Glass ceiling

An unofficial or unacknowledged barrier within an organization’s hierarchy that prevents personal advancement, especially of women

The term “glass ceiling” was popularized in the 1980s and became an important concept in the American workplace.

Two articles written during the 1980s are credited with coining the phrase “glass ceiling” in reference to barriers for women in the workforce. The first instance of the term appeared in a 1984 Adweek article about magazine editor Gay Bryant. The second article was from the March 24, 1986, issue of the Wall Street Journal and was written by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt. The term evolved to include all minorities, with the word “ceiling” describing a barrier that women experience as they try to advance within a company or organization. The “glass” metaphor describes the transparent quality of the ceiling, because it is not immediately recognized or acknowledged.

Workplace Issues for Women

Issues contributing to women’s experience of a workplace glass ceiling include work-life balance, a lack of access to informal networks, a lack of effective mentors and role models, and stereotypes and prejudice based on traditional gender roles. A 2009 US Census Bureau study showed that women worked an average of thirty-seven hours per week, while men worked an average of forty-two hours per week. The Department of Labor concluded that women are often unable to attain seniority equal to that of men because of the time they spent away from work: Women are often the primary caregivers for children or elderly family members, and working women must often balance family life with their career.

Women historically lack access to informal networks to develop relationships within organizations. These networks are perceived to include “male activities,” which tend to be sporting events such as golf where bonding and informal mentoring occur. Despite the fact that mentoring is considered a significant factor in leadership development, women have fewer opportunities to cultivate mentor relationships, especially at crucial points in their careers. Debora Spar, president of New York's all-women's Barnard College, reported that while 46 percent of graduating lawyers were women in 1994, in only about 15 percent of the partners in US law firms were women by 2013, and male partners were making salaries approximately $90,000 higher per year in 2013 than their female counterparts. Judith Smith Kaye, retired Chief Judge of New York, elaborated that a lack of mentoring within law firms and within the legal profession as a whole is a primary reason for this discrepancy.

Although obvious and explicit bias and stereotypes have diminished significantly over the years, there remains subtle perceptions that women operate more on an emotional than on an intellectual level. Other sexist attitudes include the beliefs that women are not aggressive enough to be effective leaders, that they cannot be effective in a business setting, and that they are inherently too easy-going and nurturing to be effective managers. If a female executive behaves in a warm and caring manner, she runs the risk as being perceived as weak. On the other hand, if a woman appears to be tough, logical, and unemotional—characteristics typically expected of a male leader—she may be viewed in a negative manner.

Other subtle but systematic factors preventing women’s advancement in the workplace include initial placement in dead-end jobs with little to no opportunity for advancement, lack of training opportunities within a company, and sexual harassment. While breaking a glass ceiling involves the cooperation and advocacy of multiple organizational tiers, from governmental policies and legislation to proactive employers and businesses, many experts believe that women should also adopt methods and strategies of their own to move into higher-level, higher-paying positions. Suggested strategies include becoming comfortable taking risks by pursuing more difficult and visible assignments, gaining the support and guidance from a mentor, developing a style with which male managers feel more comfortable, and accepting the need to outperform male colleagues.

Organizational Strategies

Breaking the glass ceiling is possible and more and more agencies, organizations, and corporations are addressing the issue. Analysts agree that a significant step toward toppling barriers to career advancement is for organizations to have comprehensive programs that track progress made toward breaking down cultural and gender-based barriers. Recommended strategies to create more opportunities for women to reach higher-level positions include voluntary targets for representation on boards and committees, promoting flexible work hours or telecommuting in order to support a balance between work and home life, and creating mentoring programs within organizations. Other suggestions include rewarding employees based on the amount and quality of work or tasks completed rather than on the number of hours spent at the workplace. Finally, corporations have had success when policies and practices are designed to increase opportunities for upward mobility, that establish pay equity for work of comparable value, that eliminate gender, race, and ethnic-based stereotyping, that create “family-friendly” or "parent-track" workplace policies, and that collect data to track the advancement progress of women.

Impact

Although there have been attempts in the past to promote workplace equality among both men and women, such as in the 1960s the US president John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women, it was not until the early 1990s that any formal legislation was put in place. Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 established the Glass Ceiling Commission to study artificial barriers to the advancement of women and other qualified individuals in the American workplace and to make recommendations for overcoming such barriers. The commission was composed of twenty-one members, with the secretary of labor serving as chair. The intent of this legislation was to ensure that all workers would receive equal treatment in employment.

Bibliography

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