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

ABSTRACT In the UK, Asians are often perceived as the “model minority” who face 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 recognize heterogeneity among Asian subgroups and focus on comparing 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 CEOs or CFOs, whereas the representation of ethnic Indians in these positions did not differ significantly from that of Whites. 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 confirming 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, a pattern partly mediated by ethnic differences in 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. Together, these findings underscore the importance of distinguishing among Asian subgroups and examining how ethnicity and gender intersect in leadership attainment.