Breaking The Glass Ceiling

Throughout History, women have been permanently oppressed and treated as subordinate to men. They have been considered mentally weak and biologically inferior. The power of their opinion has been limited and in many situations ignored, being condemned to live in that condition for several years. Therefore, we can conclude that the only responsible for strengthening this characterization of women’s inferiority is our society.

In the United States, study after study continues to show that women have fewer opportunities to advance in the workplace than men. These disadvantages are a result of society’s views of women in leadership positions and how women may view themselves in these roles. Women have been making progress in terms of equality in pay and job positions, but significant gaps remain. Women who strive to be promoted into higher levels of responsibility in their companies often meet resistance that prevents them from achieving the goal of a senior or executive level of management. This barrier is referred to as the “glass ceiling” and it is a controversial issue in our country today. The glass ceiling called this because women are able to see the higher level positions, but can reach them because of an intangible barrier. One can look at the Fortune 500 companies, which are the most successful companies in the U.S. in terms of revenue to see how few women are in leadership positions. Clearly, women are significantly underrepresented in these companies, as less than 5 percent of these companies have female chief executive officers (CEO) today (Dockterman 105). Providing the opportunity for women to move into management positions, like CEOs, would bring a unique talent and a new perspective on how the company can operate to perform better (Buckalew 147). The “glass ceiling” is a real obstacle that creates an intangible barrier that puts women at a disadvantage in advancing in a company.

Gender inequality can be explained using the conflict theory which is a common agreement that men have been dominant throughout many societies for many years (Joan Acker, 1989). It is believed that women are weak, while men are strong. Most women have been enslaved by men throughout

Meaning women have additional problematic issue then man. For example in education women face more obstacles as faculty rather when in manager and directors in corporate America. Even though there been great progress in the workplace, most jobs are segregated by sexes. There is wag gaps, the average women have to work roughly 4 months extra every year to make the same wage as man. For example, when the educational attainment increases the gender pay decreases for women no matter what levels of education than men. In other words, women earn 77cents for every dollar man earn and put in their pocket (Benokraitis, 2010, p.160-161). Discrimination where both woman and man share in the workplace is the glass ceiling and glass escalator. The glass ceiling being, “women efforts to scale organizational and professional hierarchies but cant because they are constrained by invisible barriers to promotion in their careers, caused mainly by sexist attitudes of men in the highest position” Similarly, men that choose to go into position like nurse and librarians encounter the glass escalator mostly vituperative criticism from the public when they are in the most female-identified specialties” “Therefore man are pressured to move out of the most female-identified areas, and up to those regarded as more legitimate and prestigious for men” (Williams, 1992, p.

The “Glass Ceiling” is known as an invisible barrier that stops someone from gaining more success. In this case it deals with women in the workplace, not being able to move up in a company. Even though no one knows who started the phrase, “A widely read Wall Street Journal story in 1986 popularized the term”(Napikoski). The “Glass Ceiling” has played a big role in women not being able to be

Women are powerful, smart and ambitious. We are strong and reliable and we deserved equal rights from the beginning. Men were always given the first job, first opportunities and the finest treatment. Women were immediately dismissed and given no substantial opportunities to advance and demonstrate their education and skills.

Promoting women’s equality in the workplace has been a central focus throughout my professional life. As a journeywoman carpenter (prior to my current academic career), I volunteered as a project leader for the Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., OTI (http://www.tradeswomen.net/) in Portland, Oregon. In this role, I taught women in OTI’s apprentice program introductory skills that allowed them to enroll in various trade union training programs throughout the Pacific Northwest. The goal of this work was simple, to increase the number of women in careers that were predominately male-dominated. At every stage of my academic career, I’ve made a concerted effort to mentor female students, and took great joy in watching them succeed. I believe that serving

The “glass ceiling” has made it difficult or impossible for women to rise in the ranks. The further women progress in the workforce, the closer they are to shattering it. The glass ceiling is a term that has seen a lot of widespread use in the mass media that has caused the true meaning of the glass ceiling has been skewed. Women in the glass ceiling are in the top of middle management and they are stopping and getting stuck. Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president was arguably one of the biggest attempts in history on breaking it; “Although we were not able to shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time, and we are going to keep working to make it so, today keep with me and stand for me, we still have so much to do together, we made history, and let's make some more” (Quote). Just within under thirty years, women made tremendous progress in the number of women members on corporate boards. “The conservative feminist organization, Independent Women's Forum, points out that in 1973, 11% of corporate boards had one or more women members, and that in 1998, 72% of corporate boards had one or more women members” (Glass Ceiling). There is still progress to be made. Women need

are women. However, women have come very far in heightening their status in society. An example of this is how many women can be seen in public office and how modern cities have a general lack of gendered spaces. Although there is still room for improvement, in regard to gender issues. For example, women “have had limited success in putting on the political agenda the key issues that challenge male dominance” (312). Despite this, I believe men and women both have fair opportunities to succeed. In today’s age more women are going to college and participating in the work force than ever

In present day it is easy for a person to take for granted what comes so simple to them. Women have not always been in the position in which they are seen as equals to men. In the course of the last decade, women have evolved as human beings through revolutions in the 1920’s, 1960’s and modern day era.

Currently, women hold only 4.8% of CEO positions, which makes women limited to a choice of jobs. Women are so underrated, even though they can do so much more. These women have never gotten a chance to prove how hard they can work and how much work they can do for a company. Women work the same jobs, the same time, and do the same amount of work, but yet there is still a gender wage gap. Many CEO’s pay women less, acknowledging that women are not hard workers and men work harder.

The "glass ceiling" has held women back from certain positions and opportunities in the workplace. Women are stereotyped as part-time, lower-grade workers with limited opportunities for training and advancement because of this "glass ceiling". How have women managed their careers when confronted by this glass ceiling? It has been difficult; American women have struggled for their role in society since 1848. Women’s roles have changed significantly throughout the past centuries because of their willingness and persistence. Women have contributed to the change pace of their role in the workplace by showing motivation and perseverance.

Although it’s known that higher education will help you to reach aspirations of succeeding higher paying jobs, “At every level of academic achievement, women’s median earnings are less than men’s median earnings, and in some cases, the gender pay gap is larger at higher levels of education (Miller, Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap, p4)”. This basically means that even with earning a high degree, and working extremely hard to get there, women still face the obstacle of earning less than men, so you could go through years of schooling but you will never obtain the equality of pay. For women, “A college degree does not guarantee an equal increase in earnings compared with male graduates from the same college (Flores, 2016)”; women may have

In America many groups have fought hard to gain equality in treatment, rights, and everyday living standards. Women are included amongst these groups. At one point in history women were not allowed to vote or carry the same positions as men in work. Due to amendments and affirmative action these hindrances for women have been abolished. What still remains to day is the inner struggle within jobs also known as glass ceilings? Glass ceilings are daily obstacles for most women in their jobs every day. As country of equal opportunity should we Americans continue to fight for more equality or accept the situation and be grateful for the change that has already come into place?

This power issue between men and women takes a major role in today's workforce. All legitimate companies make it clear that they are all equal opportunity employers. Sure, they can all say it, but that doesn't make it necessarily true. And let's say that they do hire an equal amount of men and women based on personal merit, what happens inside the corporation. Are all the cards evenly dealt? I highly doubt that possibility. Here in lies the problem we've all come to call the "glass-ceiling barrier". It's basically explained as an invisible barrier that prevents women from rising to positions of power. But why is it invisible? We all know that it's there, but there's nothing in the rule book that clearly states the existence of such a barrier.