What is the glass ceiling?
An invisible barrier, the glass ceiling, inhibits some individuals from achieving management and senior positions in an organization or sector. The term refers to the challenges women and minorities encounter in advancing in a male-dominated business hierarchy. Unwritten standards and implicit prejudices prevent these individuals from rising, rather than business policies.
Understanding
Marilyn Loden coined the term “glass ceiling” when presenting on a panel at the 1978 New York Women’s Exposition. Loden was asked to address how women were to blame for career restrictions as a fill-in for her employer’s lone female executive. She addressed the glass ceiling, a long-ignored barrier to women in power.
This notion gained popularity in a 1986 Wall Street Journal story about corporate hierarchy and unseen hurdles hindering women’s professional advancement. According to Gay Bryant, former editor of Working Woman magazine, the notion may have started with two women at Hewlett-Packard in the 1970s (reported in 2015). Minorities joined women in modern times.
Cultural barriers to women and minorities in the workforce may cause the equality gap to vary by country. US companies have addressed the equity gap by promoting diversity. This involves employing people to increase women’s and minority participation in management. Company practices that decrease or remove the glass ceiling help guarantee that the best candidates make decisions.
In 2021, 56.8% of U.S. workers were women. However, 29.1% of top executives were women, and 85.7% were white, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Research reveals that diverse groups make better judgments than homogeneous ones, which shows firms that removing the glass ceiling may boost profits.
History
In 1991, the U.S. Department of Labor established the Glass Ceiling Commission to address impediments to women and minorities’ advancement. It identified hurdles and measures firms may implement to improve diversity at the management and executive levels.
The panel determined that qualified women and minorities were denied decision-making opportunities. It was also discovered that employees and employers commonly had unfavorable prejudices about women and minorities.
While running for president in 2008 and 2016, Hillary Clinton frequently pledged to break the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” by becoming the first female president. On Jan. 20, 2021, Kamala Harris became the first female, black, and South Asian Vice President in the U.S., breaking the second-highest glass ceiling. The first black South Asian attorney general of California and the first black woman elected San Francisco district attorney
Glass Cliff against the Ceiling
The “glass cliff” refers to women’s promotion amid crises when failure is more likely. This might happen in banking, politics, technology, and academics.
The glass ceiling hinders women from reaching executive levels, while the glass cliff places them in precarious positions with the potential for performance decline.
Had Hillary Clinton won the 2008 presidential election during the Great Recession, she may have been considered a victim of the glass cliff. Professors Michelle K. Ryan and Alexander Haslam of Exeter University, UK, invented the concept in 2004. Ryan and Haslam’s study of Britain’s FTSE 100 corporations highlighted this occurrence.
Example
There are many examples of people breaking the glass ceiling. In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
As said, Kamala Harris broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first female U.S. vice president under President Joe Biden. That makes her the first black and South Asian elected to the role. Harris became Vice President on January 20, 2021.
President Biden nominated and swore in Janet Yellen as the first female Treasury secretary on January 26, 2021. Yellen has smashed other glass ceilings. During President Obama’s term, she was the first female chair of the Federal Reserve.
What does it mean?
Women and minorities face the glass ceiling while seeking job success.
An Example of the Glass Ceiling
People have cracked the glass ceiling countless times. Kamala Harris became the first female US Vice President, breaking a glass ceiling. She is also the first black and South Asian vice president.
There was no black president from 1789 until the early 21st century. Only after the 1965 Voting Rights Act could all black people vote. However, Barack Obama became the first African-American president in 2008.
Broken Glass Ceiling: What Does It Mean?
Cracking the glass ceiling is overcoming obstacles to development. The removal of hurdles for those facing the same challenges is part of breaking the glass ceiling.
Where did “Break the Glass Ceiling” originate?
At the 1978 Women’s Exposition, New York telephone company manager Marilyn Loden created the term glass ceiling.
Does the glass ceiling still exist?
Persists for diverse groups in various businesses. Most corporate executives and other influential people are men. Although these barriers are receiving increasing attention, they remain in the workforce.
Conclusion
- It refers to the societal barrier prohibiting women from achieving top managerial positions.
- The word now includes minority prejudice.
- Marilyn Loden invented the “glass ceiling” during the 1978 Women’s Exposition.
- The U.S. has 56.8% of women in the workforce but 29.1% in executive positions.
- The Labor Department created the Glass Barrier Commission in 1991 to combat the glass barrier.
