Gender Discrimination: Examining How Women are Denied Full Equality in the Workplace

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.

The glass ceiling is defined as the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps… women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.”

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.

Challengers of the glass ceiling idea argue do, however recognize the obstacles women face in the corporate world. “According to an article in the Harvard Business Review by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli, the answer is no, however, the sum of many obstacles along the way often hold women back from making it into the C-suite” (Quast, Lisa). Some of these obstacles include prejudice, resistance to women's leadership, family demands, and leadership style issues. Men see leadership from women to follow than from men simply because they fall under the stereotypes. Yes, women do sometimes take time away from work rather than men to take care of children and families. Those who deny the existence of the glass ceiling believe they lack the time to engage in career advancement. They see the prejudice, how men are promoted more quickly than women with equivalent qualifications, even in traditionally female settings such as nursing and education. Another argument against this idea is within the name itself. They believe it is absurd for being called “clear”. “Supporters of this idea say, glass is clear so those forced under this ceiling would probably not even notice, at first, they were under such a restriction. But, if they tried to go through the glass, they would see quickly that the ceiling prohibited any rise to higher levels. This analogy is their only defense

Sexism against women in the workplace is still common, particularly in managerial positions, which creates glass ceilings for women who can do as good or better job as their male counterparts. It is a sad fact that sexism still exists in the twenty-first century. What is the glass ceiling you may ask? The glass ceiling is (Bell, Mclaughlin, & Sequeira, 2002) as “the invisible or artificial barriers that prevent women (and people of colour) from advancing past a certain level” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission-FGCC, 1997; Morison and von Glinow, 1990). As a civilization where we want equality for all – we should strive to eliminate inequality caused by the glass ceiling. I believe that if we do not seek to eliminate sexism, it will have a negative impact on us and future generations.

In the news recently there has been lots of talk about the glass ceiling which is an imaginary term used to describe the invisible barriers that exist within organisations and which block women from attaining senior executive positions.

Gender plays a huge role in workplace 'success' and can be a big challenge especially if the employee is a woman in a male dominated workplace or career. No matter how 'hard-nosed,' 'ruthless,' 'workaholic' a woman may be, or how much personal success she achieves, there will always tend to be some type of obstacle to keep her from getting completely to the top of the corporate ladder. She must also still fight stereotypes that undermines her confidence or limits her potential. Since the early 20th century, women and minorities have sought equal opportunities in education and in the labor force with little success. These obstacles or barriers are all known as the glass ceiling.

In the recent years, many women have made progress in obtaining jobs as CEO’s of major companies, hold seats on the board of directors, and many other high profile positions however, the percentage of women and minorities that hold these positions are very low in comparison to males hence, the glass ceiling remains. The term Glass Ceiling is the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rings of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). Stereotypes and biases have created an image that women are not capable of effectively filling the role of managerial jobs. In 1995, Glass Ceiling Commission noted that women filled only 3 to

With the help of gender discrimination, the glass ceiling is still a problem that persists today. Sometimes subconscious or even conscious stigmas and stereotypes connected to the female gender prevent us from excelling in the workplace, because we are seen as the weaker gender and we need some kind of protection; but that does not mean that we should be paid less or given marginal forms of work! “This perception has led to the introduction of protectionist legislation both internationally and nationally for women and thus the supreme irony that that the very legislation and employment practices designated to promote women’s interests have led to the perpetuation of unjustified discrimination against women in employment” (Loveday). Women are paid less than men, and have less opportunities to advance in the workplace. Sometimes women are seen as a “distraction” and are not taken seriously in a professional sense.

Organizations and managing labor relations are two complex aspects of our daily functioning environment. Throughout the years it’s been evident that times have very much changed; in day to day life one can easily notice a rise in the number of women who have gotten to work, across divisions on a global scale. Yet despite their pursuit of high standards of education and occupational skills, they are still lagging behind in the corporate world, the reason being – discrimination. Discrimination against women at work has different aspects; unequal pay, undermined skill set, segregation in certain divisions and jobs, the work and home balance along with sexual harassment are just some of the issues at hand. Although in current

Gender inequalities in the workplace have been an ongoing issue for many years, which has mainly been central to women in the workplace, as senior management has prioritised men over women. This has made it very difficult for women to work their way up to management as women are considered to be incompetent compared to the men in the workplace. The wage gap between men and women has raised much debate, as men are generally more likely to get paid more than women.

The role of the glass ceiling is acting as invisible barriers that kept women from achieving a higher position or leadership roles as men. This metaphor makes women to believe that if they pass the ceiling or barrier full of expectation, then they will obtain an equal level of jobs and position as men. However, women are facing more obstacles than the glass ceiling measure for attaining leadership roles. One general obstacle that women often face is gender discrimination. For example, in the article where Allice H. Eagly described president Richard Nixon discriminate women for erratic and emotion being as compare to men. The gender discrimination is what resistance women for most jobs opportunity and high wage but it has the positive effect on men to have high wage, fast promotion and superior qualification.

The Glass Ceiling is the title given to an invisible barrier that is meant to limit women from succeeding in top level jobs. They only judge based on their gender and do not take into account women’s education, experience, or job related skills. Some argue that the only people who have put a limit to how far women can succeed in their career, are women themselves, but the Glass Ceiling and gender discrimination in the workforce does exist and is a major problem that needs to be addressed. Topics such as equal pay, discrimination, harassment, and misconceptions all play a part in the limiting barrier placed over women in the working world. It not only puts a limit on what women can achieve in their future profession, but also affects their

Over the past decade, fortune 500 companies have appointed women to top job positions for instance, from Mary Barra at General Motors to Indra Nooyi at Pepsi co. and Ginni Rometty at IBM (CIPD, 2015). Despite this career advancement, majority of women in middle and top management positions are still highly affected by this glass-ceiling in the workplace. In spite of the current state of female empowerment, notable achievements and involvement of women in high corporate settings, Powell and Graves (2003) states that only 10% of senior managers in fortune 500 companies are women, less than 4% of the uppermost ranks of CEO, vice-president and executives and less than 3% of top corporate earners. Statistics also suggest that as women approach the top of the corporate ladder, many appear downcast in the workplace. To understand the current situation of gender in the workplace, this section of this essay address some of the major issues associated closely to the existence of the glass ceiling and how this affects organizations today, it then recommends significant roles for HR to

“The wage gap has narrowed by more than one-third since 1960”(Hegewisch, 2010) and “the share of companies with female CEOs increased more than six-fold” (Warner, 2014) since 1997. As well as the truth that men and women’s earnings differ for many other reasons besides the presence of sexism. “Discrimination in labor market, in education/retiring programs, unequal societal norms at home and the constrained decisions men and women make about work and home issues” (Hegewisch, 2010) are also factors that can contribute to the unequal treatment of man and women in the workplace. Yet even with most of these variables removed women are still being paid less than men, sexually harassed in the workplace and hold very little managerial positions.