In Caroline Kieu Linh Valverde’s “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia” she tells her story of her struggles that occurred in her life and her academic career. In her fight to gain tenure as a professor, the stress was too high and she miscarried and fell into a coma. The reason for all this stress stemmed from the the denial of her tenure due to her race and ethnicity. Her story and how she overcame it reminded me much of the stories my mother used to tell me when she worked. Though she is now a full-time mother, she spent much of her adult life in the workforce, working as a woman of color in the field of computer science. She would tell me about her experiences of feeling like a minority in a white-male-dominated industry. My mother grew up in Colombia and moved to the US when she was a young teenager. She told me about how she has always been quiet and shy compared to others. This was partially true during her career as a web developer, but she soon realized that fitting into that stereotype of being the quiet asian girl was not something she wanted to be a part of. She soon started to fight the box that people categorized her in. Her fight made her stronger and she’s one of the strongest women I know. She continues to inspire me to change people’s perception of the stereotypical quiet Asian American.
Photo from - http://lifeasanasianwoman.blogspot.com/
Valverde, C. (2013). Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia. Retrieved January 12, 2019 from https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/299229/files/folder/Week%20of%20Readings/Week1?preview=4936635
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