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Growing Business Opportunities for Women in Asia
Asian markets are providing women opportunities in corporate America in a whole new way.
by Sarah Hawk, partner of Fisher & Phillips LLP
July 1, 2008
T
he booming Asian markets are helping women gain opportunities in unprecedented ways.
These opportunities cut across several industries. Among them are:
Women in the legal field
Kathy Yang is a corporate attorney working predominantly with initial public offering
listings. Her firm, O'Melveny & Meyers LLP, has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and
Beijing. Its corporate practice in Asia has a strong reputation with the expansion of China's
business.
For the legal
field, U.S. attorneys who are American-born but who can speak fluent Chinese, may have stronger
long-term potential since they can directly communicate with the Chinese CEOs and have a better
chance to get clients and help keep their confidence.
"For women, the timing has never been better due to the explosive growth in the Chinese
economy," Yang says. "In business, there are many women CEOs and to work with public companies it
is a fantastic opportunity in Asia."
Cultural bias against women lawyers is less felt since China is accustomed to seeing women
lawyers in foreign law firms. In the 10 years she has been away, Yang has seen the growth of local
management teams, an emphasis on mid-level management, and the need for localized expertise to be
learned by foreigners. "It's very important for multinationals to sell to Chinese customers. Get
your hands dirty and work a few years in the industry to succeed to higher level positions."
Women in the IT field
Shareen Crasta works for a joint venture center of excellence called D&B TransUnion
Analytic and Decision Center. Her role is "Leader of PMO and Marketing Departments" and she reports
to the CEO.
Crasta says she obtained the position by using websites such as
www.naukri.com and the Indian website of
Monster through which she found a good recruiter who introduced her to this company. "When I
interviewed, the company was expanding and the CEO crafted a role for me based on our interaction,"
she says. "This is not the norm so I was very fortunate to stumble into this company. In India,
women entrepreneurship has existed for years and grown tremendously. People in India are used to
seeing women run businesses on a day to day basis."
Crasta believes that this is a good time for women who want to work in Asia. "Absolutely,
especially if you are in the IT field since the salaries are 50 percent of those in United States
while the cost of living is much lower. I've met women lawyers making their U.S. salaries here,
which translates to more savings while maintaining a much higher standard of living."
Women in the hospitality industry
Kitty Huang works for the Intercontinental Hotel Group in China. She emphasizes the need for
an understanding of the culture. She says that she has faced some cultural bias but not in the
workplace. "When traveling around the country, in some areas you need to pay more attention," she
says. "As for work itself, not specifically because of gender, I am quite lucky to start in
Shanghai, where the women are rather strong in the society. . .For Asian career women, sometimes we
feel guilty about spending time with family as working in China requires a lot of travel and long
working hours."
Adding, "I would say China is doing quite well in respecting women compared to some other
Asian countries."
Women in the journalism field
Sachi Koto is known by many Atlantans from her years on CNN. She has seen many changes for
women in the journalism field in Japan from the late 1970s to late 1980s, when she worked for
Tokyo's Japan Cable Television. Cultural stereotypes of women seemed predominant in her journalism
work in Japan.
Koto noted that "tea-serving" breaks in the newsroom were handled by only the women in the
editorial staff. At 3:30 p.m. every afternoon, the female editorial staff, writers, producers, and
script editors served tea to the men. "Not only served, but cleaned up in time for script writing
deadlines," she adds. A change finally occurred when she and others protested and the men
eventually got their own tea, but women were still expected to serve tea on other cultural
occasions.
Women were not allowed to handle hard news in Japan during that time, according to Koto.
JCTV was the first and only English broadcasting station in Tokyo. CNN eventually partnered
with JCTV as a sister station, and Koto would go on to be an anchorwoman in Japan and one of the
first Japanese-American women to work there.
Koto credits Ted Turner for progressive changes in journalism that helped women. "Ted Turner
brought CNN to Japan and women began doing hard news in the early 1980s. The attire changed from a
'frumpy, housewife' look to a more tailored, more authoritative look for women. The news sets
became more glitzy and hip, emulating the CNN sets in the U.S. Ted opened a window for women."
Still she notes, "Women need to straighten up; walk with their shoulders back to get that
confident look to get in the game. Intelligence is not an issue. But it's also about body language,
hair, walking and how we sit."
Women in the automotive industry
Mandy Garver, retired to Detroit, worked for Ford in Bangkok for three years ending in
December 2007. She helped to establish Ford's regional office for the Asia-Pacific region. She
served as the human resources director for Asia-Pacific and Africa. Her area of responsibility
included the ASEAN countries: Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia, and India,
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and China.
"Every country in Asia is different and has its own distinct cultural norms," Garver says.
"I can speak for Thailand. Thais, and many Asians, respect age and experience. I had 27 years with
Ford and was in my 50s going there -- grey in your hair is a good thing in Thailand. Westerners
also are respected a lot, so I didn't find managing there to be a problem."
However, she says that "In the U.S., many women, myself included, tend to be fairly
aggressive. It's frequently necessary in the environment in which we find ourselves. Lose that in
Asia. Aggression, anger, show of emotion - all are considered in very bad taste."
Sarah Hawk is a partner in the labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP. She
focuses her practice on Global Immigration. She can be reached at
shawk@laborlawyers.com or
404-231-1400.
