♪ [Theme Music] ♪
>> Welcome to Asian
American Life.
I am Ernabel Demillo.
In honor of Asian-Pacific
American Heritage month,
we are celebrity the lives of
remarkable women who helped
change America.
You probably have not heard of
most of them, but some got their
start right here, helping the
Chinatown community.
A woman ahead of her time,
Rayner Ramirez on the life and
work of women's rights leader,
Mabel Lee.
Breaking silence, my special
report on sexual harassment.
Kyung Yoon shares the power
of women's giving circles and
Minnie Roh meets with
award-winning activist, Ai-Jen
Poo. This and more on Asian
American Life.
>> I am Rayner Ramirez.
In the early 1900s, a scholar
from Chinatown became an
unlikely activist for
women's right to vote.
And she may finally be getting
the recognition she deserves.
This post office in New York's
Chinatown may be getting a new
name to honor one of its
treasured residence, Dr. Mabel
Lee who founded the first
Chinese Baptist Church in 1925.
>> Our founder has been in the
news.
There is a movement to dedicate
a post office in honor of her.
>> Mabel Lee first made
headlines as a suffragist
over a century ago.
The New York Tribune called her
a symbol of a new era.
A recent graduate of Barnard
College, she rode on horseback,
leading a March for women's
rights to vote even though she
would never be allowed to cast
the ballot as a Chinese
immigrant.
>> Mabel Lee was involved not
just in the beginning of the
suffragist movement, but also
she was subject to the Chinese
exclusion act, which meant that
not only were Chinese excluded
from emigrating to the United
States unless they had certain
kinds of credentials, but they
were also not permitted to
become naturalized citizens, and
therefore unable to vote.
>> Mabel Lee's father was a
progressive American Baptist.
>> Part of the denomination was
preaching a gospel called
social gospel.
Not just a Bible and spiritual
salvation, but how the Christian
churches could be involved in
social changes.
>> Mabel Lee was fighting for
women's rights because she
thought that women's rights were
an important contribution for
the transformation of China.
>> Contributing to the
transformation of modern China
was Mabel's ultimate goal when
she completed her doctorate
degree in political econimics
from Columbia University.
>> She was extremely unique as a
woman getting her PhD from
Columbia University, and a
Chinese woman at that.
The label of the first Chinese
woman to earn a PhD from
Columbia shows you it was not
something that was traditional
or happened very often and it
was even unusual for men from
China to get a PhD from
Columbia at the time.
>> But Lee's dreams of
returning to China were dashed
when her father suddenly passed
away.
>> She came back to New York to
take care of her mother and take
the reins of the organization
her father had begun to build.
>> Lee secured this
building and establish the first
Chinese Baptist Church in honor
of her father.
>> Dr. Mabel Lee felt it was
important to continue her
father's vision through local
community donations, as well as
religious organizations to help
raise funds to create the
Memorial Hall we are sitting in,
today.
>> Though Lee could not be
ordained as a pastor because of
her gender, she ran the church.
It became one of Chinatown's
early community centers.
>> As part of the first Chinese
Baptist Church's mission, they
offered outreach programs to
teach young immigrants English
lessons which would help them
assimilate to life in America.
I am one of the beneficiaries of
this great mission because when
my father came here to learn
English, he went to Polytech to
earn his degree in electrical
engineering and as a result,
landed a job as one of the first
Chinese electrical engineers at
AT&T in the 1950's.
>> Robert Gee's father, Stephen,
would become a deacon of the
church carrying on Mabel Lee's
mission of giving back to the
community.
>> Through her 60 plus years of
service to the community, I
would say thousands of Chinese
immigrants she has touched in
terms of helping them, from
language or business or whatever
the need was, Dr. Mabel Lee was
there to help.
>> Gee who met Lee when he
was just a toddler, followed in
his father's footsteps and
became a deacon of the church.
>> I feel that we are blessed
with the opportunities that this
church provided to my father.
As a way of giving back to the
community and this church and
the mission of Dr. Mabel Lee,
this is why I am here, helping
the community which is the
mission of what they had set
out over 92 years ago.
>> Gee's family is among
the countless lives touched by
the work of Dr. Mabel Lee, a
trailblazer who left her stamp
on Chinatown, and continues to
inspire a new generation.
>> Younger Asian American women
can learn from Mabel Lee that
determination is important.
You don't allow society to
define you.
>> The bill to rename this
post office in Mabel Lee's honor
passed in the House of
Representatives and is now in
the hands of the U.S. Senate.
For Asian American Life, I am
Rayner Ramirez.
>> Sexual assault and
harassment has been making
headline news -- and now some
Asian-American women are
leading the fight,
refusing to be silent no more.
>> So these are all of our black
velvet hangers. So instead of
traditional cleaners-
>> Rechelle Balanzat is the
woman behind Juliette, a mobile
laundry app designed for the
busy New Yorker. With a tap
here and a tap there,
your laundry is picked up,
cleaned and returned within 24
hours.
>> Everything is done in the
Upper West side where we process
the clothes, package it and do
quality checks before we
deliver it to our customers.
>> Balanzat came up with the
idea in 2013, when she found her
self trying to navigate the not
so clean male-dominated world
of venture capitalists and
investors.
>> There are varying degrees of
sexual harassment.
I have been fortunate enough to
not be on the high-end.
The sexual innuendos, examples
would be going out for a
cocktail date or dinner date
that is supposed to be an
investor meeting, those types of
things.
I would have to really
second-guess their intentions.
>> But it was pretty clear
to her, what their intentions
were.
>> They would say things like
all you have to do is go on this
date and he will write you a
check.
That is pretty forward to me.
It really made me question what
is the purpose of this date?
Are you looking at me because
you are expecting a sexual favor
or is it because you believe in
my business and this company I
am trying to build?
>> Balanzat and other
Asian American women tech
entrepreneurs say this is a too
common experience for them,
getting hit on and in the
extreme, assaulted,
while pitching to investors.
And they are not alone.
The #MeToo movement has led to
women coming forward with their
stories of sexual assault,
violence and harassment, not
just in the tech industry, but
in Hollywood, the service
industry, the media, and more.
Women and their supporters are
saying enough with boys will be
boys.
>> I think the tide has shifted.
I think in our generation, we
were more apt to accept that
sort of thing.
Hopefully now, this new
generation who are coming into
corporate America, board rooms,
classrooms, anywhere are less
tolerant of that kind of
behavior.
>> Despite all the media
attention to the movement, some
argue that not much attention is
being given to the diversity of
the women victims.
>> Our needs have to be taken
into account in any kind of
development of programming or
policies.
We cannot be overlooked.
The stereotypes that apply to
white women may not apply to us.
We tend not to have the same
level of championship within
organizations.
We tend not to have role models
who look like us.
We don't have sponsors who can
advocate for us to the extent
that they do for white women.
>> Dr. Giscombe is with
Catalyst, a New York
based nonprofit supporting
women in the workplace.
She says stereotypes make women
of color more susceptible to
sexual harassment.
>> With Asian-American women,
there is this China doll
stereotype that came about
because of the U.S. occupation
of Asian countries after wars,
that there was a sex trade that
grew up to serve American
soldiers.
>> In Hollywood for
example, Asian women are often
portrayed as hypersexual.
And one study, analyzing
pornographic websites, found
nearly half of the women being
raped and sexually assaulted
were Asian women. Meanwhile,
in real life, most AAPI
women are afraid to speak out
when they are a victim.
Karen Elizaga is an author,
executive coach and long time
president of Woman Kind,
a nonprofit supporting
Asian Americans who are
victims of domestic and sexual
violence.
What kind of cultural barriers
Asian American women
face when it comes to reporting
sexual violence and harassment?
>> I will speak in a generality
which is that as a culture, we
have the issue of shame.
There is the issue of loyalty,
also the issue of being a good
soldier.
Putting your head down and
getting the job done.
We don't want to bring shame to
our family.
We want to be loyal to our
family.
How do you step out of your
cultural norm and raise your
head and say I have been a
survivor of sexual violence?
>> Some Asian American
women have been fighting back,
notably the journalist Suki Kim,
who publically accused her
former boss, the award winning
journalist John Hockenberry,
of sexual harassment.
There's Ellen Pao who filed a
gender discrimination lawsuit
against her employer.
While she lost the suit, it did
help highlight the treatment of
women in tech.
According to a recent survey,
six in 10 women in tech say they
have experienced harassment.
>> When you are starting out,
you are so hungry for validation
or capital or support and to
have it dangled in front of you,
knowing that you need the
support but in exchange, you are
required to do some sort of
favor, even if it is as innocent
as a date.
The fact that I have to be
propositioned that way and not
because of my business model.
>> Women entrepreneurs are
still fighting an uphill battle.
According to the tech company
Crunch Base, the number of
startups with female founders is
only 17%, the same number since
2015.
Balanzat says the obstacles have
only made her tougher.
>> When you are trying to build
a company, you cannot be shy and
quiet otherwise your company is
not going to go anywhere.
I had to learn that grit and
I had to learn that strength
whem I was faced with no's,
with sexual harrassment,
with people who didn't take
me seriously, you kind
of grow and develop as a person.
>> And she is not afraid
to tell her story, because maybe
one day these stories can add up
to systemic change, the kind of
change organizations like
Catalyst and Women Kind are
demanding.
I'm Ernabel Demillo for Asian
American Life.
>> I'm Kyung Yoon.
Giving circles are relatively
new trend in America, but they
are built on traditions that
date back hundreds, maybe
thousands of years around the
world.
In New York City, a group of
Asian American women are
redefining what it means to be
philanthropist activists.
>> Where is the social Justice
piece of this?
>> I think that is what makes it
a medium.
>> Meet the women of the
Asian Women Giving Circle, New
Yorkers who care about their
community.
They pool their philanthropic
dollars to fund projects led
by Asian American women
and community groups that
promote positive and
progressive social change.
Hali Lee founded the Giving
Circle in 2005 after realizing
how much more of an impact she
and her friend could have by
giving together, rather than
going at it alone.
>> I would respond to an
appealing appeal if there was a
disaster.
I would give to my college or
the places that matter to me.
I was not focusing my giving on
women or girls in New York City
or Asian American families in
New York City.
With this idea of starting
Giving Circle, it was a
great chance to get my
girlfriends together and also
just be more strategic and
impactful with our philanthropic
dollars.
>> Starting with its first
grants in 2006, the Giving
Circle has raised and awarded
over $850,000 to support more
than 85 projects by
Asian-American women artists,
activists and changemakers.
>> She get straight A's.
She is a fan of art.
She's perfect
the way that God made her.
>> The best way to move people's
hearts is through words, images,
song, dance, theater,
documentary films, spoken word
poetry, so we decided to focus
our philanthropic might on art
for progressive social change.
>> The group is proud of
being an early funder of
programs like this one by
Amita Swadhin, an anti-violence
activist and survivor.
>> When I remember Poleen, I
remember the difference between
victim and survivor.
>> Amita did a program called
Secret Survivors, around child
sexual abuse in families,
including some Asian American
families.
We gave her a small grant and it
enabled her to workshop her very
moving personal theatrical
piece.
It was like different actors
embodying the stories of people
who had survived childhood
sexual assault.
After we gave her that grant,
she got $50,000 for the
foundation.
>> Here, the group
is discussing a grant
application to fund a girls
leadership and advocacy project
in New Yorks Chinatown.
It teaches papermaking, made
from recycled paper used each
Lunar New Year.
>> The paper is the medium for
the kids to learn about Asian
American women activists in
New York City in Chinatown.
>> It is an awareness thing for
the younger generation.
Literally after one of these
festivals, the confetti along
the sidewalks is about that
deep.
All of that paper goes to waste.
To me, the recycle part, I found
it cool.
>> We are working with such a
small group of young
women who have never had the
chance to work with their hands
or even learn how to make paper.
This is the first grant that we
ever applied to.
The project started in 2016.
It was a labor of love until
2017.
Having the Asian Women Giving
Circle support us in this was
exciting and also established a
really strong foundation for us
to continue to think about how
we might be able to create
programs that provide long-term
change for our communities.
We are really thrilled and
excited.
>> The Giving Circle's
grantmaking and fundraising
activities are led by a
committee of about 25 women who
come from diverse professional
backgrounds, but who share
a passion for amplifying
the voices of Asian-American
women and having some fun
in the process.
>> We have gotten to know each
other personally.
We have shared personal time
together.
>> We love to eat, so we often
go out to dinner.
>> Who is the one that picks the
restaurant the most?
>> We are 13 years in.
We have gone through marriages
and divorces.
We just had our first grandbaby
in the group. One of us is
having her first baby.
You experience life together.
So over those years those
connections become real.
It is not just a board or a
fleeting thing.
We love each other and care for
each other.
I am really grateful for this
sisterhood.
>> The Asian Women Giving
Circle is looking to hit or
surpass $1 million in cumulative
grants this year.
Beyond the dollars, it is clear
the impact is on the donors
themselves who are changing the
face of philanthropy.
I am Kyung Yoon for Asian
American Life.
>> I am Minnie Roh, Ai-Jen
Poo is best known for her
work transforming the
landscape of labor standards
and working conditions
for domestic workers. The 2014
MacArthur Genius award
recipient has dedicated her
career to giving a voice to the
voiceless, nannies,
housekeepers, human trafficking
survivors.
Continuing her social justice
work, she has set her sights on
revamping the home health care
system.
Together with the Asian-American
community, she is making some
groundbreaking strides.
It is an inevitable fact of life
that everyone grows older.
While we hope to live our lives
independently until the end,
what if you or your loved ones
is one of those millions that
needs extra help?
>> We are about to have the
largest older population we ever
had in the history of this
country.
We are not prepared.
>> Ai-Jen Poo is legendary
in the advocacy world and her
work has won over fans like
Meryl Streep who even took her
as her date to the
2018 Golden Globes.
For the past seven years, Poo
has led a national campaign
called Caring Across Generations
which examines the needs of both
the care recipient, elders and
disabled, and the caregiving
workforce.
As outlined in her book, The Age
of Dignity, this is a field that
can be characterized as a crisis
waiting to happen, or exciting
new frontier.
>> People are living longer than
ever because of advances in
health care and the baby boomer
generation is starting to age at
a rate of a person every eight
seconds turning 65.
A lot of people talk about the
age wave as kind of a crisis.
They talk about a silver
tsunami like it's a natural
disaster.
I really do see it as an
opportunity for us to care for
each other in this country in a
whole new way.
>> An AARP study shows that
73% of all Asian
American Pacific Islanders
believe caring for a parent is
expected of them versus 49% of
other populations.
AAPI's are twice as likely to
care for an elderly relative at
home compared to other
ethnicities.
Personally, Poo's father cared
for his own father at home until
he was no longer able to do so
and had to place him in a
nursing home.
>> He stayed in a nursing home
in a room that he shared with
six other people and it was
miserable.
He did not eat, he could not
sleep, and he passed away after
three months.
>> This experience further
fueled her desire to find a
solution for the millions of
Americans who could face a
similar fate, whether for
themselves or providing care for
aging parents or loved ones.
>> There is a huge increase in
the need for care.
A lot of families are just being
crushed by the pressures of
affording care, managing care,
understanding what care options
are.
>> About 44 million
Americans or one in five adults
provide care for a family
member.
Many of them are also what is
known as the sandwich
generation, taking care of
parents and children of their
own, which further as to
financial stress.
>> We are just unprepared
for the fact that
people are going to live an
average of 20 years longer than
when our safety net was put in
place.
We need a new policy framework
and a new culture that helps us
adapt and embrace the fact that
we have longer to live which
also means longer to work,
longer to love, longer to teach
and contribute, longer to
connect.
>> The U.S. Census shows
the average wage in America is
$59,000 a year.
The average cost nationwide of a
semiprivate room in a nursing
home is roughly $89,000 a year.
On the other side of the coin,
Poo says the average annual
wage of a home health care
provider is as low as $13,000.
The numbers just don't add up.
>> The workforce we are counting
on to take care of our families
can't earn enough of a living
to take care of theirs doing
this work.
We often lose our best
caregivers to professions like
food service and it is a serious
issue because there is such a
need out there.
>> People who need care
cannot afford it.
People who provide care cannot
make a living doing so.
This is what Poo and Caring
Across Generations has set out
to fix.
She was instrumental in passing
legislation in Hawaii called the
caregivers program which went
into effect January 2018.
This groundbreaking bill allows
caregivers to apply for
a benefit of $70 a day to
hire respite care for the loved
ones they are caring for at
home.
Poo believes the vast number of
AAPI legislators in Hawaii
was the key to pushing the
bill through.
>> There really is a tradition
of caring for elders.
It's really
embedded community just
like it is in Asian communities
across the country and I see
Hawaii as groundbreaking
leadership on this issue as a
signal that this could be
something the Asian-American
community in general can lead
on.
>> She is currently working
on a campaign for universal
homecare which would allow
everyone in the state of Maine
to afford to pay a living wage
for their caregivers.
>> Because families and the
workforce are so interdependent,
when we resource families, we
can resource the workers.
When we resource the workers,
the families benefit.
>> The title of Poo's book,
The Age of Dignity,
refers not to just those who are
aging, but ensuring those who
are caring for them can also
live with dignity.
>> We are talking about two
populations that are quite
vulnerable.
The workers are quite vulnerable
and the elders are quite
vulnerable.
What we have to really value and
protect both.
>> Whether it is home
health care or the labor and
traffic world, Poo's mission is
to give everyone a voice so they
can play an active role in
changing their future.
I'm Minnie Roh for Asian
American Life.
Ernabel: That's our show for
now.
If you want more information on
our special edition, be sure to
follow us on Facebook at
Asian American Life.
I am Ernabel Demillo.
We will see you next time.
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