The Bamboo Ceiling in the UK: Ethnicity–Gender Intersectionality, Risk Tolerance, and Leadership

Abstract: In the UK, Asians are often considered the “model minority” with few hardships due to their strong educational performance and economic success. We question this perception by uncovering a “Bamboo Ceiling” in leadership attainment for certain Asian subgroups in the UK. Whereas many researchers and practitioners treat Asians as a monolith, we theoretically and empirically distinguish between ethnic Chinese (the largest East Asian group) and ethnic Indians (the largest South Asian group). In Study 1, we analyzed CEOs and CFOs of the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) companies—the largest publicly listed companies in the UK—over a 14-year period (2011–2024). There were virtually no ethnic Chinese leaders, while ethnic Indians did not differ significantly from Whites in leadership representation. In Study 2, we analyzed a large, nationwide dataset from the UK Biobank (N = 322,734) to further investigate the moderating role of gender and the mediating role of risk tolerance. While ethnic Chinese overall experienced a Bamboo Ceiling (thus replicating Study 1’s results), this main effect was moderated by gender: Ethnic Chinese men were significantly less likely than ethnic Indian and White men to attain leadership positions as a function of lower risk tolerance; by contrast, ethnic Chinese, Indian, and White women did not differ significantly and were each disadvantaged relative to their male counterparts. These effects were robust across survey-based and polygenic measures of risk tolerance. Overall, our findings highlight the potential disadvantages of low-risk-tolerant individuals in leadership attainment and underscore the need for organizations to provide more equitable and inclusive pathways to leadership.

Keywords: culture; gender; leadership; risk tolerance; intersectionality; DEI