Description

This review of literature explores how female Asian American healthcare professionals in leadership roles face challenges conforming to the narrow conceptualizations of what attributes constitute effective leaders, which are typically defined by masculine traits such as aggression and ambition. Placing focus on the organizational communication phenomenon of gendered discourse within leadership provides an opportunity to reflect on and critique the patriarchal and organizational norms that exist today. Feminist theories will be used as a theoretical framework to examine and critique biased interpretations of gender roles and discuss what can be done to change the patriarchal narrative. The research focuses on Asian American women, in particular, because they have dual identities as they navigate a variety of settings that are centered on American traditions, all while deciding whether or not to preserve and implement their cultural traditions. Asian cultures may incorporate ideologies and values, such as Confucianism, that are anchored in patriarchy. Much of the existing scholarship does not include Asian American women in healthcare settings because there is a lack of Asian American representation within healthcare altogether. Overall, this literature review seeks to build upon the existing knowledge about gendered discourses in leadership by incorporating research on Asian cultural dynamics, exploring how Asian cultural values strongly enforce or undermine gendered notions of leadership in the context of the United States healthcare industry. Attention to the ways in which patriarchal and organizational norms influence leadership leads to questions: how do female Asian American healthcare professionals navigate gendered discourses of leadership and how do they resist or subvert gendered discourses of leadership?