As part of CAWP’s Research Inventory on Gender & Politics, this overview focuses on current and past research, with particular emphasis on the latest findings, related to Asian American women in politics. This overview captures the state of knowledge to increase understanding of current political realities, support research-based interventions, and generate future research questions and agendas.

The 2020 U.S. Census found that Asian Americans were the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. Yet women and politics scholarship dedicated to Asian American women has been limited. In part, this situation may reflect the underrepresentation of Asian American women as officeholders in comparison to their presence in the population. Today Asian American women constitute nearly four percent of the U.S. population. The group “Asian Americans,” as defined by the U.S. Census, comprise people with origins throughout Asia – including from East Asia and the Indian subcontinent – with Chinese, Indian, and Filipino the largest population groups. Although scholars find that Asian Americans are more likely to self-identify with their ethnic origin group on surveys, many Asian Americans identify with the panethnic label “Asian American.”

“Asian American women,” like Asian Americans as a group, are extremely heterogeneous; internal differences include language, immigration status, nativity, education, and income, in addition to national origin. Yet, grouping women analytically as “Asian American women” takes into account the historic processes of racialization and gendering that can create shared experiences and viewpoints.

The first Asian immigrants arrived in the United States in the 1800s. But it was only in the 1950s that the last barriers fell and Asian immigrants were able to become citizens via naturalization. Immigration laws were reformed in the 1960s that ended some of the most discriminatory barriers that had restricted immigration from Asia. These policy changes that essentially brought immigration from Asia into alignment with other countries fueled dramatic growth in Asian American immigration. Subsequently, however, this population growth has often been met with racial backlash.

To read the entire article: https://cawp.rutgers.edu/research-analysis/gender-and-politics-research-hub/research-Inventory/asian-american-women-politics