The Glass Ceiling: Recognizing Its Existence and Identifying Solutions

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.

According to United Way (2017), the vast majority of their Board of Trustees, employees and volunteers create a great internal representation of their organization (United Way, 2017). Similar to Verizon, United Way understands the importance of bringing diverse minds together to collectively push the organization forward. While diversity statements acknowledge an organization’s attempt to include all qualified individuals, according to Jonathan Webb (2017) women currently only earn 75% of their male counterparts salary. As the importance of a title or position advances, a number of women in leadership roles continue to decrease heavily despite account for almost half of the entry-level (Webb, 2017). While based on the diversity statements from Verizon and United Way provided, they are making great efforts to promote diversity, there is no way to ignore that there continues to be an ongoing issue regarding glass ceilings for a specific group of employees. Whether it be favored by a particular group by race, gender or financial class, in certain scenarios, a glass ceiling definitely given to a special group of

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.

According to a research journal presented by David Cotter and three of this colleges from various universities they believe that four criterion must be meet in order to determine that the glass ceiling exists. They call do not call these discriminations but rather inequalities, and their first inequality that must be met is "A gender or racial difference that is not explained by other job-relevant characteristics of the employee" (Cottter 657). Essentially this means that the glass ceiling is measured as a residual difference based upon race after you take into consideration education, experience, abilities, motivation, and other job-relevant characteristics. They state in their research that yes this is a factor however extensive research cannot be conducting on this ideology because it constitutes pin pointing every relevant characteristic to a job which can be al most impossible.

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.

In this taking sides chapter, the author addresses the well-known debate on whether women experience barriers due to society norms and expectations of their abilities to be a leader or is there an evolutionary preference to choose men over women. On the yes side, the author expresses the numerous statistics that prove women have a barrier stopping them from climbing the career ladder and making it to the very top. To further explain this phenomenon the author uses a metaphor that is also well known called the glass ceiling when referring to women and the obstacles they face. The metaphor describes women climbing the career ladder while viewing their ultimate career goal, but hits the ceiling preventing them to go any further when they almost

The study determined that a combination of racial discrimination and the glass ceiling (a term that describes the difficulty women in general have in reaching management positions) was responsible for the disparity in those numbers.

The definition of the concept glass ceiling has changed over time. Taken literally, the metaphor of the glass ceiling implies the existence of an impermeable barrier that blocks the vertical mobility, below this barrier women and minorities, are able to get hired by male – dominated organizations, and can get promoted, above this barrier they are not. (Baxter & Wright, 2000). Sometimes they are considered to be promoted to a higher position, but rarely reach that position (Maume,

An issue that many women still face in the corporate world is the glass ceiling NEED TO EXPAND

The term glass ceiling was first used by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24, 1986, edition of the Wall Street Journal to describe the limits of advancement that women face in the workplace (Hymowitz and Schellhardt 1986). When originally used, the term drew widespread criticism because it claimed that women did not achieve high levels of advancement in the workforce because they were consumed by family life or did not obtain the required levels of education and/or experience. Since then, the term and the arguments surrounding it have developed to encompass all minorities in the workplace.

In most corporations today, the glass ceiling goes unnoticed and certainly unquestioned. Corporations boast of being a great place for women to work, but women are always middle management, not higher

Women have to maneuver through many obstacles -- some more apparent than others -- in order to climb up the corporate ladder. Every day women fall prey to vertical segregation (also known as “the glass ceiling”), which refers to a barrier that keeps women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder. Eventually, these obstacles create a reality in which it is rare to see a woman ascend to upper level positions. For example, women become teachers and principles, while men are superintendents. This creates a

A study led by 'The Guardian namecheck of the FTSE 100 Index' demonstrates that more men with the first name 'John' claim the biggest 1,500 organisations than all women in the US. In spite of the fact that women have had a significant influence in society throughout hundreds of thousands of years, they are still not recognised for their efforts and aren't given the opportunity to represent themselves to their full potential due to a barrier that is put in place by society. This barrier is known as the "Glass Ceiling". This metaphor is utilised to refer to the barrier which limits women from achieving the most powerful roles in society, or even in their work environment. It is a concealed boundary that discriminates against women at all costs from pay rise's, career advancements, and different opportunities.

Gender equality is increasingly becoming public interest in the last few decades (Klenke, 1996). However, women still faces barriers that hinders their career progression towards senior positions, which some refer as “glass ceiling” (Bain and Cummings, 2000). Whilst the issue is also present in academic institutions that is distinguishable from business sector, existing research have mainly focused on business context. In academic institutions, women are hugely over-representing junior positions, with only 10% representing the professorship level (Finch, 2003). Using semi-structured interviews, this study addressed the barriers women face in their career progression through the research question “are the ceilings made of

* Glass ceiling – is a concept popularized in the 1980s to describe a barrier so subtle that is transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women and minorities from moving up in the management hierarchy (Morrison and Von Glinow)