GLASS CEILING: PERCEPTION VS REALITY

 

Glass ceiling is the term used to describe the invisible barrier women face as they attempt to climb the corporate ladder.  The glass ceiling still exists despite the increased numbers of women in management positions.  The gender segregation means that women remain concentrated at the bottom of the career ladder.  These disparities have focused on women’s “deficiencies” in a management role including work practices and employer expectations.  There is also the perception that women lack vision, charisma and leadership skills.

Glass ceiling exist because organizations believe that women lack the necessary qualifications and experience to be promoted to senior positions.  Women are found to have also created their own barriers in the qualifications area.  They have also misinterpreted the lack of experience barrier.  Today, women are the ones implementing the marketing and running companies.  Success stories of women:

• Jill Barad
• climbed through the ranks of Mattel Inc.,
• headed the very successful Barbie division, and
• later became president of Mattel in 1990
• Joan Lappin
• fought her way through the male-dominated investment world of Wall Street
• president of Gramercy Capital Management Corporation

Example of ‘glass ceiling’ cases:

• Barbara Sogg (1985)
• Been passed over for the job of general manager of operations at La Guardia Airport
• filed suit against American Airlines Inc
• contended that she had been discriminated against because of her age, sex, and health
• the position in question was handed to a less experienced, younger male
• cost American Airlines $7 million after the courts found in favour of Sogg

 

Women have to overcome the major hurdle to their career aspirations and avoid the "Catch 22" dilemma.  Some suggestions to lift the glass ceiling are:

• ensure that they do have the right business skills and know-how
• need to attempt to enter line management in mainstream areas
• gain experience through "apprenticeship" and "acting" positions
• obtain as much career counselling as possible
• volunteer for leadership and executive positions to gain experience and a higher profile
• learning how to measure their operating effectiveness in the workplace
• ensure that their current status does not slip through lack of awareness of the emerging trends

 

Prejudice is found to be the most prevalent barrier.  Poor career planning and development also hurts women especially when not given proper attention and guidance early in the careers.  Working environment also is another major barrier.  Some women even acknowledge that they do not know "how to play the game".  Lacking of mentors for women is another factor contributing to this barrier.  Other organizational barriers that result in glass ceiling are:

• corporate practices such as recruitment, retention, and promotion;
• behavioural and cultural causes such as stereotyping and preferred leadership
• style; and
• structural and cultural explanations rooted in feminist theory

Whereas in IT fields, three general categories found to be potential barriers to the advancement of women has been identified that is the educational aspects and family characteristics, corporate cultures, and sociological factors.

 

The struggle to reconcile home and work is still largely a woman's problem.  The decisions that women have to make may affect their advancement into senior management.  Women still have the added significant problem of juggling family and work demands.  Some may say that obstacles to women’s advancement are not intentional.  The creation of a glass ceiling falls into three categories of explanation:

• biological
• biological differences between men and women
• socialization
• the societal expectations produce and maintain inequality between genders
• gender identity and differences are acquired through various developmental processes associated with life stages
• structural/cultural
• social structures, systems, and arrangements define and channelled gender differences according to discrepancies in status and power cause differences in leadership

 

Some strategies in overcoming the glass ceiling barriers are:

• increased government pressure
• top management's personal intervention
• establishing employee advocacy groups
• continue to educate employees
• better prepare for advancement through management
• integrating women’s career development as part of mainstream HR development;
• provide role models and mentoring;
• promote the networking of women;
• review selection, promotion and appraisal procedures
• assertive training

 

The number of women who have broken the glass ceiling and have penetrated senior managerial ranks is extremely small.  Why do women still lagging far behind men in moving up the managerial ladder when women have shown that they can develop significant flexibility when needed.  Life and interpersonal relationships in large organizations are governed by a set of customs, beliefs, values and norms.  Women are usually considered as being culturally different and this may be whatcauses them to be excluded from many informal relationships and social events that can provide significant opportunities for building up networks and developing sources of informal power.  Discussions on the golf course and other similar places usually offer other benefits as well.

Women in higher managerial positions are found not showing willingness to help younger women to advance.  In some cases, women who have reached the top, after years of hard work and patience, find it difficult to understand younger generation wanting quick advancement up the executive ladder without being prepared to work as hard as they did.  Women at the top also almost always get the feeling of loneliness out of being the minority.  Some even have to raise their voices in order to be heard.

Women should aspire to change the world and until they do, they should try to make the best of the existing world.  Women also need to be able to generate and use informal power.

REFERENCES:

Ann M. Morrison, New Solutions to the Same Old Glass Ceiling, Women in Management Review. Vol. 7 No 4 1992 pp. 15-19

Athena Petraki Kottis, Women in Management: THE "GLASS CEILING" AND HOW TO BREAK IT, Women in Management Review, Vol. 8 No. 4, 1993, pp. 9-15,

Birgit Weyer, Twenty years later: explaining the persistence of the glass ceiling for women leadersWomen in Management Review Vol. 22 No. 6, 2007 pp. 482-496

Brian J. Hurn, Removing the boardroom glass ceiling, INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING, VOL. 44 NO. 3 2012, pp. 126-131

Hamid R. Tavakolian, Break on Through to the Other Side of the Glass Ceiling, Equal Opportunities International Volume 12 Number 6 1993

Kalpana Pai and Sameer Vaidya, Glass ceiling: role of women in the corporate world, Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal Vol. 19 No. 2, 2009 pp. 106-113

Leonie V. Still, Breaking the Glass Ceiling, VOLUME 7 NUMBER 5, 1992, Women in Management Review, Vol. 7 No. 5, 1992, pp. 3-8,

Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam, What lies beyond the glass ceiling?, HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DIGEST, VOL. 14 NO. 3 2006

Nelarine Cornelius and Denise Skinner (2005), Alternative view through the glass ceiling, Women in Management Review Vol. 20 No. 8, 2005 pp. 595-609