13288: Understanding South Asian Women in North America & Europe: Intricacies, Challenges, & Navigation (CANCELLED)

The number of South Asians (people originating from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal) in North American and European workplaces has been increasing steadily (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021; Berentsen & East, 2024). However, despite the increasing number, South Asians remain underrepresented in organizational scholarship (Lee & Ramakrishnan, 2020). This exclusion is partly due to the model minority myth that portrays all Asians, including South Asians, as successful, hardworking, and intelligent (Lai & Babcock, 2013). As a result, Asians are perceived as uniformly doing well, overshadowing their struggles as not significant. Further, looking at the experiences of the consolidated “Asian” category represents significant challenges in both research and practice as it masks the socioeconomic inequality and key socio-psychological differences among the Asian subgroups (Lu, 2024). Distinguishing the experiences of various Asian subgroups is essential, as South Asians have distinct cultural patterns and are perceived differently from East and Southeast Asians (Tewari, Inman, & Sandhu, 2003). The exclusion of South Asians from discrimination research, coupled with limited understanding of their lived experiences, underscores the need for deeper inquiry into their unique cultural dynamics, workplace experiences, and the specific opportunities and challenges they encounter. Research has indicated that Asian American women face the effects of both racism and sexism creating heightened invisibility and discrimination (Mukkamala & Suyemoto, 2018). There have been calls to better understand the experiences and gendered stereotypes of South Asian women (Eagly, 2020). Beyond the intersectionality of race and gender, other dimensions such as religion, social class, caste, birthplace, immigrant generation, and geographic region critically shape the lived experiences of South Asian women. These intersecting identities influence their intrapersonal identity network, affecting how they negotiate and manage their identities within various social and professional contexts (Ramarajan, 2014; Bataille & Vough, 2022). This also has an impact on the stereotype implications for these South Asian women given the MOSAIC (model of stereotyping through associated and intersectional categories) of the intersectional and foundational stereotypes that come into play (Hall et al., 2019). Building on the AOM 2024 session, Understanding South Asian Women’s Experiences and Challenges in North America: Future Directions for Scholarship, this symposium extends the understanding of the lived experiences of South Asian women by broadening the context to Europe, bringing in further intricacies within the South Asian diaspora such as religion, immigration status, and class, and their associated implications and challenges, and navigation strategies. Panelists will discuss a range of topics on their lived experiences and research related to the race- gender-ethnicity intersection for South Asian women and the strategies employed in academia and other workplaces, such as: 1) Do cultural identities create differential experiences for South Asian women, as compared to other women of color, or more broadly, other women in North America and Europe?; 2) How does immigration status impact this experience?; 3) Do first- and second- generation South Asian women have differential experiences in North America and Europe?; 4) What are some of the other key intersectional identities that impact South Asian women’s experiences such as religion, class, caste, gender etc.? How?; 5) Evolution of South Asian identity, and especially the South Asian woman's identity in North America and Europe and across career stages; 6) Advantages and disadvantages of being a South Asian woman in academia / other workplaces in North America and Europe; 7) Techniques used to manage disadvantages / barriers in academia / other workplaces in North America and Europe; 8) State of research on South Asians in North American and European workplaces; 9) How can we broaden DEI research to include under-studied populations in North America and Europe, such as South Asian women, while ensuring applicability in top-tier journals?