Meaning of bamboo ceiling | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A social barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a person of East Asian ethnicity.
   US, idiomatic
2. A social barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for women.
   idiomatic

Examples

“The title Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling was selected because it acknowledges that Asian Americans do indeed face obstacles in the workplace and it asserts that there are cultural barriers that play a role in impeding career advancement.”

“Schools where admission is purely through a test, like the elite public New York City high school Stuyvesant, often have large percentages of Asian-Americans. The University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles are more than half Asian. That doesn’t help them integrate effectively, to pierce what some call the bamboo ceiling in the corporate and political worlds.”

“Many Asian American attorneys are finding they may have excelled in law school and were able to land their first job, but their careers are not moving forward the way they would like. It has been described as a “bamboo ceiling.””

“Nonetheless, women are definitely breaking through what has variously been called the glass ceiling, the bamboo ceiling, or the old boy's network.”

“She says the changes brought by the Internet will help crack the bamboo ceiling. "The business practice of face-to-face negotiation and drinking sake together into the night has made it difficult for women to advance in the business world," she said.”

CEFR level