Glass ceiling
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The term glass ceiling refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination, most commonly sexism or racism, but since the term was coined, "glass ceiling" has also come to describe the limited advancement of the deaf, blind, disabled, aged and sexual minorities. [1]
This situation is referred to as a "ceiling" as there is a limitation blocking upward advancement, and "glass" (transparent) because the limitation is not immediately apparent and is normally an unwritten and unofficial policy. The "glass ceiling" is distinguished from formal barriers to advancement, such as education or experience requirements.
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[edit] History
Sexual discrimination was outlawed in the United States through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the hopes of allowing women to rise in the working world once proper experience has been achieved.
The term "glass ceiling" has been thought to have first been used to refer to invisible barriers that impede the career advancement of women in the American workforce in an article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24 edition of the Wall Street Journal in 1986.[2] However, the term was used prior to that; for instance, it was utilized in a March 1984 Adweek article by Gay Bryant.
The term glass ceiling was used prior to the 1984 article by two women at Hewlett-Packard in 1979, Katherine Lawrence and Marianne Schreiber, to describe how while on the surface there seemed to be a clear path of promotion, but, in actuality, women seemed to hit a point where they seemed unable to progress beyond.
United States Senator Hillary Clinton used the term glass ceiling in her speech to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President: "And although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it,"[1]
The term glass ceiling was originally specifically applied to discrimination against women.
[edit] Types of Glass Ceiling Barriers
- Paying differently for comparable work.[1]
- Sexual, ethnic, racial, religious discrimination or harassment in the workplace
- Lack of family-friendly workplace policies
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[edit] Sexism and Glass Ceiling Effects
One of the major indicators that serve as an indicator that inequality exists between males and females is the gender gap. Currently women working full time are making approximately 77 cents for every dollar that males make. This is a marked improvement from the 1960s when women were making only 59 cent to the dollar for men.[3] Explanations offered to explain this gender gap center around education. Women were believed to have such low earning power when compared to males two decades ago because, women were just entering the paid labor force and therefore, they possessed less skill and education than most men.[4] In turn the reason why this gap has greatly narrowed is due to the increase in education amongst women. McDonald and Thornton (2007) argue that when many factors such as promotions, job changes, and experience are controlled for much of the relationship between the wage gap, gender and educational attainment can be attributed to the types of majors men and women choose to pursue.[5] This suggests that women just naturally gravitate to a field that earns less than male dominated fields. However, within female dominated fields (i.e., education) the “glass ceiling” is still present. Women often have great difficulty acquiring managerial positions within the school system, which is overwhelmingly female oriented.[6]. Therefore, this phenomenon extends beyond choice of major and into all fields.
Although it is often down-played that any differences exist between men and women who are “climbing the ladder” together this is untrue. Unfortunately, the gendered inequalities are often embedded within the social hierarchy and this affects who is seen as the best fit for leadership roles. Different traits are assigned to females when compared to males. Males are seen as more competent and trustworthy as opposed to females. If a female does have other traits aside from the gendered traits that she is believed to possess then she is viewed negatively. [7] For example, in a study conducted by Thomas-Hunt and Phillips (2004) they found that when women possessed expertise they were actually viewed as less influential by others. However, expertise was positive for males. Also, female led groups were less productive than male led groups even though the women held expertise in the area just like males. Therefore, possessing expertise is not viewed as positively as it is for males. This also suggests that lack of skills is not the only reason why women are not deemed worthy of leadership roles.[8] Overall, the system is designed to cap the amount of promotions and knowledge women gain in comparison to males. In accordance with this notion of limited promotions Lyness and Heilman (2006) found that in a study conducted with 448 upper-level employees that women were less likely to be promoted than males, and if they were promoted they had stronger performance ratings than males. However, performance ratings were more strongly connected to promotions for women than men. This suggests that woman had to be highly impressive to be considered eligible for leadership roles, whereas this was not the case for men.[9]
[edit] Reverse Glass Ceiling
A new phenomenon, known as the "reverse glass ceiling", has been taking shape in America over the past few years. More and more men have started their careers in female-dominated industries, such as nursing, paralegal, travel and childcare. Many have been discriminated against because of this. Experts question whether it actually exists because it's still infantile in growth.[10] Others call this concept the "glass escalator" and describe it as the rapid advancement of men into positions of authority within female-dominated occupations.[11]
[edit] Variations and related terms
- Bamboo Ceiling - The exclusion of Asian-Americans from executive and managerial roles on the basis of subjective factors such as "lack of leadership potential" or "inferior communication ability" where the East Asian-American candidate has superior objective credentials such as Ivy League credentials (in comparison to their white counterparts with only state university credentials). [12] For example, research shows that there are a decent number of partners at leading prestigious law firms in the United States who did not attend top notch law schools. However, you will seldom find an East Asian American partner of a leading law firms who did not attend a "T14" (Top 14 according to the US News ranking) law school.
- Glass elevator (or glass escalator) - The rapid promotion of men over women, especially into management, in female-dominated fields such as nursing.
- Glass cliff - A situation wherein someone has been promoted into a risky, difficult job where the chances of failure are higher.
- Celluloid ceiling, referring to the small number of women in top positions in Hollywood, as documented by Lauzen (2002) and others.
- Sticky Floor - refers to women who are trapped in low-wage, low mobility jobs in state and local government.[13]
- Sticky Ladder - A term used to describe women's struggle to reach the top of the corporate ladder. This term describes the theory that women are not incapable of reaching the top; they just get "stuck" on the middle rungs of the ladder.
[edit] "Glass Ceiling" in popular culture
Canadian indie rock band Metric wrote a song called "Glass Ceiling" on their 2005 album Live It Out, which is a reference to this type of situation.
The effect has also inspired a musical, bearing the same name. "Glass Ceiling" (2006), written by Bret VandenBos and Alex Krall, examined and parodied the idiosyncrasies of both males and females in the corporate workplace.[14]
[edit] See also
- Stained-glass ceiling
- Equal pay for women
- Sexism
- Feminism
- Feminization of poverty
- Equality
- Gender role
- Employment
- Glass cliff
- Masculism
- Racism
- Affirmative Action
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b "History." Break the Glass Ceiling. 2008. Break the Glass Ceiling Foundation. 31 Mar 2008.
- ^ Baker & Lightle, Cracks in the glass ceiling: An analysis of gender equity in the federal government auditing career field (2001), 18-26 [1]
- ^ Rose, S.J. & Hartmann, H.I. "Still a man’s labor market: The long-term earnings gap." Washington DC:Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2004
- ^ The WAGE Project. What is the wage gap?. http://www.wageproject.org/content/gap/what.php. 15 April 2008
- ^ McDonald, J.A. & Thornton, R. J. "Do new male and female college graduates receive unequal pay?" Journal of Human Resources, 42, 32-48, 2007
- ^ Moreau, M., Osgood, J., Halsall, A. Making sense of the glass ceiling in schools: An exploration of women teachers’ discourses. Gender and Education, 19, 237-253, 2007
- ^ Ridgeway, C.L.Gender, status, and leadership, Journal of Social Issues,57, 637–655, 2001
- ^ Thomas-hunt, M.C., & Phillips, K.W. When what you know is not enough: Expertise and gender dynamics in task groups, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1585-1598, 2004
- ^ Lyness, K.S. & Heilman, M.E. When fit is fundamental: Performance evaluations and promotions of upper-level female and male managers, Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 777-785, 2006
- ^ Merritt, Jennifer. "Does the "Reverse Glass Ceiling Exist?" MSN Encarta. 31 Mar 2008
- ^ The Architecture of Inequality: Sex and Gender D. Newman and R. Smith 1999
- ^ Piercing the 'Bamboo Ceiling' - Aug. 8, 2005
- ^ Noble, Barbara. "At Work; And Now the 'Sticky Floor'." The New York Times 22 Nov 1992 31 Mar 2008.
- ^ Mays, Andy (July 2006). NCA Cappies Album for "Glass Ceiling". Cappies. Retrieved on 2007-04-19.
