.S. are foreign-born, with many being recent immigrants or refugees, the AAPI community’s workforce participation was again disproportionately impacted, this time due to immigration-related job losses. 

Due to the combined effects of immigration, occupational segregation, and gender-based harassment and violence, disaggregating data by ethnicity, immigration status, and gender on employment for the AAPI community is of critical importance.

By lumping data under the umbrella term of "Asian American," the impact of the coronavirus on certain ethnicities are hidden and perpetuate the “model minority” myth. 

The AAPI community is a vast and incredibly diverse group encompassing more than 50 ethnic subgroups speaking more than 100 languages and dialects. There may be critical differences in the rates of unemployment among different ethnicities, and lumping us all together not only fails to acknowledge that, it also erases many of our distinct economic issues that need to be addressed. 

For example, AAPI women working full-time are typically paid, on average, 85 cents for every dollar paid to their white male counterparts. However, disaggregated data from 2015 to 2019 reveal that many AAPI women experience much larger wage gaps, particularly Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander women. Samoan and Tongan women only earn 60 cents for every white male dollar, Nepalese women only earn 54 cents for every white male dollar, and Burmese women earn only 52 cents for every white male dollar.

"They’re serving your food, they’re doing your nails and they’re caring for your children and your elderly," Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the NAPAWF, told USA Today. "There are Asians in these jobs that people don’t often think about."

Survey: AAPI women find new power amid the racist and sexist attacks

With the deaths of six Asian women in the Georgia shooting spree that killed eight people and the horrible sight of elderly AAPI grandmothers getting stomped upon still fresh in the public's minds, a new survey shows AAPI women are also learning to assert their influence to affect policies that affect their families.

Not only do AAPI women have to survive the pandemic and fight racism, they also have to contend with the misogynistic viewpoint that fetishizes them and the sexism within their own communities and American society at large.

“Asian American and Pacific Islander women are experiencing a new level of visibility but as targets of harassment and violence," said Sung Yeon Choimorrow,  executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, which commissioned the survey by The Harris Poll.

"We need to flip this around. We need to be seen beyond the stereotypes. We are not a monolith," she continued. "We are not your model minority." 

The survey released Wednesday, uncovers the priorities and perspectives of Asian American and Pacific Islander women, communities that have largely been under studied. One of the key findings of the wide-ranging research project was that 8 in 10 AAPI women want their elected officials to better understand how their perspectives differ from other communities.

Despite being one of the fastest growing electorates in the United States, the AAPI community has historically been one of the most understudied racial groups in the country. This lack of data has perpetuated the harmful model minority myth that paints Asian Americans as inherently successful - rendering the struggles and realities of the diverse AAPI community invisible.

NAPAWF’s landmark study, believed to be the largest such survey of AAPI women conducted in the U.S., revealed that these long standing concerns are at the forefront of the AAPI community. 

Overwhelmingly, AAPI women want their elected officials to understand there is diversity within the AAPI community (85%) and how their values and priorities might different from white women (82%). This understanding of intersectionality is especially important to younger AAPI women (86%) as Asian women have historically been susceptible to race-based sexual and physical violence

The polling also revealed how AAPI women are mobilizing a powerful voting bloc. In NAPAWF’s poll, AAPI women report turning out for the 2020 presidential election at historic rates (69%) much higher than the national turnout rate, many of them first-time voters (16%) taking advantage of mail-in voting. States such as Texas (19%), Florida (14%) and Georgia (13%) also saw increases in first-time AAPI women voters. More than half also reported voting early by mail or ballot drop box (59%) during the 2020 elections.

In March, NAPAWF also released a portion of the poll results about AAPI women’s experiences with racism in the United States. NAPAWF’s poll found that 78 percent of AAPI women had been affected by anti-Asian racism in the past two years and that more than half had personally encountered specific incidences of racism (55 percent). The data also revealed how AAPI women’s experiences with racism impacts their policy priorities - nearly seven-in-ten AAPI women consider improving protections for immigrants from violence a top priority (69 percent).

The key findings from the nationwide poll include:

AAPI women were more motivated to vote in te 2020 election.

• 7-in-10 AAPI women voted for Biden, with a majority voting for Biden as opposed to a reaction against Trump.

• The 2020 election saw a surge in new AAPI women voters—one-in-six voters (16%) report voting for the first time. AAPI women in Texas (19%), multilingual women (20%), and lower-income women (22%) are more likely to report being first-time voters.

• Two-thirds of AAPI women from Georgia reported voting in the U.S. Senate race in November, 75% reported voting in the January runoffs.

• New state limits on voting would impact AAPI women turning out to vote. In the general election 59 percent of AAPI women nationally reported voting early by mail or ballot box, 19 percent in person and early and 5 percent by absentee – which would be impacted by laws like those in Georgia and Texas.

• AAPI women were motivated for many reasons, Trump was part of it, but also COVID, the economy, reproductive rights and health, immigrant rights, and fighting racial inequality were additional factors.

AAPI women’s perspectives on candidates.

• 84% of AAPI women want to see more women running for office and 86 percent would like to see more AAPI represented in government and running for office.

• More than 8-in-10 AAPI women expect elected officials to understand there are differences between AAPI people and between white and AAPI women.

• AAPI women are motivated to vote by having a candidate on the ballot who excites them (41%), confident their vote could make a difference (35%) and if voting were made easier (34%).

AAPI women experiences with racism, sexism, and violence:

• 78 % of AAPI women had been affected by anti-Asian racism in the past two years and that more than half had personally encountered specific incidences of racism (55%).

• Nearly seven-in-ten AAPI women consider improving protections for immigrants from violence a top priority (69%).

• Notably, AAPI women in Georgia reported experiencing instances of racism at much higher rates than nationally. Two-thirds of AAPI-Georgians reported experiencing a racist encounter in recent years and were specifically more likely to report violence (17%) or discrimination in the housing market (11%) because of their race or gender.

• The most common instances of self-reported anti-Asian racism are being called a racial slur (28%), feeling unsafe walking around outside (26%), and experiencing discrimination or harassment at work (18%).

Issue priorities for AAPI women:

• 3 of the 4 top issues for AAPI women – both overall and among almost every demographic group – center on health care. Protections for those with pre-existing conditions and ensuring everyone has access being the top two.

• Ending racial and gender discrimination is also a very serious concern for AAPI women.

• The top issues that AAPI women want to see the federal government address are: COVID-19; the economy; health care costs; jobs/unemployment; and, climate change/the environment.

• 30% say their mental health suffered because of COVID, 18 percent say a close family member or friend died and 17 percent say they lost their job or a member of their household lost their job.

Reproductive rights and health:

• Ensuring women have the authority to make decisions about their bodies and having access to affordable birth control are among the top tier issue priorities for AAPI women.

• 61% of AAPI women support abortion access in all or most cases. The strongest support for abortion access comes from East Asian Americans.

• 8-in-10 AAPI women feel having control over their reproduction produces more positive family outcomes.

The poll, which was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of NAPAWF, to our knowledge it is the largest survey of AAPI women ever conducted. The study interviewed over 3,537 adult AAPI-American women across the nation on a fully representative sample, allowing for a deep analysis of key demographics. Respondents were given the option to complete the survey in English, Mandarin, Korean, or Vietnamese.

Choimorrow said, "AAPI women demonstrated that we have the power to shape and influence elections and it’s long overdue for people to not only recognize our values and priorities, but also our diversity within the AAPI community."