The Glass Ceiling Measure For Attaining Leadership Roles

Women are considered a minority group, because they do not share the same power, privileges, rights, and opportunities as men. The term "glass ceiling" refers to institutional barriers that prevent minorities and women from advancing beyond a certain point in the corporate world, despite their qualifications and successes. The existence of a glass ceiling indicates that women, even today, do not enjoy the same economic opportunities as men. Throughout the past two centuries, there is a recurring pattern of unequal economic rights for women as well as discrimination. These actions that burden women bring on a psychological effect such as oppression. The constant battle women face with an unequal economic opportunity contributes to their feeling

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.

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.

Meanwhile, the segregation of jobs by gender and other factors affect pay equity. A term used back in the 1980’s as a metaphor for the invisible and artificial barriers that blocked women and minorities from advancing up the corporate ladder to management and executive positions is called the glass ceiling (Hill, 2013). Louisville Women’s Careers Examiner argues “ Glass ceilings are still found in the workplaces, not only in the discrimination of pay scales, but also marked by sexual harassment, exploitation at work and as a feeling of insecurity in women due to conduct of the opposite sex” (Hill, 2013, p.33). Societal barriers that women tend to face are prejudice and bias, cultural, opportunity and attainment, gender, and color-based differences. Moreover, several other barriers women run into are governmental, business structural and internal businesses all of which have ramifications on their chances of success.

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

The Glass Ceiling theory explains how a woman may never make it to the top of their profession when compared to a man who may also want to advance. The term “Glass Ceiling”

Glass ceiling is considered as a barrier in which you can see the level of advancement, but you cannot reach it sadly. That is based of prejudice, ethnicity, religious or sex. The last one which is sex is the one that interests us the most. Women are being affected by glass ceiling.

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

Thomas, Bierema, and Landau (2004) also describe the glass ceiling as a metaphor for the invisible barrier used to pushed women to the sidelines to slow their upward mobility and career growth. The authors suggest the glass ceiling is created by prejudicial practices such as cultural tendencies and power, and believe that glass ceiling practices keep women in compliant roles, making them inferior to males (Yasin & Helms, 2007). In 1989, Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of Labor for the Bush administration, launched a Department of Labor investigation to identify glass ceiling practices. The investigation found there were no women employed at nine major corporations that were awarded significant government contracts (Office of Federal Contract Compliance, 1991). As a result of the investigation, the Glass Ceiling Act was enacted in 1991 as Title II of the Civil Rights Restoration Act and a commission was formed to identify barriers and implement strategies to promote employment opportunities for the advancement of minorities and women (Falk & Grizard, 2003). The research available on glass ceiling practices in higher education is limited. However, there are some researchers who have examined the practices as it relates to higher education. Unfortunately, in higher education the majority of the available research focuses on the deferential treatment of female faculty. Some of the researchers who did examine the effects the glass ceiling had on women pursuing executive positions in higher education (Thomas, Bierema and Landau, 2004) showed that male-controlled environments contributed to the limited access women have had to leadership positions, acknowledge the existence of the glass ceiling, and suggest it serves as a significant barrier to women seeking

The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier preventing women and minorities from advancing into upper management (Bell 67). Despite extensive legislation and the widespread implementation of equal opportunity policies, there is still widespread structural inequality and job segregation in organizations throughout the United States. "The level of the `glass ceiling' varies among organizations and is reflected in different employment patterns, hiring practices, and promotion plans" (Adler 451). The purpose of this paper is to provide background as well as a more in-depth analysis of the glass ceiling phenomenon and apply a human-capitalistic theorist perspective to the issues.

Before having read this article, I did not realize that women were socially restricted starting at the interview process, let alone from advancing in a company. In addition, I was not aware of the particular aspects of a glass ceiling, in that it is created because of males subconsciously creating dominance over women. To my prior understanding, I had believed that the glass ceiling was a publicly acknowledged phenomenon where women were seen as less than men; and that because it was a public belief, that it must be some type of “Business standard” or “law”. In my personal life, I have noticed that I sometimes assert a verbal dominance over my mother, which to my knowledge is because she can be picky. But, as my unconscious contains things that I am not aware of, maybe my verbal dominance is an unconscious action.

The glass ceiling is responsible for women and minorities not being able to achieve what they are capable of. A glass ceiling is an invisible barrier. For many of the years, women were not put in jobs that require top executives such as management and that is why many of them have not accumulated the

Several theories have been utilized to guide research exploring the glass ceiling metaphor. The social role theory explains the labor division between men and women and the difference in their leadership style (Sabharal, 2015). Men are regarded as more agentic- aggressive, dominant, and independent. Women behaviors are more communal- empathetic, nurturing and kind. This theory posits that individuals might question the capacity of women in leadership roles, because requirements of leadership contradict the social role of women (Sabharwal, 2015). Because men majorly occupy leadership roles, it is largely assumed that leadership demands male-like personas. Therefore, women are judged less favorably when seeking management positions. Moreover, managers are less likely to promote women because of their social responsibility as mothers, which ascribe the primary responsibility of family (Sabharwal, 2015). Role incongruity and the perpetuating masculine stereotype contribute to the challenges women face in leadership positions (Sabharwal, 2015).

The, Break the Glass Ceiling Foundation, who stands for equal opportunity for women and minorities, have done extensive research on the glass ceiling barrier. They have determined that the glass ceiling can appear in many forms. The first form is the lack of management commitment to establish systems, policies, and practices for achieving workplace diversity and upward mobility. This form means that women are unable to move up in the business due to a lack of upward mobility. Women are able to be promoted past a certain position. Not only is the business form of workplace affected by this barrier, but there also exist the barrier in the government department. Toussaint proves this statement by the fact that "only forty women have served on the highest court of thirty states and only five have presided over their state's court as chief justice. Only 5.4 percent of all federal judges were women at the time of Sandra Day O'Connor's appointment."

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.