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Glass Ceiling Essays (Examples)
250 results for “Glass Ceiling” .

Glass Ceiling Is a Metaphor
Interestingly, recent research indicates that some women may be creating their own class ceilings. For example, "female managers are more than three times as likely as their male counterparts to underrate their bosses' opinions of their job performance," ("Study: Women create 'their own glass ceiling'" 2009). Treanor (2007) found that "Women are jumping off the career ladder long before they hit the glass ceiling, raising serious questions about attempts to increase the number of female executives in company boardrooms." In my experience, women do escape the rat race and may indeed underestimate their ability to achieve parity with men in the workplace, in politics, or in any other male-dominated arena. I have second-guessed myself, which is one of the reasons why I have also experienced barriers to promotion. Therefore, the research does corroborate the core reasons why the glass ceiling exists in the first place: women are taught to undervalue…
Clark, H. (2006). Are women happy under the glass ceiling? Forbes. Retrieved online: http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/07/glass-ceiling-opportunities -- cx_hc_0308glass.html
Cotter, D.A., Hermsen, J.M., Ovadia, S., & Vanneman, R. (2001). The glass ceiling effect. Social Forces 80 (2). Retrieved: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2675593
Tesch, B.J., Wood, H.M., Helwig, a.L., & Nattinger, a.B. (1995). Promotion of women physicians in academic medicine. JAMA. 273:1022-1025.
Treanor, J. (2007). "Women quit before hitting glass ceiling." Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/mar/08/business.workingparents
Glass Ceilings the Concept of
She looked at the job and her growth has been due to her successes in dealing with the job. These skills according to her are more important than her gender. A similar type of a message comes from Susan Arnold, President global personal beauty care at proctor & Gamble. According to her, she has shattered some glass ceilings on the way, but has been treated fairly throughout her career. She was always giving excellent results and this had meant giving the largest profits from any division in North America in ten years, and she was supported by the CEO who was her first boss. She is working in the company for 20 years. (Open to Women? Are we living in a meritocracy or a machotocracy?) Let us now see how the biggest employer, the government views the entire issue. The government has been telling all business organizations to implement policies…
Are There Cracks In The Ceiling? Employment Standards Administration Office of Federal
Contract Compliance Programs Glass Ceiling Report. Retrieved at http://www.dol.gov/esa/media/reports/ofccp/newgc.htm . Accessed 4 September, 2005
Companies must take lead from state on breaking glass ceiling. 7 November, 1993.
Retrieved at http://www.joanlloyd.com/articles/open.asp?art=513.htm. Accessed 4 September, 2005
Glass Ceiling the Barriers That
"If you're not taking risks and dealing with fallout, perhaps you're demonstrating that you won't like the intensity [at the senior management level]." Other qualities also may also hinder women's ability to advance their careers. For example, women managers are rated as more nurturing, emotionally expressive and sensitive than male managers. "Women are less dominant, less competitive and more willing to ask for help," says Dr. Hagberg (Patterson, 2005). "That's why they're better team players." These qualities result in high ratings from subordinates when women are at the middle management level, but by being too protective of their work groups, their bosses may see them as "rescuers and mothers," rather than as potential senior-level executives. Fortunately, ambitious women executives do not have to reinvent themselves to advance. They just have to fine-tune existing skills, according to experts. "The team- and consensus-building skills women have are the skills required for managing,"…
Bibliography
Adaire, Carol. (1994). Cracking the Glass Ceiling. Dissertation, Inc.
Patterson, Valerie. (2005). Breaking the Glass Ceiling: What's Holding Women Back? Career Journal.
Glass Ceiling in Corporate America
The researchers found the case of job stability and lateral mobility in case of the Asian-Americans are quite pertinent in the sphere of glass ceiling. Irrespective of the fact that loss of brain is rarely attributed to glass ceiling issues the prevailing cases sometime cannot be overlooked. A survey conducted during 1987 revealed that about 308 Asian-American employees in varied sectors in San Francisco attributed the monetary incentive and career progression as prime cause for job changes. However, about 75% of the Chinese-Americans revealed their reason for job changes to be the obstacles of corporate values, management inflexibility etc. (Woo, 2000) Several strategies have been delineated for the minorities to break the Glass Ceiling in the corporate America. It is advised first to generate an adaptable strategic plan for achieving the accomplishment. A plan is to be chalked out and followed meticulously to attain the career goals. The success stories…
Begley, Michelle M. (2005) "Corporate America's Glass Ceiling." Business West,
Retrieved 20 February, 2010 from http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/laws-government-regulations-employment/1102318-1.html
Morsella, Racey de. (2006) "Getting to the Top: Strategies for Breaking through the Glass Ceiling." Retrieved 20 February, 2010 from http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/leader/workplace-leadership/Getting-to-the-Top-Strategies-for-Breaking-Through-the-Glass-Ceiling.asp
Redwood, Rene. (1996) "The Glass Ceiling: The Findings and Recommendations of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission" Motion Magazine, Retrieved 20 February, 2010 from http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/glass.html
Glass Ceiling -- Does it Still Exist
Glass Ceiling -- Does it Still Exist? In 1964 the federal government of the United States passed a Civil ights Act that forbade discrimination -- that is using double standards -- in the workplace. The idea was for all job applicants and all candidates for promotion within companies to be treated equally. The concept was excellent -- the implementation has left much to be desired. The question of whether or not the "glass ceiling" that invisible but definite barrier to the upper echelons of corporate America still exists for women and, people of color, is almost childish. The number of studies that have been done in the intervening forty years, that clearly show the continued existence of barriers to not only equal opportunity, but to equal pay for equal work, runs into the thousands. It is often said that there are none so blind as those who will not see,…
Chaffins, Stephanie, Forbes, Mary, Fuqua, Harold, Cangemi, Joseph; "The Glass Ceiling: Are Women Where They Should Be?" Online at Questia.com
Fagenson, Ellen, Jackson, Janice, "The Staus of Women Managers in the United States." Questia.com.
Kambayashi, Takehiko, "Women Work Way Up in Japan; Entrepenurial Spirit helps Lift Ailing Economy" reprinted from the Washington Times Questia.com
Wooten, Lynn Perry, "What Makes Women-Friendly Public Accounting Firms Tick? The Diffusion of Human Resource Management Knowledge Through Institutional and Resource Pressures."
Glass Ceiling Briggs Myers
Psychological Tests There are a few changes that are likely to occur in the workforce, given a 60% participation rate for women. First, that number is likely to climb. The financial demands of modern life are such that fewer families are able to survive on a single breadwinner, even if they wanted to. But few actually want to in this day and age. One of the issues that will be addressed increasingly is the issue of the wage gap, which stems in large part from the way that different careers are paid, with fields dominated by women paying less on average. These fields, however, are in demand, and pay will have to start to reflect that in order to draw more people -- and more women -- into the workforce. Neumark and Postlewaite (1998) noted that poor pay was one of the reasons why women stay out of the workforce…
Caplan, B. (2003) Stigler-Becker vs. Briggs-Myers: Why preference-based explanations are scientifically meaningful and empirically important. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Vol. 50 (2003) 391-405.
Cotter, D., Hermsen, J., Ovadia, S. & Vanneman, R. (2001). The glass ceiling effect. Social Forces. Vol. 80 (2) 655-681.
Michael, J. (2003). Using the Briggs-Myers indicator as a tool for leadership development? Apply with caution. Journal of Leadersihip and Organizational Studies Vol. 10 (1) 68-81.
Neumark, D. & Postlewaite, A. (1998). Relative income concerns and the rise in married women's employment. Journal of Public Economics. Vol. 70 (1998) 157-183.
Cmo the Glass Ceiling Is
Those conditions are understood. Both academia and the market are in agreement that the CMO does matter in a number of different situations. Therefore, the question of whether or not a female CMO affects firm performance is very much a valid one. The first research question is: hat academic background contributes most to a woman's ascension to CMO or VP of Marketing? This question is basic, and can be answered with secondary research alone. The biographies of executives are often made public, and a comparison can easily be done between female CMOs and their male counterparts. The second research question is: hat are the critical success factors for young women who aspire to be CMOs and VPs of Marketing? This question is important. The literature review highlights some of the conditions under which the CMO has more of an effect on the firm's performance. For females to overcome the glass…
Works Cited:
Adler, R. (no date). Women in the executive suite correlate to high profits. European Project on Equal Pay. Retrieved June 13, 2012 from http://www.w2t.se/se/filer/adler_web.pdf
Akaah, I. (1989). Differences in research ethics judgments between male and female marketing professionals. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 8 (5) 375-381.
Bass, B. & Avolio, B. (1994). Shatter the glass ceiling: Women may make better managers. Human Resource Management. Vol. 33 (4) 549-560.
Boyd, D., Chandy, R. & Cunha, M. (2010). When do chief marketing officers affect firm value? Journal of Marketing Research. Vol. 47 (6) 1162-1176.
Shattering the Glass Ceiling History
Miller & Lemons (1998) had identified other problems, one of which was, in fact, exclusion from the old boy networks. They noted the fact that women also often are in a pioneering role as problematical." And they had a very sympathetic viewpoint of the 'differences' in family responsibilities obliquely identified by the GAO report: "Also, after spending a long day at work, most of these women still have to go home and contend with family responsibilities such as "maintaining a household, raising children...." (Miller & Lemons, 1998). The size of the Baby Boom generation may also be a factor, according to research into workplace depression. Preceding that, however, is the first encounter with the glass ceiling. "Because the boomers make up such a large cohort of workers, many have experience a plateauing early in their career" (Johnson & Indvik, 1997). In addition, they noted that the recent increase in corporate…
Works Cited
Arai, Marguerite, Maryanne Wanca-Thibault, and Pamela Shockley-Zalabak. "Communication Theory and Training Approaches for Multiculturally Diverse Organizations: Have Academics and Practitioners Missed the Connection?" Public Personnel Management 30.4 (2001): 445. Questia. 14 Feb. 2005
Women and the Glass Ceiling
questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104546663 Duncan K. (1996) Gender differences in the effect of education on the slope of experience-earnings profiles: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979-1988. www.highbeam.com/Search.aspx?q=glass+ceiling+%20publication:%5b%22The%20American%20Journal%20of%20Economics%20and%20Sociology%22%5dThe American Journal of Economics and Sociology: www.highbeam.com/Search.aspx?q=glass+ceiling+%20pubdate:%5b19960928;19961004%5dOctober 1, 1996. etrieved 18 February, 2007, from www.highbream.com. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5008547670 Gazso, a. (2004). Women's Inequality in the Workplace as Framed in News Discourse: efracting from Gender Ideology. The Canadian eview of Sociology and Anthropology, 41(4), 449+. etrieved February 19, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5008547670 Goyder, J., Guppy, N., & Thompson, M. (2003). The Allocation of Male and Female Occupational Prestige in an Ontario Urban Area: A Quarter-Century eplication. The Canadian eview of Sociology and Anthropology, 40(4), 417+. etrieved February 19, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002093162 Hopcroft . (1996) the authority attainment of women: competitive sector effects. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. April 1, 1996. etrieved 18 February, 2007, from www.highbream.com Lopez, N. Free Markets, Free Choices II: Smashing…
Psychology - Developmental Glass Ceiling the Term
Psychology - Developmental Glass Ceiling The term glass ceiling is most frequently applied in business circumstances in which women feel, either correctly or not, that men are deeply established in the upper ranks of power, and women, try as they might, find it almost impossible to break through. While the phrase glass ceiling is figurative, a lot of women who find themselves bumping their heads on it find it very real indeed. It is most frequently used to describe the sexist attitude a lot of women run into at the workplace. In a discussion of climbing the corporate ladder, the word ceiling implies that there is a limit to how far someone can go up. Along with this implied barrier is the idea that it is glass, meaning that, while it is very real, it is transparent and not noticeable to the observer (What is the Glass Ceiling, 2012). Many…
Bjorklund, B.R. (2010). The Journey of Adulthood, Seventh Edition. Prentice Hall.
Glass ceiling. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Glass_ceiling
What is the Glass Ceiling? (2012). Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-glass-ceiling.htm
Yung, K. (2012). Does glass ceiling still exist? Retrieved from http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Does+glass+ceiling+still+exist/6294780/story.html
Discrimination and Affirmative Action Glass Ceiling
Discrimination and Affirmative Action (Glass Ceiling) The paper will look at how women have for years been faced with artificial barriers as they try to advance into senior management positions. It will critically assess how efforts to include them equally into company leadership has hampered their economic gains and how there is still a long way to go before realization of their efforts. The argument that will prevail in this case is how this discrimination largely known as 'glass ceiling' has affected not only women competitiveness but largely affected the competitiveness of businesses, companies and even governments the world over. The glass ceiling, is it a fact or just an illusion? Glass ceiling is a word that is used to describe barriers that exists for women, when it comes to getting promoted into the upper echelons of a company. Indeed it purely exists and it affects largely the women and…
Adair, Carole K. (1994). Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Factors Influencing Woman's Attainment of Senior Executive Positions, Colorado: *****
Ann, Morrison M. (1994). Breaking The Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach The Top Of America's Largest Corporations? London, Paperback
Jerlando F.L. Jackson AE Elizabeth M. O'Callaghan, (2008) What Do We Know About Glass Ceiling Effects?
Kalpana Pai, Sameer Vaidya, (2009) "Glass ceiling: role of women in the corporate world," Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness, Vol. 19, Texas, USA. Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Outplacement or the Glass Ceiling
Women Happy Under the Glass Ceiling? Source (publication name or UL): http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/07/glass-ceiling-opportunities -- cx_hc_0308glass.html Hannah Clark Publication Date: 2006. Subject / Main Ideas / Concepts of article: The main subject of the article is the "glass ceiling," which is a term that pertains to women rising to leadership positions in organizations. The term refers to an invisible ceiling that keeps women from rising to the very top levels of management in many organizations. The articles talks about a study that shows that 70% of women and 57% of men believe the glass ceiling exists, and that it exists in other countries around the world, as well as in the United States. The study also showed that both sexes felt they were paid fairly (even though women make less than men do), and that American women were happy with their levels of success. Another point was that women in America tend…
Clark, Hannah. "Are Women Happy Under The Glass Ceiling?" Forbes.com. 2006. 22 Sept. 2009.
Glass Ceiling Cost You Peggy
Stewart uses the conclusions the consulting and training firm aha! that led such audits, starting with the impressive figure of $6.7million, the cost of sexual harassment suits for a company that had around 27,000 employees. Using reports statistics, conclusive studies led both on women and men employees regarding gender bias, Stewart identifies the place where they generate problems and how much it costs the companies. The recruiters and managers who are conducting an interview for an upper management position are the starting point in perpetuating a gender bias they brought from home. However, even if women are hired in position where they will cooperate and compete with male workers, they are still facing discriminatory opportunities in training and development methods, despite equal or superior evaluations of their skills and competencies. Third, women themselves may be their own enemy in advancing in a carrier due…
Marxism the Glass Ceiling & Functionalism
Spending on healthcare in general, but at the governmental and personal level, should be of concern. First, the overall number of dollars being spent is rather high. Second, the amount of money being spent far outstrips the rest of the world. Third, the rate of increase of healthcare spending from year to year is quite substantial. The question as to whether this is justifiable is a mixed answer. It is a "yes" in terms of what healthcare realities exist in the United States. However, it is a "no" when assessing and coming to grips with what is causing those healthcare realities to exist. One example would be the prevalence of people with high blood sugar and diabetes-related symptoms. While some people inherit type I diabetes (or perhaps even type II diabetes) from a parent, a great majority of those with diabetes have the disorder due to bad eating habits and/or…
Crossman, A. (2015). An Overview of Conflict Theory. About.com Education. Retrieved 12 September 2015, from http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociological-
Theory/a/Conflict-Theory.htm
FMF. (2015). Empowering Women in Business - The Glass Ceiling - Feminist Majority
Foundation. Feminist.org. Retrieved 12 September 2015, from http://www.feminist.org/research/business/ewb_glass.html
Breaking the Glass Ceiling Xerox's Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns, Chief Executive Officer at Xerox Although many authorities agree that the glass ceiling is still in place, it is clear that it has at least been shattered somewhat with many women leading Fortune 500 companies today. Leading the charge has been Ursula Burns, chairman and chief executive officer at Xerox Corporation since July 2009, making her the first African-American woman to lead an S&P 100 corporation. This paper reviews the relevant literature to provide Burns' background, an analysis of her leadership style and philosophy and how they align with the corporate culture at Xerox, an examination of Burns' personal and organizational values and an evaluation concerning how Burns' values most likely influence ethical behavior at this company. Finally, an analysis of Burns' three greatest strengths and weaknesses is followed by a discussion concerning the quality that most contributes to this leader's success and an assessment concerning how communication…
Alleyne, S. (2010, February). Unduplicated success: Named CEO of Xerox, Ursula M. Burns is making history as the first African-American woman to run one of the world's largest corporations. Black Enterprise, 40(7), 88-92.
Brimhall, C.L., Greif, T. & Buchsbaum, T. (2013, February). Teaching authentic adaptive leadership and organizational strategies using a case study. International Journal of Strategic Management, 13(1), 97-101.
Bryant, A. (2010, February 20). Xerox's new chief tries to redefine its culture. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/business/21xerox.html ?
The Glass Ceiling Effect
2016 was the first time this country has had a female presidential candidate because society is very much still ordered by what men do. For instance, the Access Hollywood of Donald Trump’s candid remarks about women and groping them and trying to sleep with them were made by Trump knowing full well he had a microphone on. He was engaging in locker room talk in a braggadocios manner because he knew he was the most powerful person in the room. Yet, when he was in the presence of his female costar and the cameras were on him, he was on his best behavior, knowing that when you are in the spotlight you have to behave a certain way that is acceptable to the public. For a woman who wants to lead, there is less of a sense of leeway in society: she is not allowed to have these private moments…
Diversity and Legal
Glass Ceilings & Glass Escalators Glass Ceilings and Glass Escalators The article by David J. Maume Jr. examines the effect of race and gender composition on promotions to managerial positions. The author has reviewed the existing research on the topic which strongly indicates that that race and gender plays a major part in the levels of pay and pace of promotions-- with the White male in the advantaged group and the Black male and female and the White female firmly placed in the disadvantaged group. These studies have mostly examined the effect of race and gender on pay rather than promotions and rely on cross-sectional as opposed to longitudinal samples that limit their value as far as the drawing of conclusions about promotions is concerned. In order to remove the gaps in the existing research, the author has presented the results of his own research using data from the PSID…
One of the major points of Maume's research is its contradiction of the findings of an influential sociologist (William Wilson, 1980, 1989) that had suggested a decreasing significance of race in the career rewards for Blacks who entered the U.S. labor market after the passage of the Civil Rights legislation. The findings highlight the deep roots of male chauvinism and racial prejudice against the Blacks that stubbornly persist in the American society despite a number of liberation movements in the last century.
Higher pay is, however, a valid indicator of mobility into managerial positions
PSID (Panel Study of Income Study) is a representative, longitudinal survey that originated in 1968 and collects information on all members of 5000 American families.
Stained Glass Panel 1 Of
As the light changes during the course of a day, the colors change as well; reds and yellows get more brilliant at noon, blues become brilliant as the light fades in the afternoon. All the while, the pictures tell important stories or symbolize truths. Light radiating through glass adds life, beauty, is transcendent, and spiritual connections become apparent. The above rather elaborate description is cited at length in order to provide insight into the way that stained glass windows and ornamentation can evoke a spiritual and 'transcendent' quality that is particularly in keeping with a religious context such as a church. As referred to in the previous section, the use of stained glass is also strongly related to the Christian symbolism of light. As Web ( 2007) states, "A light philosophy ("God is light") was expressed, and it was thought that light reflected on earth is the closest we can…
Canterbury Cathedral, England [article online] ( accessed 8 December, 2009); available from http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/england/canterbury_cathedral.html
Corbin Henry, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Gorman Pete J., The Birth of an Art Form [article online] accessed 8 December, 1995; available from
1980s Commentators Suggested That a
Where women do obtain jobs that are gendered as male, they have to act 'like men' to succeed in them" (p. 508). Conclusion From a metaphorical perspective, the research showed that the term "glass ceiling" is used to describe the institutionalized practices that serve to prevent women as a group from gaining access to the senior management levels in the public and private sector. From a feminist perspective, the research also showed that not only is the glass ceiling very real, it remains firmly in place in many segments of society in the West in general and in Australia in particular. While the reasons cited for these disparities in treatment varied, the overriding theme that emerged from the research was that the glass ceiling was installed by males in patriarchal societies who regard their lofty positions as sacrosanct and inviolable by women and use whatever data may be at hand…
Coyne, Beulah S., Edward J. Coyne and Monica Lee. 2004. Human Resources, Care Giving, Career Progression, and Gender: A Gender Neutral Glass Ceiling. New York: Routledge.
Greig, Alastair, Frank Lewins and Kevin White. 2003. Inequality in Australia. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Masser, Barbara M. And Dominic Abrams. 2004. "Reinforcing the Glass Ceiling: The Consequences of Hostile Sexism for Female Managerial Candidates." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 51: 609.
Mcallister, Ian, Steve Dowrick and Riaz Hassan. 2003. The Cambridge Handbook of the Social Sciences in Australia. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Economic Justice and the Mommy
The question is, how does one decide which path is more beneficial? John Stuart Mill in Utilitarianism in the Philosophy of J.S. Mill, raised similar concerns when he stated: "…any, even unintentional, deviation from truth does that much toward weakening the truth-worthiness of human assertion, which is not only the principal of all present social well-being but the insufficiency of which does more than any one thing that can be named to keep back civilization, virtue, everything on which human happiness on the largest scale depends" (p. 349). Considering that human happiness is a subjective commodity that varies for every individual in its "truth," then whether or not one perceives the mommy track trend to be in line with utilitarian principles ultimately depends on one's personal definition of the greater good. From the utilitarian perspective (i.e. Mill), the wishes of the individual must be forsaken for the long-term "big picture."…
Mill, John Stuart ed. By M. Cohen, Utilitarianism in the Philosophy of J.S. Mill, New York: The Modern Library, 1961. Print.
Morgan-Steiner, Leslie. "Going Places on the Mommy Track" the Washington Post. Web. 29 April 2010.
Palmer, Kimberly. "The New Mommy Track." U.S. News and World Reports (26 August, 2007). Web. 26 April, 2010.
Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. Wadsworth Publishing, 2007. Print.
Women and Men at Work
The glass ceiling that women bump up against in many workplaces and cannot move past exists because of fear, and partly because of misunderstanding. Many men fear or are hostile to competition by women in the workforce, and others simply do not feel women are qualified to manage or oversee a company. Yes, the glass ceiling exists, and statistics prove it. Tannen notes that it is common for women not to receive all the credit they deserve for projects and for their positions in general. Some women never are promoted, while others make it to a certain level of management and no further. For example, Tannen notes, "A woman who headed a major division of her company, and who did work comparable to that of six men who headed the other six divisions, had the title 'director" while the men were vice-presidents" (Tannen 134). There seems little reason for disparities…
Tannen, Deborah. Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work. New York, Harper Paperbacks, 1995.
Judy, Richard W. And Carol D'Aminco. Workforce 2020: Work and Workers in the 21st Century. Indianapolis, in: Hudson Institute, 1997.
Discrimination and Affirmative Action
Discrimination and Affirmative Action DISCIMINATION The current study investigates gender discrimination and the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Women report through survey questions on how they view gender discrimination against women today, their level of commitment to an organization, and their level of agreement on how satisfied they are in their jobs. The purpose of this study is discussing certain issues that pertain particularly to women, because majority of women's find barriers when moving towards the top. According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, the definition of glass ceiling refers to "the artificial barriers present in the workplace to the advancement of women and minorities." egardless of achievements, the glass ceiling is an "unseen" barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the top of the corporate ladder. The glass ceiling still persists in today's society even though the equity gap between men and women in managerial…
Connerley M.L. & P.B. Pedersen (2005), Leadership in a diverse and multicultural environment: developing awareness, knowledge, and skills, Thousand Oaks, Ca: Sage. Pp. 101-115
Edgar F. & Geare A. (2004), "Employee demographics in human resource management research," Research and practice in human research management, 12(1), 61-91.
Faderman, Lillian, 2005, Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present. London: The Women's Press, pp. 167-168
Finnis, John, (2004), "Law, Morality, and 'Sexual Orientation'" Notre Dame Law Review 69: 1049-1076.
gender equality
There has been a lot of progress when it comes to gender diversity. However, a lot of work remains to be done. Indeed, there is a cacophony of issues that keep cropping up including talk about the glass escalator vs. the glass ceiling, the myth that women are on equal status with men to this very day, the historical role of gender and diversity over the course of the history of the United States, the very different definitions of sex and gender and so forth. The recent Supreme Court of the United States decision that ensconced gay marriage as being an equal right that people in the LGBT community should enjoy as a civil right was a milestone moment. While this is an encouraging event and people in the workplace should not allow sexual behavior or gender/sexual identity to become an issue, there is still a lot of ignorance and…
Margaret C Whitman Meg Whitman
" (Meg hitman: Powerful, fearless and annoying) She is also considering standing for the governorship of California in 2010. However, in addition to her astounding range of business and corporate achievements, an interesting aspect that emerges from a study of her life and working methods is that she is not a distant and aloof 'master of the universe'. Rather, her entrepreneurial vision and her ability to understand and respond to people are derived largely from a concern and interest in interaction and communication with others. Her personality and family life also suggests a warm and interesting individual. It is possibly these human qualities and her ability to connect with the needs of the customer that are the qualities that have made her one of the most successful business figures in the world today. orks Cited Business Biographies: Meg hitman. November 10, 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/meg-whitman Clark a. eBay boss quits to give…
Business Biographies: Meg Whitman. November 10, 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/meg-whitman
Clark a. eBay boss quits to give auction site 'fresh pair of eyes' November 10, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/25/ebay.business
Glass Ceiling: definition. Retrieved August 25, 2008, at http://careerplanning.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-glassceiling.htm
Madden, Russell. SHATTERING the GLASS CEILING. 2000. November 10, 2008. http://home.earthlink.net/~rdmadden/webdocs/Shattering_the_Glass_Ceili.html
Gender Wage Gap There Are Many Different
Gender Wage Gap There are many different types of bias within the working environment. At times, one had to be a white-male to be a manger in many organizations. The wage-gender gap, or the discrepancies between equally qualified men and women, has diminished in many career paths, but still exists. The "glass ceiling" clearly remains a powerful force within the workplace. Qualified women are blocked from upper-level managerial positions, but their absence at the very top skews the curve when they are clustered in the middle. It seems that it takes about 30% penetration of women managers to begin to more rapidly move the distribution effect, suggesting that now; women remain concentrated in workplace settings with lower wages -- in almost every industry (Cohen and Huffman, 2007, 699). Ernst and Young, a major accounting firm, realizes that it is in their best interest to find new and innovative ways to…
Accounting for Good People: Talent Management. (July 21, 2007). Galegroup. Retrieved from: http://www.galegroup.com .
Collinson, David and Jeff Hearn. (1994). Men, Women, and Organizations. Gender,
Work and Organization. 1(1): 2-22.
Hymowitz, C. (June 14, 2007). Coaching Men on Mentoring Women is Ernst and Young
BFOQ Define BFOQ and List to Which
BFOQ Define BFOQ and list to which characteristics it applies The bonafide occupational qualification BFOQ is a valid defense against allegations of discrimination where there is a need to hire persons with certain qualifications and traits. Some examples are requirements that engine drivers must not be color blind, could be legal. The general criteria are that without falling to the exceptions selective employment can be given to suit the nature of work. Though the general requirement of the work may help the employer use the BFQQ to avoid certain employees, there is a general system of laws that have to be carefully studied. (Weiss, 2004) Human resources can be a protected class of people and the civil rights laws actually help the hiring of employees without trampling their rights. The equal employment Opportunities Commission EEOC and the U.S. Supreme Court have in a number of decisions laid down rules regarding…
Bernardin, John H. (2007) "Human Resource Management"
Tata McGraw-Hill.
Enotes. (2006) "Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson" Gale Cengage. Retrieved 31 March, 2013
from http://www.enotes.com/meritor-savings-bank-v-vinson-reference/meritor-savings-bank-v-vinson
Employment Law What Was the
Deliberate discrimination may be to blame -- in part. But companies can also make it easier for women to balance the challenges of work and family life in a more effective fashion, given that these responsibilities often fall disproportionately on female shoulders. Providing day care for women, allowing more flexible work schedules for employees, as well as diversity and sensitivity training are all necessary. Encouraging female mentorship programs to undercut the influence of the still strong 'all boys network' of promotion is another critical move to shatter the ceiling. orks Cited Equal Pay and Compensation Discrimination." 1(Oct 2007). The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved 13 Dec 2007. http://www.eeoc.gov/types/epa.html Kennedy, John. (10 Jul 1964). "Remarks upon Signing the Equal Pay Act." The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 13 Dec 2007. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9267
Equal Pay and Compensation Discrimination." 1(Oct 2007).
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved 13 Dec 2007. http://www.eeoc.gov/types/epa.html
Kennedy, John. (10 Jul 1964). "Remarks upon Signing the Equal Pay Act."
The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 13 Dec 2007. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9267
Still a Man's World
Man's orld omen have been able to infiltrate career paths which, until recently had been impossible for them. Females have been able to get more college degrees than ever before which have increased their training and their job opportunities. Despite the significant progress that women have made, it is still very much a man's world as illustrated by Christine illiams in a series of interviews where she studied males have started taking jobs in positions traditionally held by women, including nursing, librarians, social work, and teaching in the elementary school setting. In all occupations, there is a definitive advantage to being male. This is seen in both traditionally male occupations as well as the jobs which used to be female territory but have now become open to both genders. Males almost always make more money and have a great deal more power than females who work in the same occupation.…
Williams, Christine L. "Still a Man's World: Men Who Do 'Women's Work.'" Social Structure,
Institutions, and Everday Life,1995. 304-12.Print.
Gender Bias in the Workplace
Gender Bias in the Workplace Even after great advancements made by mankind in possibly all the fields of life, gender distinction between a man and woman still exists. The portraiture of power and the roles of gender in a prevalent culture reverberate meaningful patrimonial control, with the maneuvering of a female gender an appurtenant element of its objective. Women working in a professional environment have to prove their importance within the acrimonious periphery created by men. Despite the changes, which have been brought in by many laws and movements, women today still do not enjoy a working environment where they would be given a status equal to that of a man. In order to promote equal opportunities for both men and women in a working environment, the United States passed an act called Equal Employment Opportunity Act during the year 1972. This Act aims at eliminating illegal discrimination in a…
EEOC. 35 Years Of Ensuring The Promise Of Opportunity. Available on the address http://www.eeoc.gov/35th/history/index.html . Accessed on 22 Jul. 2003.
U.S Department Of Labor. Title IX, Education Amendments Of 1972. Available on the address
Women and Minorities in Leadership and STEM Annotated
Annotated Bibliography Byars-Winston, A., Estrada, Y., Howard, C., Davis, D., & Zalapa, J. (2010). Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science and engineering: a multiple-groups analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(2), doi:10.1037/a0018608 • This article explores how both social cognitive and ethnic variables can play a part in determining the academic goals of people and groups that are "under-represented" within the academic sphere. The groups centered on this study include Africa-Americans, Latinos, Southeast Asians and Native Americans. There were 223 people in the study and the study itself was centered on what is known as the social cognitive theory, as proposed and discussed by Lent, Brown and Hackett in 1994. There was a significant relationship found between outcome expectations, interests and goals. Self-efficacy and efficacy-mediated relationships were also in play. One area that is touched upon with fervor in this study is…
Women in the Workplace Has
At the same time, occupational segregation still exists in management positions. Part of the problem is that men are able to devote much more time to their career advancement vs. women who have to also consider raising a family and bulk of the responsibilities of that family. At the same time, however there are now many more women who have created role reversal than ever before, becoming the breadwinners within their nuclear family. The glass ceiling primarily exists because there is still exclusivity in the hiring process. Since the job of management hiring is typically sourced to executive search companies, many times such search teams do not include women because of the extra concerns associated with them. As a result, the only method by which many women in management have taken is to remain loyal within their corporate environment until they can climb the corporate ladder. This strategy grants women…
RACE, GENDER AND WORK: A Multicultural
Economic History of Women in the U.S. By Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaci.
Understanding Cultures Influence on Behavior by Richard Breslin
Minorities and Leadership
Stock Leader Does Having a New Black President Make it Easier for Minorities to Advance to Leadership Roles in Business? "Excuse me, sir. I'm looking for the Color Line. ould you know where I can find it?" (Miller) The United States has made great strides in regard to minority relations by electing its first black president. By today's standard, minority entails many different things such as classifying by nationality, race, religious preference, physical disability, gender or sexual preference. Throughout history, there have been many great leaders who came from their respective minority groups. For example, few people are aware of the fact that the Roman Empire had black emperors and even less know that one of them, Septimius Severus, through his legislative changes to military pay scales and community control laws, may not only have been the greatest black emperor, he may actually have been the most influential Roman emperor…
Works Cited, cont.
Rawls, John (1955). "Two Concepts of Rules." The Philosophical Review. Vol. 64, pp. 3-13.
Smith, Virginia Whatley. (1995). "Minorstreaming: Resolving Problems of the Color Line in the 21st." Black Issues In Higher Education 15 June.
Toronto Star. (2009). "Good News On Diversity." Toronto Star (Canada). Section: Editorial, pg. A26, 03190781, November 17, 2009.
U.S. Small Business Administration. (1999). "Minorities In Business." Retrieved on November 20, 2009 from http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/stats/min.pdf .
Class and Gender
Oppression of Class And Gender Class and gender are two separate but related concepts in the sociological analysis and understanding of inequality and oppression in society. A definition of class is "A group of individuals ranked together as possessing common characteristics; as, the different classes of society; the educated class; the lower classes." (Definition of class) According to the sociologist Max Weber class is defined in relation to the way that goods and services are distributed or allocated in a society. All communities are arranged in a manner that goods, tangible and intangible, symbolic and material are distributed. Such a distribution is always unequal and necessarily involves power. "Classes, status groups and parties are phenomena of the distribution of power within a community." (MAX WEER: asic Terms) Class therefore refers to the categories in a society of those who have access to wealth and privilege and those who do not.…
"Advertising Images of Girls and Women." 1997 Children Now. Retrieved May 12, 2005. ( http://www.childrennow.org/media/medianow/mnfall1997.html )
Chaffins, S., Forbes, M., Fuqua, H.E., & Cangemi, J.P. 1995. "The Glass Ceiling: Are Women Where They Should Be." Education, 115(3), 380+. Retrieved May 12, 2005, from Questia database. ( http://www.questia.com )
Cohen, C.I. 2002. " Economic Grand Rounds: Social Inequality and Health: Will Psychiatry Assume Center Stage? Retrieved May 11, 2005. ( http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/53/8/937
"Changing Ideal Body Types over the Century." 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
Males and Females Inequality in the Workplace
Gender equality establishes the concept and attitude of unbiased and impartial allocation of corporate resources and prospects involving men and women. It establishes equality for men and women in terms of opportunity in social circles. But the corporate world is based on certain gender norms and stereotypes of role provisions. Hence these roles have made certain divisive identities (Sharma, & Sharma, 2012). The social norms of women being the housewife and caretaker of the family have infected eastern and western civilization. Corporations have been hiring women for mid-level and lower level positions, but they are blocked from top level positions (Ntermanakis, as cited by Mihail 2006). According to Schein, Mueller, Lituchy and Liu (1996), women are afflicted with the typical think-manager-think male norm. In Nichols (1994) opinion, the popular opinion is that women aren't cut out for the tough decisions and roles of management position; hence they are kept out…
Lyman, L.L., Ashby, D.E., & Tripses, J.S. (2005). Leaders who dare: Pushing the boundaries. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Merchant, K., (2012). How Men and Women Differ: Gender differences in Communication Styles, Influence Tactics and Leadership Styles. Retrieved 29 September 2014 from http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1521&context=cmc_theses
Michailidis, M.P., Morphitou, R.N., & Theophylatou, I.I. (2012). Women at work equality vs. inequality: barriers for advancing in the workplace. International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 23(20), 4231-4245. doi:10.1080/09585192.2012.665071
Ryan, M.K., & Haslam, S.A. (2007). The glass cliff: Exploring the dynamics surrounding the appointment of women to precarious leadership positions. Academy of Management Review, 32(2), 549-572.
Women Sex Discrimination in Career
Yet women with similar or comparable education and experience or achievement still earn less than men in work organizations. A missing link or the absent ingredient, between performance and a just payoff, was identified as women's own ability to comfortably and consistently draw the attention they deserve to the contributions they made or gave. Findings of a study conducted on 322 male and female executives showed that women were less comfortable in promoting themselves than men. Many of them still believed that self-promotion by women was still unacceptable and that hard work alone would not put them in the same level as men. Women were also found to be "over-preparers" who wanted their work to be technically correct but who did not bring this sense of accuracy and care to the attention or notice of influential individuals in the organization. Goodson found that even women who understood the importance of…
1. Auster, Ellen R. professional Women's Mid-career Satisfaction. Sex Roles: a Journal of Research, June 2001
2. Hultin, Mia. Wages and Unequal Access to Organizational Power: an Empirical Test of Gender Discrimination. Administrative Science Quarterly: Connell University Johnson Graduate School
3. Lemons. Mary A. Contextual and Cognitive Determinants of Procedural Justice: Perceptions in Promotion Barriers for Women. Sex Roles: a Journal of Research: Plenum Publishing Corporation
4. Moya, Miguel. Close Relationships, Gender and Career Salience. Sex Roles: a Journal of Reserch: Plenum Publishing Corporation, May 2000
Chinese-American Women and Their Experiences
Figue 1. Demogaphic composition of the United States (2003 estimate). Souce: Based on tabula data in Wold Factbook, 2007 (no sepaate listing is maintained fo Hispanics). Fom a stictly pecentage pespective, it would seem that Asian-Ameicans do not epesent much of a theat at all to mainsteam Ameican society, but these mee numbes do not tell the whole stoy of couse. Fo one thing, Asian-Ameicans ae one of the most divese and fastest gowing goups in the United States today (Hong, Kim & Wolfe, 2005). Accoding to Alvaez and Kimua (2001), studies have documented time and again that, consistent with thei histoical teatment, Asian-Ameicans continue to be the tagets of acially motivated popety vandalism, vebal haassment, theft, physical assaults, and in some instances, homicide; futhemoe, othe studies have confimed that a pesistent patten diving anti-Asian violence is the peception of Asian-Ameicans as foeignes who pesent an economic, academic, social, and/o…
Due to skills and abilities
4. Based on what you know and believe, would you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Racism in America is no longer a problem for Chinese-Americans.
Racism in America is no longer a problem for women and minorities
Male Nurses Is Nursing Women's Work With
Male Nurses Is Nursing Women's Work? With all of this talk about diversity, the global economy, and focus on a nondiscriminatory policy in the mass media, in the new millennium we would like to convince ourselves that we have shed many of the stereotypes that once defined our culture (Chung, 2011). It is true that in many professions we have raised or nearly destroyed the glass ceiling that once existed for women. Everyone knows what the glass ceiling is and knows that it only applies to women, right? This may be true in many professions, but in the field of nursing, one can argue that the glass ceiling exists for men and that male nurses struggle to break free of the stereotypes that limit the types and levels of work that they can do. It comes as no surprise to the casual observer that the nursing profession is dominated by…
American Assembly for Male Nursing (AAMN). (2011).Welcome to AAMN. Retrieved from http://aamn.org / .
Bynum, W., Hardy, A., & Jacyna, S. et al., (1995) The Western Medical Tradition. Vol 2.
Chung, V. (2011). Men in Nursing. Minority Nurse. Retrieved from http://www.minoritynurse.com/men-nursing/men-nursing
Ehrenreich, B. & English, D. (n.d.). Witches, Midwives, and Nurses. Originally published in the Feminist Press, CUNY. Retrieved from http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/witches.html
Domestic Partner and Married Couple Benefits
Partner benefit is a subject matter that is highly taken into consideration by employees when seeking jobs and signing contracts. The subject matter of partner benefits is particularly of great significance to employees when being hired as also at the time of signing contracts. In contemporary times, benefits to partner has become an important aspect not only for success to a company but also for equality. This paper will seek to analyze two companies in the Fortune 500 list which are Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble with regards to the manner in which they provide partner benefits. How do the requirements for coverage for domestic partners, such as length of the relationship compare with requirements for benefits of married couples? These two fortune 500 companies provide benefits to partner and make sure that there is equality and impartiality in the distribution of benefits to their employees and partners. For Wal-Mart…
Bell, M. (2012). Diversity in Organizations. Ohio: South-Western Cengage.
May, L. (2013). Local companies: Offering domestic partner benefits is good business. Frost Brown Todd Attorneys. Retrieved from: http://www.frostbrowntodd.com/newsroom-229.html
Sammer, J., Miller, S. (2013). The Future of Domestic Partner Benefits. Society for Human Resource Management.
Smith, P., Caputi, P., & Crittenden, N. (2012). A maze of metaphors around glass ceilings. Gender in Management: an international journal, 27(7), 436-448.
Health Care Administration
young, one may keep a diary, recording events, thoughts, and feelings. The diary creates a record that can be used to look back on a past time, and provide details that document events that can be used to aid recall. This is especially useful were details may not be remembered, and one will want to create a reminder of the events and/or feelings, and may help us understand more about ourselves. In some cases a diary may also be used to demonstrate where one was on a particular day or time, and can also be used to plan ahead, managing time. ecord keeping in business has a number of similarities. From an accounting perspective the records that are kept will record the financial transactions. They are recorded not only because it would be impossible for all the transactions to be remembered and recalled in full, but to create a formal…
American medical Association, (AMA), (2014), Frequently Asked Questions about HIPAA, accessed at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/solutions-managing-your-practice/coding-billing-insurance/hipaahealth-insurance-portability-accountability-act/frequently-asked-questions.page ?
Barreto, M., Ryan, M.K., & Schmitt, M.T., (2009), The glass ceiling in the 21st century: Understanding barriers to gender equality, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Catalyst (2012). Women in U.S. management, accessed at http://www.catalyst.org/publication/206/women-in-us-management
Drexler, Alejandro; Fischer, Greg; Schoar, Antoinette, (2014), Keeping It Simple: Financial Literacy and Rules of Thumb, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6(2), 1-31
Diversity Cultural and Individual Diversity
eferences Black, J.S., & Porter, L.W. (1991). Managerial Behaviors and Job Performance: A Successful Manager in Los Angeles May Not Succeed in Hong Kong. Journal of International Business Studies, 22(1), 99+. etrieved March 27, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5000126798 Business Case for Diversity. etrieved March 27, 2009, from http://www.chubb.com/diversity/chubb4450.html Clarke, .D. (2005, September). Workplace Bias Abounds: New Study Confirms the American Workplace Has Much Farther to Go to Achieve True Diversity. Black Enterprise, 36, 38. etrieved March 29, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5011221717 Hicks, D.A. (2003). eligion and the Workplace: Pluralism, Spirituality, Leadership. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. etrieved March 29, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=110647891 Madden, ussell SHATTEING THE GLASS CEILING. etrieved March 29, 2009, from http://home.earthlink.net/~rdmadden/webdocs/Shattering_the_Glass_Ceili.html Mor Barak, M.E. (2000). The Inclusive Workplace: An Ecosystems Approach to Diversity Management. Social Work, 45(4), 339. etrieved March 29, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001074518 Stretch, J.J. (2006). Managing Diversity: Toward a…
Black, J.S., & Porter, L.W. (1991). Managerial Behaviors and Job Performance: A Successful Manager in Los Angeles May Not Succeed in Hong Kong. Journal of International Business Studies, 22(1), 99+. Retrieved March 27, 2009, from Questia database:
Gender Wage Gap
gender-based wage disparities still reflect serious issues of concern (Hirsch 2008). Major disparities remain for women. A 2008 article captured a good deal of interest with its simple declaration that "Across-the-board figures from February this year indicate that full-time female employees earned an average $1,004 a week compared to fulltime male average weekly earnings of $1,190" (The Lamp). Others too have sought to use drama as a way of heightening the reality of some of the disparities. Noting that for those who earn upwards of $1,000,000 annually the ratio of men to women is 13:1 is as profound a comment as is the fact that income equality doesn't even begin to appear until one looks at earnings of about $25,000 and $30,000 (Lips, 2003, pp. 87). Baron and Cobb-Clark (2009, pp. 229) express concern that, as they put it, "Forty years after the 1969 Equal Pay Case there continues to…
Baron, JD & Cobb-Clark, WA (2009). 'Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private- and Public-Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis.' The Economic Record, vol. 86, no. 273. pp. 227-246.
Bertrand, M. (2010). 'New perspectives on gender.' Handbook of Labour Economics. Vol. 4b. DOI 10.1016/S0169-7218(11)02415-4. 1545-1592.
Cobb-Clark, D. And Tan, M. (2010). 'Noncognitive skills, Occupational attainment, and relative wages.' HILDA. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
Coelli, M. (2011). Occupation differences and the gender wage gap in Australia: a detailed re-assessment. HILDA. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
Gender Differences in Business
Gender Attitudes in Business Students An Analysis of Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes Relative to Gender and Professions Significance and Conclusion There is a body of evidence that suggests many disparities in the representation of gender in certain segments of the academic and business professions. For example, previous research has indicated that women, on average, are less likely to attend business school than males and are also less likely to hold high-ranking positions in organizations. Although there are many factors that are involved in such trends, and many societies have made significant progress towards minimizing the gender gaps, there is still much to be understood about the challenges that women face into entering into certain professions. This research will consider whether there is differences inherent in the genders that could help explain the outcomes that have been observed in various professions. The proposal outlines a research plan that will investigate differences…
Brandt, T., & Laiho, M. (2013). Gender and personality in transformational leadership context: An examination of leader and subordinate perspectives. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 44-66.
Copen, C. (2008). TRANSMISSION AND TRANSITIONS: YOUNG ADULTS' BELIEFS, VALUES AND LIFE COURSE TRANSITIONS IN FAMILIAL CONTEXT. University of Southern California, 1-47.
Kennedy, J., & Kray, L. (2014). Who Is Willing to Sacrifice Ethical Values for Money and Social Status?: Gender Differences in Reactions to Ethical Comprimises. Social Psychology and Personality Science, 52-59.
Mumford, M., Helton, W., Decker, B., Connelly, M., & Van Doorn, J. (2003). Values and Beliefs Related to Ethical Decisions. Teaching Business Ethics, 139-170.
Gender Challenges the All American
Jamieson explains that the phrase Catch-22, serves as another synonym for double bind. Paula Caplan, a psychologist, notes, "Mothers are caught in a perfect Catch-22. They are supposed to be concerned with emotions and closeness in relationships, but because autonomy has been designated by the white male middle class in North America as the pinnacle of emotional health," Mothers in the workplace, however, who do what comes natural to them are sometimes treated as they are immature or even sick. The gender of the leader does matter to perceivers who filter judgments to the demands of cultural expectations. "Applause from the same sensitive and collaborative leadership is more likely to go to a man than a woman." In addition, women, particularly leaders frequently experience greater scrutiny for errors, even small ones they make, and are more likely to be criticized than men in leadership positions. Viewpoints Regarding Genders Rather than…
Booker, Stacie Kress. 1 May 2006. Perking up: progressive businesses try to offer a range of benefits and policies that help retain employees and make them more productive. Florida Trend. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-145982865.html .
Case Studies. 2008. Colorado State University. 21 Feb. 2008. http://writing.colostate.edu/index.cfm .
Charting the U.S. Labor Market in 2006. 28 Sept. 2007. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey. Bureau of Labor Statistics United States Department of Labor. Section 6: Families. 23 Feb. 2009. http://www.bls.gov/ LaborForceStatistics fromthe CurrentPopulation Survey>.
Chin, Jean Lau, Bernice E. Lott, Joy K. Rice, and Janis Sanchez-Hucles. 2007. Women and Leadership: Transforming Visions and Diverse Voices Blackwell Publishing. 21 Feb. 2009. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZyhRWzTm_RwC .
New York State and City
New York: State and City Suffice to say, the French adage "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" remains true today as it was during the time of Jacob Riis in the late 1800s. This is particularly relevant when looking the conditions of women in the workplace that could only be described as dire and dismal. Although between that period and at present, there have been major changes and improvements in women's working lives, there are still similarities though. Hence, the more things change the more they remain the same and Riis' writing is testimony to this since he was able to present how society was then and how society is now especially in the treatment of women in the workplace. Reading through the whole chapter, one can feel unnerved and question how come in a society and nation that values freedom, equality and merit allowed for such miserable…
Bibliography:
Riis, Jacob. 'Chapter XX: The Working Girls of New York.' How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. 1890. 15 Jun. 2011. .
Minority Woman as School Principals What Works and Why Leadership Challenges Faced by Minority Principals
Minority Woman as School Principals and Leadership Challenges Faced by Minority Principals When compared with corporate America, both the public and private American school systems may have more blatant glass ceiling settings because there are very obvious resistance movements towards gender and minority integration into administrative roles such as principals especially for positions in better schools or systems. The numbers do not lie -- consider the fact that women have traditionally comprised the majority of both the public and private school teaching forces yet, the majority of school administrators for these systems continue to be white males. This report therefore aims to discuss the roles of minority women as school principals, the inherent leadership and administrative challenges they may face as minority principals and what may or may not work for them and why. Although this report happened to use some examples from the California school system to demonstrate some…
Feistritzer, C.E. (1988). Profile of teachers in the U.S.-1990. Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Information.
Shakeshaft, C. (1989). Women in educational administration (updated edition). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Sutherland, Billie. (1995). "Recovering illiterates ... 'reconnecting with life' (functional illiteracy)" San Diego Business Journal.
Unknown. (1999). "As California overhauls schools, America watches for lessons" The Christian Science Monitor.
Managing Diversity
Managing Diversity Diversity is a fact of American and International business and is a broader, more complex issue than one might initially believe. A universally vital element of global commerce, Diversity has spawned an abundance of theorists, journals and specialists, some of whom are encountered in this composition. Addressing the remarkable breadth and complexity of Diversity, this essay reviews: the nature of Diversity; legally protected classes within the United States; aspects of Diversity that fall outside the scope of U.S. legal protections; the benefits of Diversity for employers; the differences/challenges presented by Diversity for employers; general business adjustments/accommodations for Diversity; and suggested specific business adjustments/accommodations for Diversity. Though this work cannot exhaustively address all aspects of Diversity, it is meant to give a good overview of modern businesses' Diversity issues and possible solutions. Analysis Nature of Diversity: "Diversity" involves legally protected classes of people but also involves other classes of…
Akbari, H. (2008). Education business professionals for year 2010 and beyond: Six critical management themes and skills to emphasize. International Business & Economics Research Journal, 7(7), 57-62.
Comperatore, E., & Nerone, F. (2008). Coping with different generations in the workplace. Journal of Business & Economic Research, 6(6), 15-30.
Domina, C.S. (2011). Our strength is in our Diversity: Fact or fancy? Journal of Diversity Management, 6(1), 1-9.
Figiel, V.L., & Kummel Sasser, M.A. (2010). Factors contributing to employee decisions to ignore Diversity policies. Journal of Diversity Management, 5(4), 11-17.
Pay Inequality a Moral and Ethical Issue in Business
Pay Inequality Pay equality has for the longest time been one of the most hotly debated topics in the corporate world. When the Equal Pay bill became law in 1963, women were averagely earning just 58.9% of what men were averagely being paid, according to the congressional committee that tabled the bill. In 2011, this percentage had increased to about 77% of what men were averagely being paid for full-time work. These statistics show that there is a somewhat entrenched mentality of paying women lower wages for a job that men would be paid higher for, despite the fact that many firms are claiming to have put in place measures to bring about gender equality in their workplaces (Dontigney, n.d.). This paper examines the issue underlying the equal pay between men and women. Moral Arguments Some human resource managers have argued that the difference in pay between women and men…
Andrews, K. (2015, July 14). Why the gender pay gap is a myth. Retrieved from The Spectator: http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/07/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-myth/
Babcock, L., & Laschever, S. (2003). Women don't ask Negotiation and the gender divide. Princeton: Princeton University.
Blau, F., & Kahn, L. (2007). The Gender Pay Gap. Academy of Management Perspectives, 7-23.
Bluestone, B., Murphy, W. M., Stevenson, M (1973). Low wages and the working poor. Policy papers in Human Resources and Industrial Relations 22. Ann Arbor: Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations.
Women in the Workforce Training Plan Breaking
Women in the Workforce Training Plan: Breaking the Glass Ceiling at Intuit Intuit revolutionized the accounting industry with innovative applications that assist with financial analysis and tax preparation. Since 1983 Intuit has been a proud leader providing our most famous products: Quicken and TurboTax to a wide variety of customers from individuals to small businesses and corporations. We have prided ourselves on providing an excellent workplace that sparks creativity and builds long-term relationships. Our atmosphere is one of continual learning and growth. However, this focus on growth always means that there is room for improvement. The following examines a new training plan to help take advantage of one area that could be improved. Intuit attracts young movers and shakers. However, women have recently complained that their needs are being ignored. The following will examine a plan to include women in the Intuit mix in a way that allows them truly…
Intuit Inc., (2008, August 13). Intuit Unveils Small Business Connected Strategy. Intuit.
Retrieved from http://about.Intuit.com/about_Intuit/press_room/press_release/2008/0813.jsp li, M., Metz, I., & Kulik, C. (2007, December 4-7) Workforce gender diversity: Is it a source of competitive advantage? Paper presented at the 21st ANZAM conference, Sydney,
Australia Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/40898/1/40898.pdf
Griffiths, M. & Moore, K. (2010). 'Disappearing Women': A Study of Women Who Left the UK
Marketing Dangerously Christopher Meyer Argues
CEOs, however, would most likely argue that they are invaluable to their companies, and are adequately compensated for the work they do. hile the authors of this article conclude that they are not attempting to persuade readers to one position or the other, they do suggest that they are attempting to allow readers to understand the double-sided argument of CEO pay. In accomplishing this goal, they have done well. Both employees who are frustrated at the lifestyle that their CEOs are able to live while they struggle to get by and CEOs who are making hundreds of dollars an hour would be able to understand the rational for each side in this argument. By presenting the argument in this non-biased formula, the authors invite discussion on the topic, a discussion that most likely would not have happened if this type of presentation has been achieved. In allowing for an open…
Athiyaman, Adee, and Parkan, Celik. (June 2008). A Functionalist Framework for Identifying Business Clusters: Applications in Far North Queensland. Australian Journal of Management, 201-218.
Brookfield, Jonathan. (2008). Firm Clustering and Specialization. Small Business Economics. 30(4), p. 405-422.
Edmans, Alex and Gabaix, Xavier, Is CEO Pay Really Inefficient? A Survey of New Optimal Contracting Theories (September 8, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1280390Jones,Del . (2008).
Female CEOs make more gains in 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2008, from USA Today. Web Site: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2008-01-02-women-ceos_N.htm
Sally is a proficient and experienced Human Resource Management (HRM) leader at ABC Bank. In the contemporary, Sally feels overwhelmed owing to the recent acquisition of the Local Bank by ABC Bank. There are various key aspects that present a HRM challenge for Sally. To begin with, the workforce at the new branch comprises of 40% of older workers that possess knowledge and wisdom. However, there is a need to instigate new technologies to provide additional consumer convenience and therefore a decision as to be made whether the current set of workers should be laid off and new personnel hired. Two other problems encompass a pending lawsuit on sexual harassment and discrimination as well as lack of diversity and ethics training programs. There is also ambiguity regarding the core values of the bank. Most of all Sally is worried regarding the building of a strategic plan for the branch. The…
Leading Organizational Change in America's
When the perceived role and the expected role are incongruent, conflict can occur both between the leader and his followers, and within himself. This can result in a slowdown in production, a lowering of morale and resistance to changes that the leader may be trying to implement (obbins & Judge, 2007). According to Shafritz & Ott (2005) an organization is essentially a tool that people use to coordinate their actions as a means of achieving their goals. Often, the attainment of these goals requires some form of negotiation. Negotiating conflict is the area of leadership communication that can be the most problematic because if matters are not handled correctly, the conflicts can escalate until they are no longer under control. Leaders who are not attentive to their employees' needs and desires are not very likely to have a happy and productive workforce (Shafritz & Ott, 2005). Thus communication is ultimately…
Bass, B.M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press.
Bass, B.M., and Avolio, B.J. (1994). Shatter the glass ceiling: Women may make better managers. Human Resource Management, 33, 549-560.
Billsberry, J., (2009). Discovering leadership, Basingstoke, Palgrave OU Press.
Bisel, R.S., Ford, D.J., & Keyton, J. (2007). Unobtrusive control in a leadership organization: Integrating control and resistance. Western Journal of Communication, 71, 136 -- 158.
Global Awareness and Cultural and Racial Diversity
Diversity Global Awareness and Cultural and Racial Diversity The need to successfully promote global awareness and cultural and racial diversity took on a completely new meaning recently. "There are over six billion people on this planet we call Earth. Diversity is more than just a notion. The term diversity has been defined by Merriam-ebster online as meaning 'differing from one another or unlike. Composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities', this word is also used to simply mean different." (Burns) By Barak Obama becoming the nation's first black president, we have forever changed the nation's future; but in a sense, this momentous election will also alter how we will forever look at our nations past history. For more than two hundred years, the United States of America was traditionally managed by older white guys and by them being in charge, the world's thinking was shaped. The expectations of every…
Works Cited, continued
Schniedewind, Nancy. "There Ain't No White People Here!": The Transforming Impact of Teachers' Racial Consciousness on Students and Schools. Equity & Excellence in Education. 2005, 38: 280 -- 289.
Gender and Public Policy or
Their labor market position then becomes a matter of individual 'choice'....In Sweden, the definition of women's entitlements to welfare in family policies has changed dramatically since the early 1970s, away from the provision of benefits to them as mothers and toward benefits that they draw by virtue of their labor market status. Yet, paradoxically, the outcome of this shift has been the strengthening of policies that recognize women's needs as mothers. The framework of equal treatment on the basis of labor market participation supported by a full employment policy seems to have made possible the greater recognition of women's caring work in the family" (Lewis & Astrm 59). In other words, Sweden is very permissive in granting paternal leave and day care to both parents, which benefits women, but men can also benefit from these policies, even though the greatest beneficiary of the policy may be women, as women have…
Baxter, Janeen & Erik Olin Wright. "The Glass Ceiling Hypothesis: A Comparative Study of the United States, Sweden, and Australia. Gender and Society. 14.2. (Apr., 2000):275-294.
Gustafsson, Gunnel. "Sustainable Pressure for 'Women-Friendliness' in Sweden." Political
Psychology. 19.1. (Mar., 1998): 43-61
Lewis, Jane & Gertrude Astrm. "Equality, Difference, and State Welfare: Labor Market and Family Policies in Sweden." 18.1. (Spring, 1992): 59-87.
Direct and Indirect Costs Associated
" (Thomas, Hutcheson, Porterfield, and Pierannunzi, 1994) Summary and Conclusion It is clear that employee turnover is very costly to organizations and as noted in the introduction of this study employee turnover rates are as high as 23.4% in some industries, which demonstrates a very large financial cost to these organizations. As demonstrated by this report the costs associated with employee turnover are costs both of the direct and indirect nature. Costs for employee turnover on the average (average employee's salary, mid-size organization) are generally 150% of the employee's annual salary. Clearly, the organization with the least employee turnover is the organization that will realize the most profit and the most productivity. There are methods of avoiding employee turnover which have only been briefly touched upon within the scope of this present research but are methods that hold promise for the organization in the reduction of employee turnover and the…
Berger, L.A. And Berger, D.R. (2004) the talent management handbook: Creating Organizational excellence by Identifying, developing, and promoting your best people. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bliss, William G. (2007) Cost of Employee Turnover - the Advisor. Online available at http://www.isquare.com/turnover.cfm.
Thomas, R.; Hutcheson, J.; Porterfield, J.; and Pierannunzi, C. (1994) the Impact of Recruitment, Selection, Promotion and Compensation Policies and Practices on the Glass Ceiling. Key Workplace Documents - Federal Publication. 1994 Cornell University.
Latest BLS Employee Turnover Rates for Year Ending August 2006 (2006) Retention Management and Metrics. Nobscot Corporation. Online available at http://www.nobscot.com/survey/index.cfm .
Societal Changes in Work Structure
Notwithstanding these positive trends, the glass ceiling is not broken (although it has been cracked a bit) and even telecommuting is used in different ways with male and female employees. For example, Arnow-ichman points out that, "While telecommuting was once heralded as an ideal solution for integrating work and family, studies suggest that employers have implemented the practice in two different ways with disparate effects on male and female employees" (2003, p. 346). These two different approaches used with telecommuting are as follows: 1. In one form, employers offer telecommuting as an option for high-level autonomous professionals (a class dominated by men); 2. In another form, employers impose telecommuting on lower-wage clerical workers (a class dominated by women), who are often independent contractors unentitled to other employment benefits. The net impact of these two different approaches to this change in the workplace structure has been felt by men and women…
Arnow-Richman, R. (2003). Accommodation subverted: the future of work/family initiatives in a 'Me, Inc.' world. Texas Journal of Women and the Law, 12(2), 345-347.
Davey, J.D. (1999). The new social contract: America's journey from welfare state to police state. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Ginther, D.K. & Pollak, R.A. (2004). Family structure and children's educational outcomes:
Blended families, stylized facts, and descriptive regressions. Demography, 41(4), 671-
Barriers Female Educators Experience With Regard to Promotion Positions in Management and Leadership
arriers Female Educators Experience With Regard to Promotion Positions in Management and Leadership Gender-ased Employment iases in Educational Fields: An Examination of the arriers Experienced by Female Educators with Regard to Promotion and Management Positions in Education While the plight for gender-equitable workplace has long been thought to have a potential solve within the halls of academia, the disparate employment equation between men and women has long been under-observed. The feminist's battle cry for equality rallied the forces around professional gender streamlining, and in the face of affirmative action for races, the professional inequality across genders gained widespread attention in the second half of the last century. Much of the increased discourse was cemented by the Title IX legislation, passed in 1972 and cementing the importance of gender balance in academic fields. Title IX most notably prohibited sexual discrimination in education for students, but its legal boundaries included educators and…
American Educational Research Association. 2005 Annual Meeting: Demography and Democracy in the Era of Accountability. Washington, D.C.: AERA, 2005.
American Educational Research Association. Complementary Methods for Research Education. Second Ed. Washington, D.C.: AERA, 2005.
American Educational Research Association. From Research Findings to Policy Advice: A Guide for AERA Members. Second Ed. Washington, D.C.: AERA, 2001.
Bailey and Campbell, S.M. And P.B. "Gender Equity: The Unexamined Basic of School Reform." Stanford Law and Policy Review. Volume 5. (Winter, 1992.) p. 73-86.
Power Relationships Between Men and
Women in Control What some see as a male-dominated world, others see females in control, sometimes behind the scenes. When it comes to selecting mates, it is women who are in ultimate control. And, they are quite selective. Of the many characteristics women look for in a man, good financial prospects, social status, ambition, size/strength, and dependability are only a few ("Women's Long-Term" 109). Although if a man has many of these characteristics he may be able to more likely attract a female of his liking, in the end, men are at the mercy of women, when it comes to relationships, love and procreation. This is a significant amount of control that women solely possess. Dreher's study regarding the glass ceiling and how women have been positively impacted by the increase in the number of work-life human resource practices in the last two decades. When compared with figures from the…
Arslanian-Engoren, C. "Feminist Poststructuralism: A Methodological Paradigm for Examining Clinical Decision-Making." Journal of Advanced Nursing 37(6) Mar 2002: p. 512-517. Mar 2002: p. 512-517. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ. July 17, 2006 http://web111.epnet.com/.
Dreher, G. "Breaking the Glass Ceiling." Human Relations. 56(5) May 2004: p. 541-562.
Kalabamu, F. "Changing Gender Contracts in Self-Help Housing Construction in Botswana." Habitat International Jun 2005: p. 245-268.
Keynan, H. "Somalia: The Great Escape." UNESCO Courier 48(9) Sept 1995: p. 26-27. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ. July 17, 2006 http://web111.epnet.com/.
Women in Engineering Gender Has
Dr. Hayden believes the reason for this change at the school level is due to greater recruitment efforts, financial and academic support, and more women role models to provide encouragement. Dr. Hayden sees a similar situation happening in the engineering field. Dr. Lin, a male electrical engineer, on the other hand, somewhat ironically, seems to feel that women face a tougher challenge in engineering than Dr. Hayden stated. According to Dr. Lin, women can succeed as an electrical engineer if "they are determined." This is clearly a male-oriented view of how to succeed. According to typical male beliefs, success is an individual achievement. If you work hard you will succeed. If you do not succeed, it is because you did not work hard enough. However, Dr. Hayden emphasized in her response to the same question the role of peer mentors, academic support and other outside resources. This is typically a…
Baker, Wayne. Achieving Success Through Social Capital. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Dr. Hayden. Personal Interview. California Poly Pomona. 2006.
Dr. Lin. Personal Interview. California Poly Pomona. 2006.
Fuller, Georgina. "Recent Graduates Expect More from their Employers" Personnel
Gender Media Culture What Is
These shows depict diverse expressions of sexuality and relationships within the gay and lesbian communities, but they also tend to overgeneralize. Bisexuality is hardly treated at all, because it does not fit into neatly defined categories like "gay" and "straight." Occasionally this theme is discussed in films and television, as with one episode of Six Feet Under. Stereotypes can constrain real-life behavior as film and television offer visual cues for modeling. This is why it is important to feature more diverse characters and diversity of experiences. Not all black men are highly sexed, aggressive, and dominant in their sexuality, and not all black men abandon women as is sometimes suggested by the media. Likewise, not all Asian men are nerdy and asexual and not all Asian women are detached vixens. When stereotypes do capture a general truth, they can be funny, which is why they are commonly used in the…
Taboo of Women in Management
components of the situation. The few most important components of the case consist of: Burns & McAllister's reputation as an equal opportunity employer B&M's expanding business in other nations where culture doesn't support women in management Company's compliance with cultural values and norms of other countries instead of applying equal opportunity employment policy universally NOW's opposition that companies should not accept cultural norms of other nations but instead but allow women to prosper the same way everywhere NOW believes this is the only way change can be introduced everywhere f. Define exactly the problems and/or issues that are involved. (esearch) We understand that BM is not talking about western countries when it says that some of the countries where it does business do not allow women at senior positions. We know they are talking about Asian countries especially countries like Japan and China which are still far behind western countries…
Korabik, K. (1993). Managerial Women in the People's Republic of China. International Studies of Management & Organization. Volume: 23. Issue: 4. P. 47+.
Summerfield, G. ( 1994). Effects of the Changing Employment Situation on Urban Chinese Women. Review of Social Economy. Volume: 52. Issue: 1. P. 40+.
Crosby, F. Stockdale, M. (2007) Sex discrimination in the workplace: multidisciplinary perspectives. Wiley-Blackwell.

Research Paper
Sports - Women
Interestingly, recent research indicates that some women may be creating their own class ceilings. For example, "female managers are more than three times as likely as their male counterparts…
She looked at the job and her growth has been due to her successes in dealing with the job. These skills according to her are more important than her…
"If you're not taking risks and dealing with fallout, perhaps you're demonstrating that you won't like the intensity [at the senior management level]." Other qualities also may also hinder…
The researchers found the case of job stability and lateral mobility in case of the Asian-Americans are quite pertinent in the sphere of glass ceiling. Irrespective of the fact…
Family and Marriage
Glass Ceiling -- Does it Still Exist? In 1964 the federal government of the United States passed a Civil ights Act that forbade discrimination -- that is using double…
Sports - College
Psychological Tests There are a few changes that are likely to occur in the workforce, given a 60% participation rate for women. First, that number is likely to climb.…
Those conditions are understood. Both academia and the market are in agreement that the CMO does matter in a number of different situations. Therefore, the question of whether or…
Miller & Lemons (1998) had identified other problems, one of which was, in fact, exclusion from the old boy networks. They noted the fact that women also often are…
questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=104546663 Duncan K. (1996) Gender differences in the effect of education on the slope of experience-earnings profiles: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979-1988. www.highbeam.com/Search.aspx?q=glass+ceiling+%20publication:%5b%22The%20American%20Journal%20of%20Economics%20and%20Sociology%22%5dThe American Journal of Economics and…
Psychology - Developmental Glass Ceiling The term glass ceiling is most frequently applied in business circumstances in which women feel, either correctly or not, that men are deeply established…
Discrimination and Affirmative Action (Glass Ceiling) The paper will look at how women have for years been faced with artificial barriers as they try to advance into senior management…
Women Happy Under the Glass Ceiling? Source (publication name or UL): http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/07/glass-ceiling-opportunities -- cx_hc_0308glass.html Hannah Clark Publication Date: 2006. Subject / Main Ideas / Concepts of article: The main…
Research Proposal
Stewart uses the conclusions the consulting and training firm aha! that led such audits, starting with the impressive figure of $6.7million, the cost of sexual harassment suits for a…
Spending on healthcare in general, but at the governmental and personal level, should be of concern. First, the overall number of dollars being spent is rather high. Second, the…
Ursula Burns, Chief Executive Officer at Xerox Although many authorities agree that the glass ceiling is still in place, it is clear that it has at least been shattered…
Gender / Sexuality
2016 was the first time this country has had a female presidential candidate because society is very much still ordered by what men do. For instance, the Access Hollywood…
Glass Ceilings & Glass Escalators Glass Ceilings and Glass Escalators The article by David J. Maume Jr. examines the effect of race and gender composition on promotions to managerial…
Mythology - Religion
As the light changes during the course of a day, the colors change as well; reds and yellows get more brilliant at noon, blues become brilliant as the light…
Where women do obtain jobs that are gendered as male, they have to act 'like men' to succeed in them" (p. 508). Conclusion From a metaphorical perspective, the research…
Business - Ethics
The question is, how does one decide which path is more beneficial? John Stuart Mill in Utilitarianism in the Philosophy of J.S. Mill, raised similar concerns when he stated:…
The glass ceiling that women bump up against in many workplaces and cannot move past exists because of fear, and partly because of misunderstanding. Many men fear or are…
Discrimination and Affirmative Action DISCIMINATION The current study investigates gender discrimination and the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Women report through survey questions on how they view…
There has been a lot of progress when it comes to gender diversity. However, a lot of work remains to be done. Indeed, there is a cacophony of issues…
" (Meg hitman: Powerful, fearless and annoying) She is also considering standing for the governorship of California in 2010. However, in addition to her astounding range of business and…
Gender Wage Gap There are many different types of bias within the working environment. At times, one had to be a white-male to be a manger in many organizations.…
BFOQ Define BFOQ and list to which characteristics it applies The bonafide occupational qualification BFOQ is a valid defense against allegations of discrimination where there is a need to…
Deliberate discrimination may be to blame -- in part. But companies can also make it easier for women to balance the challenges of work and family life in a…
Man's orld omen have been able to infiltrate career paths which, until recently had been impossible for them. Females have been able to get more college degrees than ever…
Gender Bias in the Workplace Even after great advancements made by mankind in possibly all the fields of life, gender distinction between a man and woman still exists. The…
Annotated Bibliography Byars-Winston, A., Estrada, Y., Howard, C., Davis, D., & Zalapa, J. (2010). Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science…
At the same time, occupational segregation still exists in management positions. Part of the problem is that men are able to devote much more time to their career advancement…
Stock Leader Does Having a New Black President Make it Easier for Minorities to Advance to Leadership Roles in Business? "Excuse me, sir. I'm looking for the Color Line.…
Oppression of Class And Gender Class and gender are two separate but related concepts in the sociological analysis and understanding of inequality and oppression in society. A definition of…
Gender equality establishes the concept and attitude of unbiased and impartial allocation of corporate resources and prospects involving men and women. It establishes equality for men and women in…
Yet women with similar or comparable education and experience or achievement still earn less than men in work organizations. A missing link or the absent ingredient, between performance and…
Figue 1. Demogaphic composition of the United States (2003 estimate). Souce: Based on tabula data in Wold Factbook, 2007 (no sepaate listing is maintained fo Hispanics). Fom a stictly…
Health - Nursing
Male Nurses Is Nursing Women's Work? With all of this talk about diversity, the global economy, and focus on a nondiscriminatory policy in the mass media, in the new…
Partner benefit is a subject matter that is highly taken into consideration by employees when seeking jobs and signing contracts. The subject matter of partner benefits is particularly of…
young, one may keep a diary, recording events, thoughts, and feelings. The diary creates a record that can be used to look back on a past time, and provide…
eferences Black, J.S., & Porter, L.W. (1991). Managerial Behaviors and Job Performance: A Successful Manager in Los Angeles May Not Succeed in Hong Kong. Journal of International Business Studies,…
gender-based wage disparities still reflect serious issues of concern (Hirsch 2008). Major disparities remain for women. A 2008 article captured a good deal of interest with its simple declaration…
Transportation
Gender Attitudes in Business Students An Analysis of Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes Relative to Gender and Professions Significance and Conclusion There is a body of evidence that suggests many…
Jamieson explains that the phrase Catch-22, serves as another synonym for double bind. Paula Caplan, a psychologist, notes, "Mothers are caught in a perfect Catch-22. They are supposed to…
New York: State and City Suffice to say, the French adage "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" remains true today as it was during the time of…
Minority Woman as School Principals and Leadership Challenges Faced by Minority Principals When compared with corporate America, both the public and private American school systems may have more blatant…
Managing Diversity Diversity is a fact of American and International business and is a broader, more complex issue than one might initially believe. A universally vital element of global…
Law - Constitutional Law
Pay Inequality Pay equality has for the longest time been one of the most hotly debated topics in the corporate world. When the Equal Pay bill became law in…
Women in the Workforce Training Plan: Breaking the Glass Ceiling at Intuit Intuit revolutionized the accounting industry with innovative applications that assist with financial analysis and tax preparation. Since…
CEOs, however, would most likely argue that they are invaluable to their companies, and are adequately compensated for the work they do. hile the authors of this article conclude…
Human Resources
Sally is a proficient and experienced Human Resource Management (HRM) leader at ABC Bank. In the contemporary, Sally feels overwhelmed owing to the recent acquisition of the Local Bank…
When the perceived role and the expected role are incongruent, conflict can occur both between the leader and his followers, and within himself. This can result in a slowdown…
Diversity Global Awareness and Cultural and Racial Diversity The need to successfully promote global awareness and cultural and racial diversity took on a completely new meaning recently. "There are…
Their labor market position then becomes a matter of individual 'choice'....In Sweden, the definition of women's entitlements to welfare in family policies has changed dramatically since the early 1970s,…
" (Thomas, Hutcheson, Porterfield, and Pierannunzi, 1994) Summary and Conclusion It is clear that employee turnover is very costly to organizations and as noted in the introduction of this…
Notwithstanding these positive trends, the glass ceiling is not broken (although it has been cracked a bit) and even telecommuting is used in different ways with male and female…
arriers Female Educators Experience With Regard to Promotion Positions in Management and Leadership Gender-ased Employment iases in Educational Fields: An Examination of the arriers Experienced by Female Educators with…
Women in Control What some see as a male-dominated world, others see females in control, sometimes behind the scenes. When it comes to selecting mates, it is women who…
Dr. Hayden believes the reason for this change at the school level is due to greater recruitment efforts, financial and academic support, and more women role models to provide…
These shows depict diverse expressions of sexuality and relationships within the gay and lesbian communities, but they also tend to overgeneralize. Bisexuality is hardly treated at all, because it…
components of the situation. The few most important components of the case consist of: Burns & McAllister's reputation as an equal opportunity employer B&M's expanding business in other nations…
Glass Ceiling Essay

Glass Ceiling
Workplace 1-Is there still a glass ceiling for women in the workplace? Is there one for men? What progress has or can be made to break through it for all employees? What about glass walls? The glass cliff? Are these real roadblocks for men and women in certain careers or is there more to them than gender? A glass ceiling is defined as a barrier that prevents a particular gender from rising reaching a particular hierarchical level in a workplace. Today the glass ceiling is still very intact especially
Essay on Glass Ceiling
The Concept of the Glass Ceiling Women from birth are looked at as inferior to men. As a society we label babies by the color of their blanket when they are born. Boys are given blue as girls are given pink blankets. This from the start separates the two genders. As boys grow they are given action figures and are taught to play rough games, and girls are given dolls and taught to play nice. These differences continue to cause a gap between the two genders. As the American society has progressed
Glass Ceiling Effect
INTRODUCTION: GLASS CEILING EFFECT In Economics, 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. An unofficial barrier to opportunities within an organization or company which is perceived to prevent protected classes of workers, particularly women from advancing to higher positions. According to the Federal Class Ceiling Commission
Glass Ceiling In The Workplace
The glass ceiling is the metaphorical representation of the difficulties minorities, and women face when attempting to move to higher levels of the organization hierarchy (Berry & Franks, 2010; Johns, 2013). Though commonly used to refer to the invisible and implied limits put on women, the other minorities whose upward mobility is restricted by the glass ceiling are discriminated on the basis of race, age, or sexual orientation (Johns, 2013). The glass ceiling also includes the life issues that
Glass Ceiling Thesis
Abstract The glass ceiling is an expression used to describe the unseen barrier preventing women and other minorities from reaching the top executive levels. This problem solution research paper represents the allegations argued by the critics of the glass ceiling accentuating on the reasons why women are not able to reach top positions, such as lack of time and family responsibilities. However, it also represents ways to shatter the glass ceiling such as offering formal educations for women, helping
Glass Ceiling Paper
promotional opportunities exist. Selection is made on bias, depending on the selector’s “gut feeling” about who he/she considers best. However, majority of employers do have a “glass ceiling” of which women and minorities have a very limited chance to cross or advance. This paper will analyze a case study on: “Glass Ceeiling” and answer some follow up questions such as: the advancement barriers Lisa encountered, What the firm’s leadership (including Michael Breyer) should have done differently
The And Glass Ceiling Is Real
2017 And Glass Ceiling Is Real In the United States of America, men seem to want full control. Corporations, organizations, schools even religions have been created by men and for men and they have great opposition to women infiltrating their management positions. Men have created glass ceilings for women in the workplace. A glass ceiling is an artificial barrier that allows women to see the top of the corporate ladder, but at the same time denies them access to the higher rungs of that ladder. Women
Break The Glass Ceiling
The glass ceiling was first introduced in the 1980’s and is a transparent barrier that women are blocked into which prevents them from moving up not just at their job but, prevents them from moving up simply because the gender is female. Since the early 1700’s women have been fighting to become equal to their male counterpart and still today the battle to break the glass ceiling continues. There are many discrimination women face in the workplace which Is not limited to their wages in comparison
Literature Review On Glass Ceiling
called glass ceiling. In my study the “Glass Ceiling” is my independent variable and I am trying to see its affect on the two dependent variables of my study which are “Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment”. There comes a mediating variable between glass ceiling and job satisfaction which is “Job performance”. Because when employees’ job performance gets affected by the practices of glass ceiling in the organization badly then ultimately their satisfaction level decreases. Glass ceiling also
Rhetorical Analysis Of The Glass Ceiling
Frank, Carter Almond Enc1102 October 17th, 2017 Rhetorical Analysis: The Glass Ceiling Hurts Business Too In Sarah Bianchi-Sand’s article, she details the “glass ceiling,” or an unofficial boundary that prevents women and minorities alike from reaching their highest potential. Her work is meant to persuade readers that the glass ceiling isn't a myth, but a real and serious problem. Being the Chair and Executive Director of the National Committee on Pay Equity, Sarah has plenty of reason
Effects Of Glass Ceiling On The Workplace
impartial. However, there still exist several impediments for few individuals. The glass ceiling is a subtle framework that most organizations and employers have utilized in legally discriminating particular groups of people. Although this action is not apparently several women and also minorities have encountered challenges in advancing to higher positions in their careers due to the concept of the glass ceiling (Horn, and Schaffner, 2003). Also, several historical customs have continued to hinder
Gender Segregation And The Glass Ceiling
The terminology of ‘the glass ceiling’ defines a variety of barriers that prevent qualified individuals from advancing higher in their organization and the phrase glass ceiling is used most often in regards to women in the workforce (Adair, 2009). In addition, the glass ceiling was a term coined by an American newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, a couple of decades ago to describe the barriers that prevent women from reaching the top ladder in both economic and political fields (Williams, 2006).

Women's Glass Ceiling Essay
- 7 Works Cited
Women are ready and able to occupy top executive positions. This was the case in the inspiring story of Gert Boyle. When her husband died of a heart attack, he left her with a debt-ridden company and no knowledge on how to run it. In spite of that, thirty two years later, she has turned Columbia Sportswear Inc. into a successful outerwear company, competing with North Face and REI. She had to make difficult decisions along the way, including once she had to fire 55 employees as a strategy due to
Glass Ceiling and the Effects on Women
Men are more likely to be more aggressive and create their own opportunities to advance. “Social mores and male attitudes make an effective barrier to women rising above certain points; this tendency brings to mind a glass ceiling” (Toussaint 1). To illustrate how Glass Ceilings are created, consider the following: Circa 1992 – Woman, mid thirties, recent graduate from prestigious Business school with a BS in Accounting, attends a mandatory job fair and interviews with a university placement counselor
The Glass Ceiling Effect On Women
are the implications of the “glass ceiling”? A glass ceiling effect is a political term used to portray "the inconspicuous, yet unbreakable boundary that keeps minorities and ladies from ascending to the upper rungs of the professional pecking order, paying little respect to their capabilities or accomplishments. The expression "glass ceiling" was instituted in a 1986 Wall Street Journal give an account of corporate ladies by Hymowitz and Schellhardt (The Glass Ceiling effect) . At first, the analogy
The Glass Ceiling And Gender Analysis
The Glass Ceiling is the title given to an invisible barrier that is meant to limit women from succeeding in top level jobs. They only judge based on their gender and do not take into account women’s education, experience, or job related skills. Some argue that the only people who have put a limit to how far women can succeed in their career, are women themselves, but the Glass Ceiling and gender discrimination in the workforce does exist and is a major problem that needs to be addressed. Topics
The History and Breakdown of the Glass Ceiling Essay
- 16 Works Cited
The History and Breakdown of the Glass Ceiling The term the "glass ceiling" first came into use in 1986 when two Wall Street Journal reporters coined the phrase to describe the invisible barrier that blocks women from the top jobs in corporate America. (Glass Ceiling Commission,"Successful Initiatives "). Since then the metaphor has also been applied to the barriers of minorities. The Glass Ceiling Effect has been around for approximately 50 years. In my opinion it is on its way out the
The Glass Ceiling and the Wage Gap Essay
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equality in the workplace, many think that sex discrimination isn’t present anymore. However, many still believe that the glass ceiling hasn’t shattered and still possesses a barrier for many women in the labor force. The glass ceiling and the wage gap exist for various reasons but, like many other women leaders, women can break the glass and abolish the gap. INTRODUCTION The glass ceiling is defined as the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps… women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate
The Glass Ceiling : A Human Capitalist Perspective
The Glass Ceiling: A Human Capitalist Perspective 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
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Royal diversity Disney’s Hidden Glass Ceiling What is the glass ceiling? How can we change it? And where does Disney fit into this? One of the earliest citation came from the magazine world in 1984. It was basically about women who reach a certain point in middle management where they get stuck and they are unable to move forward. Since then the definition has broadened it’s become a metaphor that represents an invisible barrier that keeps a given demographic (usually women and minorities)
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Free Glass Ceiling Essays and Papers

The Glass Ceiling
The Glass Ceiling Abstract Most women and minorities will never be able to shatter the glass ceiling because corporate America is male dominated. Some women have made progress; however, few have made it to the top of the corporate ladder. If glass ceilings existed, they would allow people to see through to the world above them. Because glass is clear, those existing under such a ceiling might not, at first, even notice that a barrier was in a place that separated them from higher levels
Glass Ceiling
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THE GLASS CEILING by Reading an article about the “Glass ceiling” triggered my curiosity, and I began to think how this could affect my daughter and her goals and aspirations. According to the Department of Labor, females account for 43.99% of the workforce as of May 2001, but only a small fraction of women have succeeded in attaining senior level positions. This fact makes it difficult to discount the allegations of inequality between men and women in the workplace, and proves that the effects of
Glass ceiling
The glass ceiling is a symbol for the invisible and synthetic barriers blocking women from advancing up the corporate ladder to management and executive positions. During the war, “women were drawn into business and government positions by circumstance as much as by choice,” states Smith (2000, p. 8). Subsequently, after the war ended, men began to reclaim their positions in the workforce, forcing women to return to their traditional ways. By the 1960’s, the economic downfall and an acute lifestyle
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breaking the glass ceiling in order to climb to the top of the corporate hierarchy. Although the glass ceiling is not as prominent as it was in the past, it is still very real, and it affects not only women but other minorities. Whether it is the ceiling, wall, elevator, or cage, the glass prevents women from advancing in their careers. It has existed from the beginning, and even with the help of equality laws, it still poses a problem today. However, thanks to several outstanding women, the glass has developed
women in the work force. This barrier that keeps women from promotions is called the glass ceiling. “Glass ceiling is a term coined in the 1970’s to describe the invisible artificial barriers, created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which bar women from top executive jobs” (“Glass Ceiling Separates Women for Top”). Robert B. Reich, Secretary of Labor, informs his readers that the expression “glass ceiling” first appeared about ten years ago in a column entitled “Corporate Women” in the
The Glass Ceiling The glass ceiling starts to form itself very early on. From the moment a woman enters the work force after college, she is faced with much discrimination and unjust belief that she will not be able to do as well of a job than a man. A man and a woman, who both have the same education and training for a job, will have a considerable gap in their yearly income. In a first year job, a man will make approximately $14,619 compared to a woman who will make only $12,201. That is
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The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier in organizations that prevents many women and minorities from achieving top-level management positions. In 1995, the Glass Ceiling Commission released its first report and found that only 5 percent of the senior-level managers in Fortune 1000 companies are women. This report identified three barriers to the advancement of women and minorities: 1. Societal barriers exist that are likely outside the control of business. 2. Internal structural barriers are
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Sexism and the Glass Ceiling Sexism is still in evidence in the workplace and in today's society despite the battle that women are making for themselves. Sexism is a particular concern for society when considering its effect in the workplace. Sexism has always been a particular problem in the labor market especially with the formation of capitalism. In the last half of the 20th century this has been especially highlighted due to the increase of woman entering the labor market. This
Glass Ceiling Summary
the work place. CONTROLLING IDEA: Big corporations should be forced into applying affirmative action to equal out the male/female ratio in management positions. MAJOR PART 1: We believe that big corporations should be forced into breaking the glass ceiling. Women are represented in the workplace by a mere margin of all management positions. We believe that the corporations should apply affirmative action for a short period of time to have an equal playing field for women. Women are qualified but
Glass Ceiling in Corporate America
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The Glass Ceiling: Fact or Illusion The glass ceiling is it a fact or an illusion? The two words “Glass Ceiling” are used to describe the barrier that exists for women and minorities-when it comes to getting promoted into the upper echelons of a company. Does the ceiling exist or is it a figment of the imagination? The writer intentions are to present a picture of that ceiling, and show how it plays a part in corporate America. That in fact the ceiling is an injustice being done to women and minorities
The History and Breakdown of the Glass Ceiling
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The History and Breakdown of the Glass Ceiling The term the "glass ceiling" first came into use in 1986 when two Wall Street Journal reporters coined the phrase to describe the invisible barrier that blocks women from the top jobs in corporate America. (Glass Ceiling Commission,"Successful Initiatives "). Since then the metaphor has also been applied to the barriers of minorities. The Glass Ceiling Effect has been around for approximately 50 years. In my opinion it is on its way out the
The Glass Ceiling and the Wage Gap
- 22 Works Cited
equality in the workplace, many think that sex discrimination isn’t present anymore. However, many still believe that the glass ceiling hasn’t shattered and still possesses a barrier for many women in the labor force. The glass ceiling and the wage gap exist for various reasons but, like many other women leaders, women can break the glass and abolish the gap. INTRODUCTION The glass ceiling is defined as the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps… women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate
Glass Ceiling Research Paper
Glass Ceilings: Another Favour from the Society to Men Alyssia worked hard and made many sacrifices to achieve her dream of being a police officer. However, even after years on the job, and despite having received many commendations, she still felt that she had to work twice as hard as her male colleagues to demonstrate that she deserved to be there. As a woman, Alyssia struggled to overcome the stigma of gender preferences. Over and over again, she had to prove herself worthy for the promotions
The Glass Ceiling - Does It Still Exist?
The Glass Ceiling - Does It Still Exist? There are many questions that come to mind when looking at the structure of any organizations. Within the social organization, employees face many challenges such as sexual harassment, violence, rape, depression, and discrimination. These issues in their respective organizations are a hindrance to their success and can cause their personal and career development to suffer. But the key factor that will be focused regarding discrimination is women's struggles
The Glass Ceiling: A Human Capitalist Perspective
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
Women at Work: How Breakable Is the Glass Ceiling?
ignored them (...). During the last decades women have entered dynamically the working environment and achieved a high level of rights among men who constituted for many years the main working force. At the beginning working women were under a glass ceiling because they were considered to be the "fair" sex, in other words, too "nice" to work. Now they are being held back because they are not nice enough. "Numerous studies reveal that professional women are more likely than men to experience stereotyping
The Glass Ceiling: Are Women Treated Differently than Men?
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Unfortunately, even today, women are still trying to prove themselves equal to men in many ways. The “glass ceiling” is perhaps one of the most familiar and evocative metaphors to surface from the 20th century. This expression has been used widely in the popular media as well as in official government reports. The image suggest that although it may be the case now that women are able to get through the front door professional hierarchies, at some point they hit an invisible barrier that blocks any
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Glass Ceiling Upon Females in Australia Has Been Eliminated
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Over the past twenty years this glass ceiling has diminished (M. Leahy 2011). A glass ceiling is an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of a minority (Oxford Dictionaries 2014). Australia is an extremely sound country economically and socially, providing a brilliant platform for females to engage in anything they wish to pursue. This essay will display an opinion that does not believe there is a glass ceiling hanging over females within Australian
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Original research article, looking through the glass ceiling: a qualitative study of stem women’s career narratives.
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
Although efforts have been directed toward the advancement of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) positions, little research has directly examined women’s perspectives and bottom-up strategies for advancing in male-stereotyped disciplines. The present study utilized Photovoice, a Participatory Action Research method, to identify themes that underlie women’s experiences in traditionally male-dominated fields. Photovoice enables participants to convey unique aspects of their experiences via photographs and their in-depth knowledge of a community through personal narrative. Forty-six STEM women graduate students and postdoctoral fellows completed a Photovoice activity in small groups. They presented photographs that described their experiences pursuing leadership positions in STEM fields. Three types of narratives were discovered and classified: career strategies, barriers to achievement, and buffering strategies or methods for managing barriers. Participants described three common types of career strategies and motivational factors, including professional development, collaboration, and social impact. Moreover, the lack of rewards for these workplace activities was seen as limiting professional effectiveness. In terms of barriers to achievement, women indicated they were not recognized as authority figures and often worked to build legitimacy by fostering positive relationships. Women were vigilant to other people’s perspectives, which was costly in terms of time and energy. To manage role expectations, including those related to gender, participants engaged in numerous role transitions throughout their day to accommodate workplace demands. To buffer barriers to achievement, participants found resiliency in feelings of accomplishment and recognition. Social support, particularly from mentors, helped participants cope with negative experiences and to envision their future within the field. Work-life balance also helped participants find meaning in their work and have a sense of control over their lives. Overall, common workplace challenges included a lack of social capital and limited degrees of freedom. Implications for organizational policy and future research are discussed.
Introduction
Research on the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) often focuses on top-down factors that influence recruitment, retention, and promotion. Such top-down factors tend to overlook women’s unique perspectives and strategies. Women are agents of their own career success, with their own complex perceptions and bottom-up strategies within the workplace. Granting that individual experiences in the workplace give rise to personal narratives, common themes are likely to emerge across STEM women’s experiences. The goal of this research is to examine the career narratives of STEM women, or the spoken account of their experiences pursuing leadership positions in STEM. Photovoice, a Participatory Action Research method, informed by a grounded theory perspective, was used to identify the barriers that STEM women perceive as especially challenging, as well as their bottom-up approaches for managing barriers to achievement.
Women prepare for college degrees in STEM at approximately equal rates as men. However, after matriculating into college, women are less likely to pursue degrees in these fields ( Hill et al., 2010 ). While women are more likely than men to earn a bachelor’s, Master’s, or doctoral degree, they remain the minority of degree-earning STEM students ( United States Census Bureau, 2010 ). This is particularly true for more advanced degrees, where graduation rates in STEM favor men 2.5:1 ( National Science Foundation, 2015a ). Women are excluded from STEM despite generally high levels of academic achievement. In high school, girls and boys take approximately equal credits in STEM fields, with girls earning higher grades on average ( Shettle et al., 2007 ). In higher education, women earn better grades than men and are more likely to achieve post-secondary degrees at all levels ( Buchmann and DiPrete, 2006 ; United States Census Bureau, 2010 ). Despite generally high levels of achievement, women who are proficient in math-intensive fields are more likely to choose careers outside of STEM and leave STEM careers as they advance in their education ( Ceci et al., 2009 ).
Gender discrepancies become more pronounced at the professional level, a pattern that is evidenced across both academia and industry ( Trower and Chait, 2002 ). Women account for nearly half of the United States workforce, but compose less than 30% of the positions in STEM ( National Science Foundation, 2015b ). STEM women advance more slowly and are more likely to leave their positions than male peers ( Valian, 1999 ). Overall, the higher the rank in STEM the less likely it is to be occupied by a woman, making women particularly underrepresented in leadership positions.
The shortage of women from high-ranking positions is not exclusive to STEM fields. For example, while the average corporate board has 8.8 members, 36% of companies do not have any women on their board of directors and only 8% of boards have three or more women ( Gladman and Lamb, 2012 ). However, the shortage of women is particularly striking when leadership and STEM intersect: at 61%, energy companies have the highest percentage of boards with no women, and in academia, only 31% of full-time STEM faculty and 27% of deans and department heads are women ( National Science Foundation, 2015b ).
Despite evidence that attrition of women from STEM disciplines increases as women progress through college, graduate school, professional, and leadership ranks, surprisingly little research has been conducted on the intersection between STEM and leadership ( McCullough, 2011 ). In order to address this problem, it is essential to understand features of the workplace climate that are objectionable and unwelcoming to women. Qualitative research provides a unique opportunity to synthesize the complex experiences of STEM women by identifying common themes that underlie women’s career narratives. To date, a small number of qualitative studies with student participants have highlighted the importance that STEM women place on social support, coursework success, and early and positive exposure to STEM disciplines (e.g., Hughes, 2010 ; Packard et al., 2011 ). For example, STEM women transitioning from a community college to a 4-year program identified social support in the form of helpful academic advisors and professors as significant resources for overcoming obstacles such as poor course experiences and limited finances ( Packard et al., 2011 ). A study by Riffle et al. (2013) highlighted the spoken accounts of STEM faculty using semi-structured interviews. Men and women faculty members identified aspects of their work environment that facilitated success, including mentorship, social support, and work-life balance. However, there were gender differences in perceptions of departmental climate. Unlike men, women reported greater discrimination and sexism during interviews, less departmental collegiality, and holding less influence in their department. In addition, though men and women participants were found to have equal levels of productivity, women noted that their departments viewed their productivity as lower than their male counterparts ( Riffle et al., 2013 ). Qualitative studies such as these lay the foundation for accounts of workplace gender inequality by beginning to draw attention to factors that are perceived as major obstacles and supports in pursuing STEM careers.
The present study expanded on this work by using Photovoice to examine the career narratives of STEM women graduate students and postdoctoral fellows pursuing leadership positions. Photovoice ( Wang and Burris, 1997 ) is a method of group analysis that requires participants to take photographs that represent their viewpoint and present them during a group discussion. Participatory Action Research methods such as Photovoice recognize experiential learning as a legitimate source of knowledge and allow researchers to gather information about the targets’ perspective. Photovoice is particularly well-suited for research on STEM women, as it was developed based on feminist theory and literature on critical consciousness ( Wang, 1999 ). As defined by Weiler (1988) , feminist methodology is characterized by an emphasis on women’s subjective, everyday experiences. Critical consciousness literature argues that people’s perspectives can be used to break a culture of silence and increase awareness of social issues ( Freire, 1973 ). Photovoice was used to promote a critical dialog about how women’s everyday experiences in male-dominated careers impact broader gender distribution. This approach is useful in synthesizing the complex issues that influence STEM women’s career trajectories: First, as a consequence of identifying experiences common to STEM women, this approach is positioned to consolidate a number of topics relevant to the advancement of women in STEM (e.g., organizational climate and incentive structure). Second, Photovoice has direct ties to policy advocacy by providing a platform for STEM women to identify aspects of the work environment that they perceive as especially relevant to their career trajectories, including changes that need to be made to enhance their success. Third, qualitative research can facilitate the identification of new research directions useful for understanding and enhancing STEM women’s career advancement.
The present study expands on previous qualitative studies of women’s experiences in STEM in three key ways. First, STEM women graduate students and postdoctoral fellows were recruited from STEM leadership workshops, representing a group of women experienced in STEM and with explicit interest in leadership positions. Women in this career stage are making critical decisions about their career trajectory, with many opting for careers in education or healthcare over STEM occupations ( Beede et al., 2011 ). Thus, participants have a unique vantage point as they are actively gaining insight into the advantages and disadvantages of STEM careers and navigating their career path. Second, this is the first study using Photovoice to examine STEM women’s experiences and the first qualitative study to focus on STEM women in leadership. Photovoice gives participants the opportunity to identify and share aspects of their experiences that are most important to them and is more open-ended than methods like structured or semi-structured interviews. Literature on STEM women emphasizes a wide range of factors that influence women’s career outcomes, from implicit stereotype cues to organizational policies (e.g., Valian, 1999 ; Smith and White, 2002 ; Murphy et al., 2007 ; Bilimoria and Lord, 2014 ). However, it remains unclear which of these aspects of the work environment that women find more or less challenging. Identification of themes underlying women’s experiences in STEM via qualitative methods can be used to highlight their observations and perceptions of the field in a way that is atypical of most experimental research. Third, the present research recruited a relatively large and diverse group of participants. Forty-six participants completed the Photovoice exercise, which is considerably more than the median of 13 participants in Photovoice studies ( Catalani and Minkler, 2010 ). The sample also included 16 international participants, representing 11 different countries.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics women graduate students participating in leadership workshops were invited to a an additional workshop session where they had the opportunity to present four photographs depicting their experiences with STEM leadership and discuss them in a small group setting. Specifically, participants were asked to share with a group two photographs depicting the past experience in STEM and two describing their future in STEM. Transcripts from the eight workshops sessions were coded borrowing from grounded theory framework ( Glaser and Strauss, 1967 ). The grounded theory perspective forwarded by Strauss allows for basic research questions and predictions to guide analysis ( Corbin and Strauss, 1990 ; Devadas et al., 2011 ). Accordingly, it was hypothesized that STEM women would acknowledge the effects of gender stereotypes in STEM, reflecting their common experience with gender stereotypes. Additional coding was carried out inductively to identify emergent themes in the raw data. The current article discusses the career strategies, barriers to achievement, and approaches for managing barriers to achievement described by STEM women, as well as implications for research and practice.
Materials and Methods
Participants.
Forty-six participants from a leadership workshop for STEM women enrolled in a second session in order to complete the Photovoice activity. Participants signed up for one of eight possible workshop sessions, with an average of six participants in each session. Participants from the final sample ranged in age from 21 to 51 years ( M = 29, SD = 6.13). Thirty-five percent of the sample was international students, with participants representing 11 different countries. Sixty-four percent of participants identified as White, 22% Asian, 4% Black, 4% Hispanic, 4% Biracial, and 2% Native American. A variety of fields were represented from the natural sciences (50%), medicine and health (28%), and engineering (22%).
Women graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in STEM fields from a large public research university were recruited to participate in leadership workshops via flyers and e-mails. Participants indicated their availability for eight different workshop groups. Whenever possible, they were matched into groups in order to have individuals from different academic disciplines in each session. Upon arriving to the first workshop session, participants were asked to sign an informed consent and complete a demographic survey. The first session included interactive activities designed to identify leadership role models and personal values, develop personal action plans, and practice conflict resolution. Prior to the end of the workshop, participants were invited back for a second session to complete the Photovoice activity.
In line with the goal to understand the broad range of issues related to women’s advancement in STEM, Photovoice allowed for open-ended discussion about participants’ experiences in STEM. Participants were asked to prepare two photographs describing past experiences with leadership and two pictures representing their future leadership aspirations. Participants were invited to take their own pictures or use images found online. Directions did not prompt participants to attend to a particular issue. Photographs were e-mailed to the researcher prior to workshop sessions in order to format them into a slide show for the Photovoice discussion. Audio and video equipment was positioned to record each workshop session. The Photovoice activity was transcribed, producing 80 single-spaced pages of transcription.
The Photovoice activity was held 1 week after the participants’ original workshop sessions. Participants were invited to discuss their Photovoice pictures with the group, and participants determined the order of presentation (i.e., who presented and the order of photographs). Each individual projected their photographs onto a large screen at the front of the room and explained the meaning of each of their four photographs. After each individual presented a photograph, the workshop facilitator (i.e., a female graduate student) or participants were allowed to ask questions or comment. For example, a participant projected a picture of their messy desk while explaining how it relates to their past experience pursuing STEM leadership, in this case, noting that they juggle many projects and do not always have a healthy lifestyle due to high workplace demands. Other participants related to this narrative, noting that they too do not always have a healthy lifestyle or work-life balance even though they consider those things important. Within this structure, the workshop facilitator and participants were able to probe further comments. Individual narratives can elicit agreement or disagreement from peers as they discuss photographs in a small group setting, providing information about the typicality of a given experience. All research was carried out in accordance with the protocol approved by the University of Cincinnati’s Institutional Review Board.
Data Analysis
The grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis forwarded by Glaser and Strauss (1967) provides a framework for text analysis. Grounded theory utilizes a constant comparative method whereby text is assigned to a category based on content and compared with other text included in the same category ( Glaser and Strauss, 1967 ). Categories are created if text needs to be further differentiated, or if categories need to be integrated. Over the course of the analysis, categories are arranged into a hierarchy that is representative of their relationship to one another. This method of coding is used to uncover the full range of categories possible, their dimensions, the conditions under which it is pronounced, its consequences, and its relationship to other categories. Unlike many experimental studies that typically examine cause-and-effect relationships, qualitative research is often utilized at the discovery stage of research in order to develop new and testable theories.
Qualitative data was analyzed using QSR International’s NVivo 10 software to aid in examining text and coding transcripts. The author and a trained research assistant independently coded the transcripts, condensing language into categories. Categories were defined using open coding, examining the transcripts line-by-line, allowing for patterns and categories to emerge through observation ( Glaser and Strauss, 1967 ). Text was coded when it was identified as meeting specific criteria relevant to a categorical definition. To investigate the a priori research questions, additional coding examined career challenges and strategies. Category labels and definitions were shared between researchers, though they were blind to the text included within each category by the other researcher. When possible, categories were collapsed into higher-order categories based on researcher consensus until no new categories or sub-categories were identified. This is an indicator of theoretical saturation, such that additional data collection and coding is unlikely to identify new emerging themes ( Locke, 2001 ; Kreiner et al., 2009 ).
After categories were independently coded, they were discussed in meetings to finalize coding ( Kreiner et al., 2009 ). Consensual validation was used to refine category definitions and reduce bias ( Kreiner et al., 2009 ). Agreement was reached on categories and content by the researchers and coding was adjusted. Only categories mentioned by 25% or more participants were included as themes ( Dutton and Dukerich, 1991 ). Relationships across categories were then examined using axial coding, rendering nine primary themes ( Strauss and Corbin, 1998 ). After identifying the most prominent thematic connections between categories and subcategories, three broader frameworks were identified using selective coding ( Strauss and Corbin, 1998 ). These frameworks and their underlying themes were examined and adjusted by six study participants in order to verify its trustworthiness ( Creswell, 2007 ). Three additional faculty-level researchers were also enlisted to review the findings for alternate themes and explanations ( Lincoln and Guba, 1985 ; Creswell, 2007 ). Participants’ descriptions of past experiences and future aspirations in STEM leadership were coded for themes across groups. Three complementary frameworks were identified from the participants’ Photovoice narratives: Career motivation, barriers to participation, and buffering strategies. The conceptual frameworks and underlying themes are elaborated below (see Tables 1 and 2 ).

TABLE 1. Summary of themes and theoretical significance.

TABLE 2. Illustrative evidence for themes.
Framework 1: Motivation
In describing past experiences and future pursuits of “leadership,” participants had a broad definition of leadership that extended beyond managing others to the achievement of individual and group goals. In terms of individual goals, STEM advancement was seen not only as a way to achieve career success, but also personal development ( Theme 1 ): “Leadership is a good way to help me to improve myself…I don’t want to just stay in one specific level.” Leadership was also seen as a way to help others achieve their goals and develop positive relationships. As one participant put it, “I try to find a sky for me to fly, and…if I want to be a leader I also have to find a sky for the others.”
Women noted a number of methods important to facilitating effective collaboration ( Theme 2 ). Participants believed that collaboration could be enhanced through clear communication, justification of team goals, and individual recognition. Participants noted the importance of actively motivating colleagues, as exemplified by one participant’s statement: “Appreciating their work and being respectful of them is really important; not treating them like your workers and giving them menial tasks but making them feel valuable to the project.” The value of working side-by-side with others was seen as a strategy for teaching other people positive work habits, and demonstrated participant’s preference for a more egalitarian work environment. Overall, participants described their leadership style as transformational ( Burns, 1978 ), where leaders work to motivate team members toward the achievement of a common goal.
Participants sought to develop a full range of skills within the workplace to influence others in a meaningful way. Teaching, mentorship, service, organizational, and applied work were all seen as opportunities for broader impact ( Theme 3 ). Among those pursuing careers in research, their goals were often geared toward promoting the well-being of others (e.g., water conservation, disease control, and social programming). Other participants questioned how much impact research has in comparison to applied work. One woman stated that while she had never discussed career options within her department, she was strongly considering going into applied work, “I don’t want to belittle it by saying ‘cookie-cutter’ or saying this is the ‘typical route’ that graduate students take, to be a professor. And that ignores the need for better science education at the lower levels.” Whether interested in research or applied work, participants engaged in big picture thinking: Women not only desired to advance in their field, they saw leadership as a means of self-actualization ( Theme 1 ), collaboration ( Theme 2 ), and social impact ( Theme 3 ).
Framework 2: Barriers
The second framework outlined the circumstances under which goal achievement became especially challenging. Participants generally preferred a transformational leadership style, but they did not always feel empowered as leaders. One participant noted, “…this is literally kind of like a struggle, not just finding leadership opportunities, but once you’re in them I feel like I am kind of up against somebody most of the time.” When women were in authority positions, they did not assume that subordinates would take their direction seriously and instead worked to build legitimacy by fostering positive relationships. The “fair-and-balanced” approach some women desired may have, in part, reflected their uneasiness in positions of authority ( Theme 4 ). As one woman stated, “I can give you a token. I can call you up and recognize you for your work and thank you. That’s all I have. That’s the only power.” Participants were primarily focused on increasing their social status through relationships, rather than increasing their personal power or access to resources (e.g., Sachdev and Bourhis, 1991 ).
Attempting positive relationships and social impact were costly in terms of time and energy. To support a positive and collaborative work environment, women were vigilant to other people’s perspectives ( Theme 5 ). Participants frequently noted the thoughts and feelings of others during their narratives. One participant stated, “We should always do well in our own business, but we also need to think about others, be considerate, and so everyone can be comfortable.” Participants were also vigilant to how their own behavior might be evaluated by others. One participant described carefully watching her steps, “I’m walking around with my shoes untied. I always have to look and make sure I’m not going to trip and fall.” She contrasted this with her “comfy shoes” that she wore at home. Another participant stated the importance of controlling other people’s impressions of her, “Wear your dark-colored suit, flat shoes, and no jewelry.”
Monitoring social interactions was particularly challenging when gender dynamics were involved ( Theme 6 ). Participants noted the dichotomy between being the “motherly figure” and the “authoritative b-word,” and sometimes felt the need to adapt their leadership style to the situation. A woman with industry experience stated, “I always work in a man environment, so I cannot be too soft. They just crush you.” She contrasted this with working with women, explaining, “It’s like if you’re in this as equals, then they think you’re not in it to get anything. Somehow you have to keep your feminine, soft side.” When working with men, participants felt the need to mask emotions and appear confident, but among women they tried to act less threatening, more egalitarian, and attentive to emotion. Some women felt that situational pressures could be overcome by adopting a more individualized leadership style, and other women expressed their continuing journey to find a leadership identity. Upon hearing other participants discuss how they changed their behavior based on context, one woman noted, “All I can do is be a good person and be strong in what I do.”
Framework 3: Buffers
The third framework illustrated coping strategies participants used to buffer against career challenges they encountered. Participants sought comfort in their achievements ( Theme 7 ). Feelings of accomplishment reassured women that they were on the right career path. Participants often noted achievements in mentoring, service, and applied roles. In these positions women were more readily elevated into leadership, developed relationships with others, and gained respect. One woman noted about her teaching, “I’ve had great success with being a leader in that people really appreciate me and I have gotten really good feedback.” For some women, finding comfort in their achievements meant being appreciative of their current positions. As one participant stated, “Whatever you do and what role you are in in your future career, even though it can be boring or a simple role, as long as you have positive thinking and you are smiling you can do this job very well.” This perspective was controversial among other participants, some of whom argued that women are too easily satisfied with just having a job, rather than expecting to be treated fairly based on their qualifications.
Outside of their own accomplishments, participants found resiliency in social support offered by mentors, friends, and family ( Theme 8 ). The encouragement of mentors helped them cope with negative experiences, and to envision their future within the field—as one participant said, “I do so many things now and I attribute it to my advisor giving me so many opportunities and just kind of encouraging me.” However, the difficult balance between the ideal woman and ideal leader led to a lack of real world role models for some participants. For example, one participant stated, “I have role models for leadership, and I have role models for personal growth, but both of them together they don’t really exist. And it’s hard to even imagine a real, tangible opportunity.” Perhaps because of this, some women adopted an informal definition of ‘mentorship,’ looking for guidance from coworkers, friends, and professionals outside of their field. Mentorship outside of formal supervision helped women navigate the politics of their fields.
Family was another important source of support and an arena where many women took on a leadership role. Participants discussed future leadership aspirations in terms of family, as numerous women considered motherhood as a significant leadership role. As one women explained, “I would like to become a mother someday. So that’s another big kind of leadership thing that will be hard to balance.” Work-life balance also helped women find meaning in their work and have a sense of control over their lives ( Theme 9 ). One woman described the importance of taking time off work saying, “Even if it’s 10 min, it shows that you’re in control and you know what you want to get out of this.”
The present study is the first to qualitatively examine the experiences and perspectives of STEM women using Photovoice as a Participatory Action Research method. Findings provide a basis for better understanding the complex ways that gender stereotypes surface in organizations, as well as the bottom-up strategies STEM women employ to cope with workplace challenges. Specifically, results provide a framework for understanding women’s work preferences, challenges, and buffering strategies. In line with its history as a advocacy tool, Photovoice also generated insight into policies that can best support and enhance STEM women’s career success.
While institutional policies were mentioned more or less indirectly, the frequency and depth of narrative surrounding interpersonal interactions suggests that this is often the most immediate and troubling aspect of the work environment for women. Women were mindful of other people’s perspectives and actively worked to manage them. Participants described being held accountable for multiple, often conflicting, roles in the workplace related to gender and STEM. Women’s perceptions of conflicting expectations, between acting “soft” and “hard” as they put it, is consistent with literature on role congruity and the evaluation of women in typically male-dominated fields. Role congruity theory states that, because men have traditionally occupied positions in science and leadership, career success in these fields are associated with masculine traits ( Eagly and Karau, 2002 ). As a result, women are viewed as unfit for STEM, particularly in STEM leadership, and are also evaluated more negatively when occupying these roles. Women are viewed as less likely to succeed, less likely to be promoted, and less likely to become a leader when in male-dominated sectors than when in female-dominated professions ( Garcia-Retamero and Lopez-Zafra, 2006 ). Women who succeed in spite of these stereotypes often experience backlash for stepping outside of their prescribed social role. For instance, women in senior management typically have less authority, less opportunity for advancement, and receive fewer rewards than their male peers ( Jacobs, 1992 ). At first glance it might appear that STEM women are too image-focused and work unnecessarily hard to manage their interpersonal interactions, but these efforts may be a reaction to the negative evaluations commonly encountered by STEM women.
Women in this study responded to perceived gender role conflict with two primary strategies: First, some women adopted distinct behaviors within different contexts, remaining vigilant to cues regarding role expectations. This workplace strategy required role transitions throughout their day to accommodate workplace demands (cf. Schein, 1971 ; Van Maanen, 1982 ). Role transitions entail “the psychological (and, where relevant, physical) movement between roles, including disengagement from one role (role exit) and engagement in another (role entry; Burr, 1972 ; Richter, 1984 )” ( Ashforth et al., 2000 ). Each transition requires psychological preparation, as roles require varying levels of attention and arousal ( Ashforth, 2001 ), and may therefore be costly in terms of cognitive and physical resources. Individuals vary in the extent to which their roles are segregated from one another ( Ashforth, 2001 ); the more integrated roles are, the less challenging it is to transition between them. Along these lines, some women adopted a second workplace strategy and avoided numerous role transitions by adopting an individualized leadership style that they could comfortably apply across a variety of situations. Given the relatively large age range of participants, it is possible that older participants were more likely to have developed a stable sense of self and were less easily influenced by social pressures.
In addition to the interpersonal demands reported by STEM women, women often described being socially disconnected from both leadership and subordinates. Consistent with research that women are viewed as less competent leaders (e.g., Jacobs, 1992 ; Garcia-Retamero and Lopez-Zafra, 2006 ), even when women were in leadership positions, they noted they were not treated as authority figures. Participants appealed to subordinates by fostering positive relationships, working alongside them, or incentivizing them with rewards. Women also had a difficult time identifying mentors and role models who represented, not only a desirable career path, but also a desirable lifestyle. A lack of real world examples meant that women had a difficult time imagining how they would be able to succeed in STEM.
Women’s focus on social interactions, vs. policy, as barriers to achievement suggests that women are more frequently and directly confronted with the former, and that these challenges are viewed as more personal in nature. The focus of narratives on social interactions may reflect a shifting tide where organizational policy may change over time to support more gender-neutral practices. Even so, gender stereotypes, societal norms, and organizational climate are more enduring and difficult to change. As one women stated, “Just because the policy changes does not mean [people’s] beliefs change.” Overall, women reported a lack of social capital , or “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition” ( Bourdieu, 1985 , p. 248). Women devoted significant time and energy to fostering group cohesion and developing professional relationships: Monitoring social cues, accommodating social expectations, implementing strategies to enhance collaboration, and pursuing applied work and social impact all require significant effort. These efforts were not always rewarded, as women struggled to establish relationships with subordinates and mentors. Women also noted that they faced negative evaluation, from being belittled during presentations to being harshly questioned for their career decisions. Similar reports come from the faculty-level, as women professors generally report low-levels of collegiality ( Riffle et al., 2013 ). Despite committing significant resources to maintaining positive relationships, women often failed to receive benefits from participation in groups ( Portes, 1998 ).
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics women encountered two distinct limitations in the workplace that restricted their social interactions and professional activities. First, women’s workplace behavior was restricted by the potential for negative evaluation and its implied consequences. Women worked to overcome negative evaluation by maintaining a certain appearance, adopting different mannerisms based on role expectations, working to make sure people “liked” them, and monitoring their behavior for what could be perceived as “mistakes.” Women felt that they were encouraged, implicitly or explicitly, to mold their behavior to avoid negative social evaluation. Second, women were limited by an incentive structure that rewarded a relatively narrow range of professional activities. Numerous women reported that their departments valued basic research over applied directions, and the pressure on academics to publish and pursue research trajectories without direct application caused some participants to question if their goals aligned with a career in STEM, vs. fields like health or education. Opportunities for self-development, collaboration, and social impact were identified as major motivational factors for STEM women—a lack of rewards for these activities may therefore hinder STEM women’s professional advancement. The space that women in STEM are allowed to occupy is enclosed by narrow boundaries and is enforced by the potential for negative social evaluation and career stagnation. Compared to their male peers, STEM women have fewer degrees of freedom in the workplace.
Policy Implications
Though women’s narratives often referenced the importance of interpersonal interactions to shaping their careers, institutional policies can foster a workplace climate conducive to collegiality and increased opportunity for a diverse faculty. The threat of negative evaluation significantly impacts women’s daily activities. STEM leadership may benefit from an awareness of the chronic judgment that women are often subject to by both female and male coworkers and subordinates. Methods of formal evaluation used by departments and universities can be altered or weighted to take into account gender biases typical of student and departmental evaluations ( Kaschak, 1978 ; Sprague and Massoni, 2005 ; Moss-Racusin et al., 2012 ). Departments can also reduce the threat of negative evaluation and increase women’s social capital by promoting diversity and a positive workplace climate. In particular, institutions can explicitly advocate for workplace collegiality, offer structured networking opportunities, institute faculty mentorship programs along with mentorship training, and incentivize departmental and interdepartmental collaboration.
The ability to recruit, retain, and promote a diverse workforce hinges on the ability of an organization to value heterogeneous perspectives and contributions. In this study, numerous participants noted the value that they placed on applied scholarship. At an institutional level, criteria for promotion and tenure can be restructured to reward a more diverse set of workplace activities. For example, some women may place greater emphasis on applied work over publishing, the former of which can be explicitly incentivized. In addition, recognition for achievements, in the form of competitive grants and awards, can advance women’s research and publicly recognize their achievements. Individuals who experience barriers to participation in STEM need sufficient reason to enter into and persevere within these stereotyped domains. Women can be encouraged to remain in STEM with opportunities for self-development, collaboration, and social impact. Organizations can incentivize these activities and emphasize these opportunities through organizational messaging.
In the present study, a fulfilling personal and family life is closely tied to STEM women’s feelings of success and life satisfaction. This is consistent with research suggesting that policies promoting work-life balance are essential to recruiting, retaining, and advancing faculty in academia ( Welch et al., 2011 ). A variety of initiatives can bolster STEM employee’s support network and work-life balance (e.g., Kelly, 1999 ; Association for Women in Science, 2001 ; Tower and Dilks, 2015 ): Employee benefits can be structured to allow for flexible work hours, leadership can take into account family obligations during scheduling, organizations can offer paid maternity and paternity leave, and dual-career hires can be made a greater priority, as these issues may disproportionately influence female employees.
Future Directions and Limitations
One strength of qualitative research is its ability to formulate new research questions ( Glaser and Strauss, 1967 ). While there is much work to be done to understand the complex array of factors that influence women’s participation in STEM, the present study generated two distinct research questions to be explored further. First, a significant portion of women in this study described their strategy for dealing with conflicting demands in the workplace, particularly disparate role expectations for women vs. scientists in male-dominated domains. Some of these women adapted their behavior to different contexts based on situational cues; other women adopted a personal leadership style that they carried across contexts. Women in the latter tended to be older and more experienced scientists. It is unclear from this study if there is an association between seniority and leadership style. Future research should investigate the perspectives of women in more or less advanced positions in STEM to examine how factors influence women’s participation in different ranks, as well as whether women in various career stages employ different strategies for dealing with workplace challenges. Along these lines, it is important to increase our understanding of which career strategies are more or less useful for overcoming barriers to achievement. Second, many participants preferred applied work over basic research. Additional research is needed to examine if this preference holds true across a broader sample. It is also essential to understand whether or not women are implicitly or explicitly encouraged by others to go into applied work over basic research. Women may be directed away from basic research, which is likely to be more male-stereotyped.
A limitation of this study is that participants did not play a significant role as decision-makers in the research project. Photovoice often emphasizes the involvement of participants in study design and implementation. However, participants retained significant independence in their personal contribution, and a number of participants were also recruited to help in data interpretation after data analysis was completed. In addition, material from the workshop women were recruited from may have cued women to talk about particular aspects of their career progression. An attempt was made to control for this possibility by making the original workshops activity-based. Overall, the workshop format was an effective recruitment method, and career narratives were largely unrelated to workshop material, which focused on values, conflict management, and role model identification.
Finally, the current study is limited in focusing on the experiences of STEM graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. For the purposes of this study, graduate women offer a unique perspective. Having persevered as an undergraduate in typically male-dominated fields and continuing into advanced training, they have made a considerable personal investment in their fields. They are also gaining a new perspective into the professional world ahead of them. As graduate women advance in STEM they remain vulnerable to the gender stereotypes that pervade these fields.
Women identify interpersonal interactions as limiting their professional opportunities more often than institutional policy. In particular, women report having less social capital and fewer degrees of freedom than their male counterparts. Their reports are largely consistent with research demonstrating women’s lack of authority and the negative evaluation of women compared to men ( Jacobs, 1992 ; Garcia-Retamero and Lopez-Zafra, 2006 ). The close relationship between women’s career narratives and previous research findings supports that notion that qualitative research is not only useful in understanding the perceptions of a given population, but that group analysis is relatively reliable in describing their experiences. The findings also synthesize a number of the complex issues that influence STEM women’s career trajectories.
The present work identifies strategies implemented by women to cope with organizational and interpersonal barriers to achievement. Recognition of achievements, social support, and work-life balance assured women that their efforts pursuing STEM leadership would pay off. In addition, some women managed conflicting role expectations by adapting their behavior based on context; other women adopted a more individualized leadership style that they could comfortably maintain across contexts and regardless of social demands.
Findings enhance understanding of how gender stereotypes manifest and impact women in male-dominated careers, and have a number of implications for organizational policy. By emphasizing the importance of positive interpersonal interactions and organizational climate to career success, women’s narratives indicate the importance of organizational policies that incentivize collegiality and collaboration. Though barriers to achievement often occur at an interpersonal level, a variety of organizational policies can address these challenges by promoting fair workplace evaluation, positive climate, collaboration, work-life balance, and an incentive structure that rewards a variety of scholarly activities.
Author Contributions
MA was responsible for the research question, study design, running participants, data analysis, and manuscript.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the individuals who participated in this research for sharing their experiences and perspectives. I would also like to thank Dr. Luis H. Favela for his valuable edits and comments.
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Keywords : STEM women, leadership, Photovoice, career strategy, gender roles, organizational policy, Participatory Action Research, underrepresentation of women
Citation: Amon MJ (2017) Looking through the Glass Ceiling: A Qualitative Study of STEM Women’s Career Narratives. Front. Psychol. 8:236. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00236
Received: 21 October 2016; Accepted: 07 February 2017; Published: 20 February 2017.
Reviewed by:
Copyright © 2017 Amon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Mary J. Amon, [email protected]
This article is part of the Research Topic
Women’s Under-representation in Engineering and Computing: Fresh Perspectives on a Complex Problem
Glass Ceiling in a Workplace Report
Recognizing the implication of failure to manage organizational diversity, many organizations endeavor to provide equal job opportunities and career development through upward mobility practices that do not segregate employees based on their demographic and psychographic differences. However, cases of glass ceiling are still common in corporations across the globe. The current research discusses the concept of glass ceiling. It identifies its potential relationship with the overall quality and productivity in the workplace. Although the research findings are backed by qualitative data, they indicate that low overall quality and productivity in organizations that employ high number of minorities and women may be attributed to the glass ceiling effect.
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Introduction
Despite their well-designed policies for managing diversity, organizations continue to experience the glass ceiling effect. Buckalew, Konstantinopoulos, Russell, and El-Sherbini (2012) define glass ceiling as “the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper ranks of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (p.145). Management literature contends that embracing the concept of effective management of organizational diversity, including ensuring equality and equity, may help to curtail the glass ceiling effect. However, it is not yet known why women and some minorities continue to have a low upward mobility in corporate ladder across the globe, despite the effective deployment of principles of equity and equality in organizations that employ people from diverse backgrounds (Wilson, 2014). This paper focuses on this gap in literature on the glass ceiling effect. The rest of the paper is divided into three main sections. The first section presents the foundational framework, including a statement of research objectives and research framework or methodology. The second section presents a literature review on glass ceiling effect in organizations by referring to the latest peer reviewed journal articles. Section three offers the implication of the research for managers. It also incorporates recommendations for organizations that are experiencing the glass ceiling effect.
Research objectives
Research objectives specify the purpose of conducting a research. The objective of the current research is to discuss how the glass ceiling may exist in a workplace. It also objects to discuss the significance of glass ceiling on the overall quality of an organization.
Research framework
Research can be designed to deploy primary or secondary resources. The current research relies on secondary data to discuss the concept of glass ceiling in modern organizations. The search is conducted through online credible libraries. Various scholars prescribe certain characteristics that a qualitative research must meet for its results and recommendations to arrive at effective resolution of the stated problem. For this reason, the methodology that is deployed in the current research needs to have some specific characteristics, which include credibility, reliability, use of rigorous methods and verification, validity and clarity, and coherence in reporting. The current research needs to portray a high degree of internal and external validity for the recommendations and implications to hold substance in organizations. Internal validity implies the degree of truth of various claims that are raised in the research and the existing variables. On the other hand, external validity implies the degree to which the findings can be generalized. The method that is utilized in a qualitative research needs to aid researchers to attain optimal levels of validity of their study for their work to add a significant knowledge to the body of knowledge they seek to amplify, which in this case is the status of the glass ceiling in organizations. Since this research is designed to be a secondary research, validity encompasses a significant issue given that secondary materials are adopted from researches that were done in the past whose findings may be outdated. However, this challenge is dealt with by careful selection of the secondary materials for analysis. The research only draws from researches that have been done in the past three years. To enhance reliability of the secondary materials in making recommendations and research implications, only peer reviewed articles are used in the research.
Literature review
Multinational organizations employ people from diverse backgrounds. This observation implies that organizational diversity is a key characteristic of such organizations. One of critical aspects to consider in addressing the challenges of diversity management entails resolution of the issues of glass ceiling (Wilson, 2014). Organizational diversity refers to the myriads of differences that exist among people who work in an organization with regard to parameters such as sexual characteristics, race, societal principles, maturity, income levels, work experience, parental status, spiritual viewpoints, civilization, religion, and physical abilities among others (Wilson, 2014). Given that failure to manage organizational workforce diversity may lead to a negative impairment of its performance in the short and long run, the challenge of workforce diversity management is a critical problem that every organization that seeks to go global needs to address proactively. Cook and Glass (2014) define various elements that fuel the existence of glass ceiling inequality within a corporation. An organization needs to uphold racial and/or gender differences (Cook & Glass, 2014). This claim suggests that employee professional qualifications fail to explain the policies that are deployed in the promotion and allocation of job responsibilities in a corporation. Glass ceiling is also characterized by the existence of “a gender or racial difference that is greater at higher levels than the lower levels of an outcome” (Cook & Glass, 2014, p.1081). This situation destroys organizational quality of workforce output, and in this extent the productivity of an organization. Glass ceiling also manifests itself in severer ways in corporations when inequality rises when people advance in their careers. Hence, irrespective of employee efforts whose upward mobility is restricted by promotion inequalities, they still find themselves in one hierarchical position in the career development ladder. Russo and Hassink (2012) contend with this position by adding that glass ceiling is also characterized by “a gender or racial inequality in the chances of advancement into higher levels, not merely the proportions of each gender or race that is currently at such higher levels” (p.892). Glass ceiling is positively linked with gender. Russo and Hassink’s (2012) expositions indicate that irrespective of their qualification levels, minorities and women who form part of organizational diversity still experience challenges in advancing their career ladder in corporate settings in comparison with other groups of people. In the US, the Equal Pay Act finished the behavior of giving male workers higher salaries relative to what female workers get for parallel employment positions. However, amid such efforts, some women and minorities still feel that they are discriminated in the workplace. In Australia, a research by the Australian Human Rights Commission indicated about 49 percent of women claimed they were discriminated in terms of parental leaves, upon returning to work from leaves and/or pregnancy period (Xiu & Gunderson, 2014). More of this discrimination (35%) was likely when returning to work (Xiu & Gunderson, 2014). Common discriminations include denial of flexible working schedule to take care of familial responsibilities and unfair treatment on returning to work from parental leaves. The level of upward mobility in careers is also lower among minorities and women in the US (Cook & Glass, 2014). This situation may create the perception among minorities and women that they are less important in organizational processes compared to groups whose probability of upward mobility in their careers in corporate settings is higher. Consistent with the above assertion, an increasing number of scholarly studies reveal that a direct correlation exists between worker turnout, career performance, devotion, and discernment of being valuable resources of an organization. For instance, according to Cook and Glass (2014), “if the management and team members fail to value women and minorities, company productivity will likely suffer as a consequence” (p.1086). This finding infers that low perception of the significance of minorities and women in an organization due to the glass-ceiling element influences organizational productivity and quality of work. How does the glass-ceiling element occur? Glass ceiling comprises various indistinguishable obstructions (the glass) via which minorities and female potential workers are capable of identifying prestigious positions in corporations, but have a low probability of accessing them. Cook and Glass (2014) describe the reduced chances as the ceiling effect. The barriers ensure that women and minorities do not have access to any prestigious or highly paying job within an organization. This situation has the effect of developing the perception that women and minorities do not possess the necessary attributes of taking up such jobs. The feeling of worthiness that comes with perception has negative ramifications of their productivity and keenness, which are essential for quality production of goods and services (Russo & Hassink, 2012). These negative results have the implication of influencing the level of job satisfaction for employees who experience the glass ceiling. Several factors contribute to job dissatisfaction. For instance, personal dissatisfaction occurs due to “compensation issues, job security, job autonomy, and relationships with supervisors among other reasons” (Jones, 2012, p.78). Job satisfaction concerns within organizations have traditionally been approached from the theoretical paradigm that work approval and performance are related. The implication is that if employees are happy about their working situations, they portray higher efficiency and effectiveness levels. In this context, Jones (2012) asserts, “Over the years, many employers and employees alike have held to this belief, and placed a great deal of emphasis on making sure that employees are satisfied with their jobs to trigger the desired outcome” (p.79). The preferred result is dependent on the goals and objectives of an organization. In the service sector industry, preferred results may include service rate and service quality. In organizations that deal essentially with production, preferred results encompass an increase in productivity levels accruing from quality products and/or production capacity. The general contention in the research on job satisfaction and organizational success is that satisfied employees have the capacity to produce and deliver higher-quality products and services. When the performance of an organization is measured from the context of productivity levels, it implies that job satisfaction has a direct correlation with quality and the overall organizational productivity. According to Buckalew et al., (2012), glass ceiling has the effect of lowering the level of job fulfillment amongst women and minorities who experience the inequality. Theoretically, a correlation may exist between glass ceiling and the overall organizational quality. Job satisfaction depends on whether workers like or hate what they do. With the perception that a corporation is reluctant to consider one for a position that he or she is most suited in terms of prestige, it is unlikely that one will be contended with what he or she does. Workers may love their jobs, but not their organizational work environment. Qualification and expertise levels influence the perception of the best-suited environment for any individual. This observation suggests that glass ceiling fails to match the qualification and expertise levels of people with some jobs and the environment in which they are done. For the nature of job to satisfy the workers, Wilson (2014) holds that employees evaluate the role they are expected to play, the amount they earn, how they relate internally, and the mechanisms of control and endorsements. Since glass ceiling has the effect of placing some minorities and women in low-ranking jobs, they experience inequality in the amount of pay and denial of an opportunity to form relationships with people who belong to their educational and expatriate caliber (Xiu & Gunderson, 2014). From the perspectives of the pay levels, satisfaction with salary and wages depends on the amount that employees feel they deserve to earn in relation to their present pay and/or in the context of their educational and experience levels. Xiu and Gunderson (2014) illustrate that earning lower than one expects leads to automatic dissatisfaction as opposed to earning higher than what one anticipates. The dimension in which people look at the nature of jobs may influence their performance. As revealed before, job satisfaction is realizable differently based on individual worker’s interest in a certain component of a job. Inequality that is brought about by glass ceiling constitutes one of such factors that have negative ramifications on the quality and overall job productivity. Organizations, which still have high prevalence for glass ceiling in their workplaces, are likely to plunge into expensive lawsuits and out-of-court settlements that are largely contributed by poor management of various talent tools. Additionally, such organizations are susceptible to costs that are linked to replacement of employees due to turnover and poor promotion practices (Russo & Hassink, 2012). In case an organization comprises people of varying ethnicities and/or higher proportions of women as compared to the average general industry, a question comes up concerning how reconciliation of differences among employees can be achieved without causing undue friction during every day employee interactions. Friction may occur due to conflicts that arise when a less qualified person is promoted at the expense of a more qualified woman or any person from the minority group. This observation implies that the perception of discrimination in promotion policies may lower the productivity or quality of work that is delivered due to reduced work morale.
Implications for management
Productivity and quality of services and goods that are offered for sale in the global marketplace are incredibly important for an organization that seeks to gain a competitive advantage in a market of excessive production and increasing competition. This research identifies glass ceiling as one of factors that lower the overall quality and employee productivity, especially where an organization may possess talented women and people from minority communities. Such people may be holding the necessary organizational vision, although they do not gain access to upward mobility in their career ladder. In this extent, this research has some significant implications for management. In any organization, it needs to consider reviewing policies that influence glass ceiling to eliminate inequalities as way of encouraging the deployment of employees as sources of competitive advantage. Glass ceiling constitutes one of the factors that hinder an organization from taking full advantage of all employees’ talent potential and managerial capabilities by segregating women and minorities from competing equally with others for prestigious job positions. Wilson (2014) asserts that many of the issues that cause friction in the organization are mainly attributed to perspectives of minority and majority workforce differences. Thus, the management has the responsibility of establishing policies with the intention of implementing them to prohibit glass ceiling. Indeed, some organizations that experience glass ceiling have policies that prohibit it. However, the intention to implement them in practice constitutes the main challenge.
Implications for research
The current research reviews scholarly works on the overall quality and productivity of an organization and glass ceiling in an effort to establish a likely relationship between the two. Although the discussions of the research ascertain the possibility of correlation between the two, it is not backed up by empirical data. Consequently, a room exists for measuring the degree of the correlation between the two variables by conducting a primary research using empirical data from organizations that encounter cases of glass ceiling. Any empirical research begins by conducting a study on the existence of a research problem. The current research has sought to identify and evidence the likelihood of experiencing low overall quality and productivity in corporations due to the glass ceiling effect. Additional research can help in establishing a significant level of the effects of glass ceiling on the overall quality and productivity of organizations in different industries and subsectors.
Recommendations
Upon considering that organizations need to build their competitive advantage by deploying people as the most important resources, it is important to utilize every talent potential and employee expertise in building a success story. In this extent, it is recommended that organizations consider evaluating their policies to identify cases of glass ceiling and/or adopt appropriate strategies for their elimination. A recommended standard practice to achieve this goal entails setting up a leadership upward mobility evaluation program for the employees within the HR department. Their success in eliminating inequalities that are attributed to glass ceiling can help in increasing the overall quality of an organization through increased effort by women and minorities in a bid to acquire promotions such programs develop benchmarks for low-ranking minority and talented women workers.
Development of a plausible knowledge on glass ceiling and its effects by today’s management professionals is crucial in the redefinition of new strategic direction for organizations that experience low overall quality and productivity. Many issues that are encountered in the work environment prompt intolerance concerning the differences that characterize workers. However, this problem can be solved using the approach of workforce diversity management. Embracing workforce diversity also means providing equal opportunities for upward mobility for all employees, despite their gender, racial, or ethnic backgrounds, by putting in place policies, which are backed up by clear intention of implementing them to prevent glass ceiling.
Reference List
Buckalew, E., Konstantinopoulos, A., Russell, J., & El-Sherbini, S. (2012). The Future of Female CEOs and their Glass Ceiling. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 3 (4), 145-153. Cook, A., & Glass, C. (2014). Above The Glass Ceiling: When Women and Racial/ Ethnic Minorities Promoted to CEO. Strategic Management Journal, 35 (7), 1080-1089. Jones, D. (2012). Which is a better predictor of job performance: Job satisfaction or life satisfaction? Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 15 (6), 77-97. Russo, G., & Hassink, W. (2012). Multiple Glass Ceiling. Industrial Relations, 51 (4), 892-915. Wilson, E. (2014). Diversity, Culture and the Glass Ceiling. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 21 (3), 83-89. Xiu, L., & Gunderson, M. (2014). Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor? Quintile Regression Decomposition of the Gender Pay Gap in China . International Labor, 35 (3), 306-326.
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Glass Ceiling for Women in Today’s Society
Introduction, what is glass ceiling, the changes over past decade, ways to improve the situation, works cited.
Glass ceiling is a term that describes invisible obstacles on a woman’s way to a leadership position. The circumstances have improved over the past decade, and now there are more female leaders. However, the situation still needs more improvement, and a number of ways exist to provide it.
“Glass ceiling” is an expression used to indicate the non-seen yet existing barriers, which prevent women from a further advancement by career ladder, usually to a leadership position. Recently, the term has been used to describe the similar problems of minorities of both genders, but in a general sense it applies to females of any race.
Glass ceiling prevents a great number of women from getting controlling positions in various spheres of social life, from politics and education to business. Consequently, the low presence of women on controlling positions make many other women believe that they are not worthy of such positions.
Despite the fact that the situation does not look delightful, the things have improved since ten years ago. Over the last few years, 500 major companies, such as PepsiCo, eBay, and Facebook, have appointed women for its top positions. The proportion of women in top positions is growing.
The number of top-earning women has increased dramatically over the past decade, which has a direct influence on their presence in top positions. Previously, female top earners were twice more likely to drop out of their earning group than male ones; now men and women are equally likely to drop out (Cassidy par. 7-8).
Additionally, gender roles in families are rapidly changing, and nowadays sitting at home, raising kids, and doing the housework is less a trend among women than it was ten years ago, even though it still ends many female careers. Meghna Sabharwal indicates an increase in the number of women holding senior executive positions and the facilitation of female upward mobility.
The researcher even considers that the term “glass cliff” is nowadays more relevant than “glass ceiling” (“glass cliff” is the situation when women are more likely to receive leadership roles) (Sabharwal 20-22). However, the problem of gender pay gap is still as urgent as it was ten years ago.
However, there is still room for an improvement. A number of ways exist for the society to break the glass ceiling. First, leaders should be appointed based on talent and potential instead of presumptions about their roles and abilities such as “she has children, so she will not have enough time for this job.” Second, organizations should establish a just evaluation system to avoid bias.
Third, successful female leaders should transfer their knowledge and experience to other females, provide them with feedback, and train them for future leadership positions. Fourth, professional networking needs to become gender-neutral.
Team-building activities need to be as gender-neutral as possible. Fifth, there should be no group, company, profit or non-profit organization, where harassment and discrimination are tolerated and go unpunished. Sixth, the employees and coworkers need to be understanding towards those females, who have to devote a significant amount of time to family.
The term “glass ceiling” defines the barriers on women’s way to high positions. Despite the improvement over the past decade, various techniques need to be used for further improvement.
Cassidy, John. “The Hole in the Glass Ceiling Is Getting Bigger.” The New Yorker . The New Yorker, 2014.
Sabharwal, Meghna. “From Glass Ceiling to Glass Cliff: Women in Senior Executive Service.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 25.2 (2013): 1-29. Print.
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Descriptive Elements and Conceptual Structure of Glass Ceiling Research
Associated data.
Data is available in the Web of Science database: https://www-webofscience-com.bibezproxy.uca.es/wos/alldb/basic-search (accessed on 26 July 2021).
Women make up more than half of the population of every society and are seen as the creators and instructors of the next generation. They are potentially significant human resources in the scientific, social, and cultural development of most countries and, consequently, special attention needs to be paid to the form of their occupational promotion. This paper describes the evolution of research on glass ceiling until July 2020. We compiled a database of 823 articles focused on the field and published in academic journals in the ISI WoS database. Bibliometric methods and techniques were used to describe the evolution of scientific activity, countries, and active institutions, most productive authors, most relevant sources, most influential documents, trend topics, and social structure researched. This determined the state of the art and described the evolution of the literature in this field, and it will help scholars refine existing and initiate new research agendas. A total of 846 documents were identified, and the results showed an upward trend in glass ceiling scientific production. Based on these analyses, possible forms of future research are proposed to advance toward the consolidation of this scientific discipline.
1. Introduction
Women’s social and economic position in the labor market, their preparation, and professional practice have changed over time, evolving favorably. However, women and men have different professional development and career training [ 1 ]. As the hierarchical level of the company increases, the presence of women decreases, while the presence of men increases, being in some cases total male presence [ 2 ]. This unequal presence of men and women in management positions is widely known and demonstrated by various research studies [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Several studies have tried to explain different aspects of these inequalities [ 1 ], identifying other metaphors [ 6 ], including what is known as the “glass ceiling” [ 7 ].
The metaphor of the “glass ceiling” has been widely used in the gender and business management literature [ 1 ]. The term “glass ceiling” was first used in the United States in the 1970s [ 8 ]. This metaphor represents the invisible barriers that hinder not only women but also other highly qualified minorities in their career progression and access to positions at the higher levels of the organization, primarily executive and managerial positions [ 8 , 9 , 10 ].
This concept reflects most situations of discrimination in the workplace [ 11 ] but has been generally used in the literature on working women [ 10 ]. Previous research confirms that many working women still have to work under a “glass ceiling” that they cannot break since women have less access to higher professional positions and income [ 10 ]. However, as highlighted in the literature, the presence of women in management positions is important to achieve gender balance as a symbolic act within these organizations and because this diversity can have numerous beneficial impacts on the organizations. This phenomenon can be explained both from the perspective of the agency theory and the upper echelon theory [ 12 ]. A gender-diversified board of directors causes companies to have a lower level of agency costs [ 13 ]. Women’s participation in management teams is associated with improvements in firm performance [ 14 ]. This performance is usually measured by financial results [ 15 ], corporate debt levels [ 16 ] and corporate social responsibility [ 17 ]. In this sense, Rodríguez-Fernández et al. [ 18 ] show that the financial performance of companies improves with the presence of women in the management team, as well as having a positive impact on company sales. Ruiz-Jiménez et al. [ 19 ] showed that gender diversity positively moderates the relationship between combining knowledge and innovation performance.
To advance this line of research and to be able to make an agenda of new practices and topics related to the glass ceiling, it is necessary to know and understand the progress of this topic. Specific research has been carried out on the above topics, but there are no other bibliometric studies that review the literature on the glass ceiling in a broad way. Therefore, we consider that our paper is essential to contribute to scientific knowledge by providing a global vision of this research topic. Bibliometric analysis can help understand the structure and development of this research topic and its evolution [ 20 ]. There are some bibliometric research studies on different metaphors of gender inequalities [ 6 , 21 ], but we found very few bibliometric studies on the glass ceiling [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. More specifically, Carpenter et al. [ 24 ] conducted a bibliometric analysis to examine the academic trend of women in neurosurgery. In the same vein, Ngaage et al. [ 23 ] compared female academic plastic surgeons’ academic titles and departmental leadership with a similar group of men. Da Rocha Grangeiro et al. [ 21 ] present a bibliometric analysis of the different metaphors related to gender inequality in leadership positions. In addition, Da Rocha Grangeiro et al. [ 6 ] used a systematic literature review of 1269 papers to identify and systematically summarize the relevant research on metaphors used to explain gender inequalities in the organizational context.
To fill this gap in the literature and to show a more realistic picture of the published research on the glass ceiling, our paper aims to carry out an exhaustive review of the scientific production of articles on the glass ceiling using bibliometric analysis. Essentially, we tried to provide answers to the following questions [ 25 ]:
How has the literature evolved?
In which sources are these articles published?
How have these sources grown?
Which are the most influential documents?
Which are the most frequent words?
Who are the most productive authors?
What countries show a more significant concern for this type of research?
What is the conceptual structure of the discipline like?
Once we have achieved these objectives, we will be able to guide glass ceiling research by considering innovative and emerging topics and suggest new lines of research. This study contributes theoretically and empirically to our understanding of the publication behaviors of glass-ceiling researchers.
To achieve our objectives, this research proceeds as follows. First, we describe the methodology, the origin of the data, and the analytical procedure. Second, we show the results of the descriptive bibliometric analysis and the conceptual structure. Finally, we present our conclusions and discuss the main implications, limitations, and future lines of research.
2. Materials and Methods
Bibliometric analysis constitutes a methodological innovation to the traditional literature review [ 26 ]. At the same time, it provides valuable information for researchers seeking to assess scientific activity [ 27 ]. A bibliometric analysis consists of applying statistical methods to determine quantitative and qualitative changes in a particular research topic, establishing the profile of publications in the topic, and detecting trends within a discipline [ 26 ]. More specifically, citation and co-citation analyses are based on purely quantitative approaches and are supported by the premise that citations are a reliable and valid indicator of scientific interactions between researchers and research institutions [ 28 , 29 ].
The research data used in this paper were obtained from the Web of Science (WoS) database, which includes scientific papers from all disciplines, in the top-ranked journals for the scientific community. Previous researchers have considered the WoS database as one of the most reliable sources of data for conducting systematic literature review studies [ 20 , 30 , 31 ].
Data were processed with Biblioshiny for Bibliometrix software [ 32 ], which is widely accepted as one of the most useful and comprehensive tools for this type of analysis [ 33 ].
The search query was performed in the WoS main collection, locating papers with the terms glass ceiling or roof ceiling in the title, abstract, or keyword fields. For efficient analysis, we limited the search to English-language articles only. Using a comprehensive language to provide an efficient bibliometric analysis provides us with several tools that compare keywords, article sources, and affiliations [ 34 ]. The query conducted yielded a total of 843 published papers on the glass ceiling to date. Book chapters and proceedings papers were removed as well as papers from 2021 so that the last year of analysis is complete, making the final sample a total of 823 research articles.
The correct application of the bibliometric methodology to the set of papers that make up the research conducted on a particular topic requires the examination of the main variables related to bibliometric research. Basing on some proposals from the academic literature [ 25 ], the selection of the main indices to be analyzed in this bibliometric study revolves around the following points: (i) trend in scientific production (years of publications and average of citations per year), (ii) title of the journals in which the papers have been published (core journals, source dynamics), (iii) documents (most cited papers, most frequent words, word cloud), (iv) most productive authors and affiliations, and (v) conceptual structure.
3. Results and Discussion
The descriptive characteristics of our sample is shown in Table 1 . We found 823 papers published in 580 journals from 1987 to 2020. All articles used 1377 plus keywords (ID) and 1622 author’s keywords (DE). A total of 1764 authors wrote these papers, of which only 308 articles were written by a single author. Collaborative authorship is predominant in this research topic, as shown by the Collaboration Index, 2.85, or the ratio of papers per author (0.467).
Descriptive characteristics of the literature on the “glass ceiling”.
3.1. Trend in Scientific Production
In the first stage, the publications on the “glass ceiling” were analyzed by year. The evolution of scientific production during the period analyzed is shown in Figure 1 . The general trend has been upward from 1990 to the present, increasing in the last few years. Publications in the first four years of the period analyzed are very scarce: one article per year. From 1991 onwards, two different periods can be observed. The first runs from 1992 to 2006; there is a slight increase in the number of papers, with an annual average of 11 papers. In 2007–2020, the rate of growth of publications on the glass ceiling is much higher, reaching almost 90 articles published in 2019. The most significant increase in publications occurs from 2016 onwards.

Annual scientific production.
The data show how interest in this research topic has increased in recent years. The glass ceiling phenomenon is a hot topic for society and researchers in the social sciences. As a hot topic, the scientific community needs to look further into the discipline. In addition, a number of hitherto unexplored gaps such as the barriers that various minorities, not only women, face in gaining access to managerial positions in an organization should be further explored. This growing trend parallels the results obtained by Da Rocha Grangeiro et al. [ 6 ]. They state that there has been an increase in the interest of academics in studying gender inequality in the workplace in the last decade.
An analysis of citations per year ( Figure 2 ) shows an increasing trend until 2006. Although the trend has been decreasing in the last decade, citations per year have averaged more than two.

Average of citations per year.
In addition to studying the scientific production and citations by year, it is worthwhile to explore the main topics, the countries where the articles have been published, and their authors’ affiliations. Figure 3 shows a three-way analysis with keywords on the left, countries in the middle, and affiliations on the right. It can be seen that the United States, in absolute terms, is the country that has published the most on all topics related to the glass ceiling, followed by the Netherlands, which has published mainly on the glass ceiling and gender. Other countries of particular relevance in all topics are Spain and the United Kingdom. The universities with the highest number of publications are Utrecht University, with collaborations with other universities in the United States, South Africa, Italy, and Johns Hopkins University.

Three-fold analysis of glass ceiling literature.
3.2. Sources
3.2.1. core journals.
A bibliometric analysis requires a study of the sources where the papers have been published. When analyzing the results, the first thing we found was the large number of sources where the papers on the “glass ceiling” were published. In total, there are 580 WoS sources, which demonstrates the multidisciplinary nature of the subject and the fact that there are not many specialized journals on this topic. There are various fields of knowledge from which the subject of the glass ceiling is studied. An analysis of the journal categories in WoS confirms the multidisciplinarity of the subject. Considering the first of the categories to which the journal belongs, the most frequent category is Psychology, accounting for 18.6% of the journals. In the second place, 15.7% of the journals publishing papers on the glass ceiling belong to the category Economics. Sociology is in third place, with 12.9% of the journals. Women Studies is next, with 7.2% of the journals, and the fifth place goes to Management and Industrial Relations and Labor, with 5.8%. Less frequently, papers have been published in journals from 16 other categories, including Business, Political Science, Engineering, Law, Ethics, Gender Studies, etc.
Of the total number of publications, seven of them published more than five articles, representing 9.23% of the scientific production. The journal that published the most articles on the subject is Gender in Management (26 papers). The second position is Business Ethics (13 papers), followed by Gender & Society (9 papers) and the International Journal of Manpower (8 articles). On the opposite side of the ranking are 465 journals that have only published one paper on the glass ceiling, representing 56.5% of the scientific production.
One measure of the quality of scientific journals is the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), which was created by Eugene Garfield [ 35 ]. The JIF is an indicator used to assess the international status and academic impact of journals [ 36 ] and is also a valuable indicator for evaluating the visibility of journals [ 37 ]. According to its JIF, each journal’s position will determine the quartile in which it is placed, with Q1 being the most important. The quartiles to which the journals belong have been analyzed, and 44.12% of the journals are, in some of their categories, in the first quartile, which indicates their high quality. The journals with the highest number of articles published on the glass ceiling, Gender in Management , is in Q3, the Journal of Business Ethics and Gender & Society are in Q1, and the International Journal of Manpower is in Q3.
Bradford [ 38 ] hypothesized that a few journals might publish the most papers on a specialized subject: for any of single discipline, one-third of the resources represent the most frequently journals of that discipline designated as the core source of publication. The practical application of Bradford’s law provides the mechanisms to select the journals that are the most productive and the most relevant to cover a given area of knowledge [ 39 ].
This paper observed that Bradford’s core (zone 1) consists of 75 journals that published 280 articles (see Table 2 ). Zone 1 represents the leading sources for publishing papers on the glass ceiling and represents 13% of the total sources. The average number of articles published per journal in this first group is 3.73 articles. Zone 2 consists of 285 papers published in 236 journals, while the remaining papers belonging to zone 3 were published in 269 different journals. The average number of articles published per journal decreases to 1.21 in the second group and 1 in the third group. Therefore, it is confirmed that the scientific production of the subject under study is uneven, following the guidelines of Bradford’s law. The literature dispersion in the sources is also shown because out of the 580 sources analyzed, only one article on the glass ceiling was published in 80% of them.
Journals classification according to Bradford’s law.
Da Rocha Grangeiro et al. [ 6 ] indicate that most articles on gender inequality in organizations are published in Gender in Management and Journal of Business Ethics . Therefore, these two journals are now consolidated as the most relevant for publishing work on the glass ceiling.
3.2.2. Source Dynamics
The evolution of the top five publications from 1987 to 2020 is shown in Figure 4 . Following Nasir et al. [ 34 ], we use the Loess smoothing technique, which is the locally weighted smoothing use regression analysis to demonstrate the smooth line with the help of a time plot or scatter plot [ 40 ]. Loess smoothing helps to better understand trends over time [ 40 ].

Source growth based on the number of publications per year.
The journals analyzed are Gender in Management , Journal of Business Ethics , Gender & Society, International Journal of Manpower , and Environmental Politics . Since 2002, there has been an increase in the number of publications in Gender in Management , which is the main journal for publishing glass ceiling papers, although the number has decreased in recent years. In 2020, Environmental Politics was the journal with the highest value, being the journal with the highest growth since 2013. The Journal of Business Ethics has also seen significant growth over the last five years. Gender & Society remains the same, and the International Journal of Manpower has experienced a decrease in the number of papers published on the subject under study since 2013.
3.3. Documents
3.3.1. most cited papers globally.
One of the indications of the quality of academic articles is the number of citations [ 41 ]. This study analyzes 823 papers on the glass ceiling, which together have had 18,011 citations in WoS. To determine the most influential papers, we based our analysis on the 10 most cited papers ( Table 3 ).
Top 10 most cited papers.
The most cited paper, which occupies the first position in the ranking, is Ridgeway [ 42 ], which has 509 citations since its publication, which means an annual average of 24.24 citations. This work has 2.5% of the total citations of all the documents analyzed. It is a theoretical paper in which, using expectation states theory, Ridgeway [ 42 ] describes how gender status beliefs create a network of restrictive expectations and interpersonal reactions that is one of the main causes of the glass ceiling. The paper by Ryan and Haslam [ 43 ] ranks second with 421 total citations and exceeds the previous paper in the number of citations per year. They analyze the performance of FTSE 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange before and after the appointment of a male or female board member.
In the third position is the work of Arulampalam et al. [ 44 ], with 342 total citations. The authors analyze gender wage gaps by sector in the wage structure in eleven European countries. They found that the gap generally widened toward the top of the wage distribution (the “glass ceiling” effect) and, in some cases, also widened at the bottom (the “sticky floor” effect).
Albrecht et al. [ 45 ] ranked fourth with 328 total citations. In their paper, they found that there is a wage gap in Sweden, which is a strong glass ceiling effect.
The paper by Tesch et al. [ 46 ] has 324 citations in total and ranks fifth. They conclude that women faculty in US medical schools rise more slowly than men. The gender differences in rank achieved are not explained by productivity or differential attrition in academic medicine [ 41 ]. The following paper in the ranking stands out in terms of average citations per year. It ranks sixth in terms of total citations, but it is the article with the highest number of citations per year, namely 30.8. In this paper, Adams and Funk [ 47 ] find significant differences between male and female managers’ risk values and attitudes.
The seventh paper in the ranking is published by Lyness and Heilman [ 48 ] and has 289 total citations. These authors examined the relationships of gender and job type (i.e., line or staff) with the performance appraisals of 448 senior managers and the relationships of performance appraisals with promotions over the following two years, finding significant differences between men and women.
The paper by Eagly and Carli [ 49 ] ranked eighth and has 285 total citations. In this paper, the authors argue that the glass ceiling is the sum of many obstacles that women face in their working lives, and it is only when all the pieces are put together that a new picture emerges of why women do not make it to the top.
Reynolds [ 50 ] ranks second to last of the top 10 articles. This paper has a total of 278 citations. The paper analyzes the factors that hinder or facilitate women’s access to political representation.
Finally, Maume [ 51 ] closes the list of the ten most cited papers with 243 citations. This paper examines race and gender composition in occupation of origin on movement to a managerial position. Maume [ 51 ] finds an impact of a “glass escalator” for white men, a “glass ceiling” for others, and contradicts the notion of a “declining importance of race”.
3.3.2. Main Words
Keywords enable readers of the papers to determine the conceptual structure of a discipline without consulting the full text of the paper [ 52 ]. A total of 1377 keywords were found in the articles analyzed. The most frequent words used in the literature on the glass ceiling were extracted using Bliblioshiny software and are shown in Table 4 . These words have the highest number of occurrences in the keywords of the articles. The most frequently used word in the glass ceiling articles is “women”, which appears in 166 articles, representing 12% of the scientific output. The second most used word is “gender”, representing 10% of the total number of publications. In third place, and at a greater distance, is the word “work”, which is repeated 56 times. Other most frequent words with similar occurrence are “management”, “discrimination”, “female”, “men”, “performance”, “race”, and “sex” appear less than 50 times.
Most frequent words.
The literature on the glass ceiling relates this research topic mainly to women’s and gender issues. This phenomenon occurs in the work environment, especially in management positions, leading to discrimination between men and women. Therefore, many researchers point to the terms “work”, “management”, “discrimination”, “female”, and “men” as keywords. Research has shown significant differences in performance between men and women who reach management positions [ 43 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. The frequent use of the terms “race” and “sex” proves that the glass ceiling phenomenon appears not only for gender but also for other reasons such as race. As mentioned above, [ 51 ] explored these issues in more detail.
Figure 5 shows the cloud of the most frequent words, where the more significant the word is, the greater the frequency of use in the papers. As mentioned above, the words women and gender stand out. It should be noted that among the ten most frequent keywords, many terms could be considered synonyms, thus reinforcing the concept they represent. Therefore, the words “gender” and “sex” as well as “women” and “female” are found to be similar. Other studies point to “men” as a keyword closely related to the previous terms.

Word cloud.
The analysis of the keywords is completed by analyzing their evolution over time ( Figure 6 ). The graph was made using the Loess smoothing technique [ 40 ]. It can be seen in the graph that the use of the keywords that have been growing most, in parallel until 2013, has been “women” and “gender”. From 2014 onwards, “women” has been used more than “gender,” Its growth and use are much higher in the last three years. The word “female” began to decrease in use from 2009 onwards, with “men” also experiencing a slight decrease between 2010 and 2013. “Race” has experienced a drop in usage from 2015 onwards. The rest of the keywords have followed an upward trajectory.

Word growth over time.
3.4. Authors
3.4.1. most relevant authors.
The significance of authors can be measured using several indicators. The total number of citations received for an author’s paper is used to indicate the influence of an author in the academic community. The total citations allow us to identify the most relevant authors in a given field of knowledge [ 28 ]. The impact of researchers is measured using the H-Index, by comparing papers with citations [ 56 ]. Table 5 shows the indicators for the 22 authors who have received more than 300 citations.
Most relevant authors.
Based on the total number of citations received, the most relevant authors are Ryan and Haslam, with 682 and 680 citations. This relevance is reinforced by the results of the H-Index, which identifies these authors as the ones with the highest impact, as their H-Index is higher than the rest. Ryan is also the author who has published the highest number of papers on the glass ceiling, six papers. This author received an average of 114 citations per paper, so we cannot say that he was the most influential author for any of his papers. In this respect, it is worth mentioning Ridgeway, who obtained a total of 509 citations with a single paper. The third highest-ranking is Lyness, with 563 citations for his three published papers. Booth has 377 citations for two published papers. However, it is interesting to note that Arulampalam and Bryan have received 342 citations for a single paper.
We complete the analysis of the most relevant authors by applying Lotka’s law to our data. Lotka’s law is a bibliometric law, developed by Alfred Lotka in 1926, on the distribution of authors according to their productivity [ 57 , 58 ]. According to this law, the largest number of authors publish the smallest number of papers. In contrast, the smallest number of authors publish the largest number of papers, this being the most prolific group. The results referring to Lotka’s law for our data are shown in Table 6 .
Lotka’s law.
It can be seen that only two authors out of the 1764 authors in the sample have published five or more papers on the glass ceiling, representing 0.20% of the authors. While for 95% of the authors, 1675 of them have published only a single paper on the topic.
3.4.2. Most Relevant Affiliation
Table 7 shows the top 10 countries according to the number of publications and citations they have achieved for published work on the glass ceiling.
Top 10 countries by publications and citations.
The most relevant country in terms of both the number of papers and citations received is the United States, with 546 papers and 10,374 citations. It is followed by the United Kingdom with 133 papers and 1951 citations. Spain is in third place with 79 papers, while in terms of citations received, it is in fourth place with 576 citations. Australia follows this with 1337 citations. Canada holds fourth place with 59 papers. Other countries in the top 10 are Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and China.
Table 8 shows the most relevant affiliations. Only those universities that occupy the first three positions have been included.
Most relevant affiliations.
The University of Utrecht published 17 papers on the glass ceiling. In the second place, with nine papers, are the Universities of Duke, Johns Hopkins, and California Irvine. In third place are the Universities of Exeter, Queensland, and Wisconsin, with eight papers each.
3.5. Conceptual Structure
In this section, we present the conceptual structure of the research on the glass ceiling. To do so, we first make, based on the relationships between the keywords, a co-occurrence network that will allow us to assess multiple topics on the glass ceiling over time. Second, we construct a two-dimensional matrix where we place the word networks forming the “thematic map”. Finally, we analyze the evolution of this thematic map.
3.5.1. Co-Occurrence Network
Co-word analysis is a method used to gain insight into the meaning of the content of papers and map the structure and development of a scientific discipline [ 20 , 59 , 60 ]. The co-word analysis method is based on two main premises: first, keywords are carefully selected by authors to represent the content of articles adequately; second, the co-occurrence of two topics in different articles indicates the correlation between them [ 60 ].
The co-occurrence network shown in Figure 7 has been generated with the biblioshiny software from the keywords plus. It can be seen that the keyword relationships are distributed in three clusters intertwined with each other through relationships between some keywords. The clusters represent groups of textual information that can be understood as semantic or conceptual groups of different topics of the research field [ 61 ].

Co-occurrence network.
The main cluster is the red cluster, and the word “women” has a dominant position followed by “gender”, “management”, “work”, “female”, “men”, and “performance”. This implies that these keywords have served as important centers in the collaborative word network linking other keywords. The set of related words shows that glass ceiling researchers have focused their work on women’s problems in managerial positions in organizations. The results are consistent with Tekeli [ 10 ], who states that the phenomenon “glass ceiling” has been generally used in the literature on women workers. The blue cluster is dominated by “discrimination” and “race” followed by other themes such as “gender-differences”, “gap”, “pay”, “employments”, “earnings”, “education”, “promotion”, etc. This group of related words identifies research that has focused on analyzing the factors or causes that lead to the emergence of the “glass ceiling” phenomenon. Finally, the network of co-occurrences shows a third, smaller, green cluster that represents the studies that have been carried out on the glass ceiling in the academic world.
3.5.2. Thematic Map
The research themes identified in the keyword co-occurrence relationship have been represented in a two-dimensional thematic map based on Callon et al. [ 62 ] density and centrality scores ( Figure 8 ). The main domain refers to all issues related to women, work, and discrimination, and it is represented on the bottom right, with high centrality and low density. This means that these themes are essential and cross-cutting in all glass ceiling research. With a high level of centrality and density, the domain “gender differences” appears, which means that we can identify this theme as one of the driving themes of glass ceiling research, together with “resources”. The literature shows how the management levels of the organization do not offer the same resources to all people, with certain minorities facing barriers to occupying certain positions [ 63 ]. In quadrant four of the graph, the domain “stereotypes” is shown. This indicates that this theme is considered peripheral and with great potential of development. With a low level of both centrality and density, we identify the domains “careers” and “sex-differences.” These could be interpreted as emerging themes within glass ceiling research. Currently, more research is being done on the obstacles for certain minorities to make a career within the organization at all levels, not only the study of the glass ceiling at the managerial level.

Thematic map.
The traditional problems of glass ceilings or barriers in the top management of companies are extending to all levels of the organization, and they are not exclusive to the highest positions in the organizational structure. In this sense, the literature has traditionally dealt with gender discrimination focused on management levels. However, we note that gender discrimination at other levels has not had the same development in other research, making gender discrimination in positions other than top management an emerging issue that needs further development. The structure of glass ceiling research is complex and rich with a high degree of specialization.
3.5.3. Thematic Evolution
In addition to the thematic map, there is the thematic evolution ( Figure 9 ), which shows the historical development of the glass ceiling literature. This thematic evolution is analyzed based on the keyword plus. As can be seen, the thematic evolution can be divided into three main time segments. The first segment is from 1987 to 2000, the second is from 2001 to 2010, and the last is from 2011 to 2020. The topics have evolved over time. According to our results, in the first period, the literature on the glass ceiling is widely spread over several topics. However, the papers deal primarily with issues such as men, women, gender, and to a lesser extent, performance stratification and sex discrimination. In the second period, from 2001 to 2010, the most frequent themes are women and managers, followed by race and discrimination. This indicates that in this decade, the studies focus on the problems that lead to the emergence of the glass ceiling at the managerial level. Finally, between 2010 and 2020, the themes increasingly evolve toward women, discrimination, and performance.

Thematic evolution.
4. Conclusions
There are still barriers in organizations that prevent certain groups, especially women, from continuing their professional careers and accessing management positions. Researchers have been analyzing the “glass ceiling” phenomenon for years, but it is necessary to know what has been published on the subject to offer new needs and lines of research. Therefore, this paper has studied the relevance of the literature on the glass ceiling by analyzing the fundamental aspects, and the topics analyzed in the literature and their relationships (conceptual structure).
The absence of studies conducting a descriptive review of the literature on the “glass ceiling”, including its evolution, authors, main affiliations, sources, and countries, as well as its conceptual structure, prompted us to develop this bibliometric study of articles published in WoS in the period 1987–2020. An essential contribution of this work is the temporal breadth over which the study was conducted, as there has been no other research that has previously analyzed papers on the glass ceiling over such a long period in the leading academic database. This work complements previous studies that have explored the literature on gender inequalities in organizations [ 6 ]. Firstly, a descriptive bibliometric analysis was developed, and, secondly, the subtopics analyzed in the literature and their relationships (conceptual structure) were identified through a co-word analysis, which is one of the least common bibliometric techniques in business studies (13.6%) [ 20 ].
We identified some relevant findings from the descriptive bibliometric study. First, the glass ceiling phenomenon has been a growing research topic and is nowadays a hot topic in business management research and gender literature. Second, the broad spectrum of journals where the analyzed articles are published shows the multidisciplinarity of the topic. The journals Gender in Management and Journal of Business Ethics are the ones with the highest number of articles published. These two journals are also the most relevant publications on inequalities in the workplace [ 6 ]. In recent years, the journal Environmental Politics has experienced the greatest growth in publications on the glass ceiling. However, the glass ceiling to which most of the articles published in this journal refer are those related to the barriers to achieving environmental status. Third, concerning authors, the most relevant in terms of the number of citations and their H-Index are Ryan and Haslam, who are both from the University of Exeter. The most cited paper is Ridgeway [ 42 ], from Stanford University. Fourth, the most relevant countries in terms of publications on the subject are the United States and the United Kingdom. The most productive universities in terms of the number of papers published are Utrecht University (Netherland), Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of California, Irvine (USA).
With regard to the conceptual structure, a co-word analysis was carried out, from which the following conclusions were drawn. First, the words “women” and “gender” are the most used keywords and the ones that have experienced the greatest growth in recent years. Second, the co-occurrence network of co-words has allowed us to identify the main themes of analysis in terms of the “glass ceiling”. A dominant theme in the published studies is the problems faced by women in managerial positions in organizations. The second topic of study is factors or causes leading to the glass ceiling phenomenon, identifying multiple grounds for discrimination. Thirdly, the research structure has proved to be complex and rich, with a high degree of specialization. The theme of women is consolidated as a basic theme within glass ceiling research, and aspects related to gender difference and resources in the workplace are identified as a driving theme.
4.1. Practical Implications
This paper makes important practical contributions. It has critically assessed the literature on the glass ceiling by identifying the most relevant journals for researchers to publish their work on the topic, leading authors who are studying the topic, the most cited papers, and the most common research topics. Our analysis allows us to identify new research trends that academics and researchers can take advantage of in their future work. Academic institutions interested in studying this topic have a guide to the leading journals and can subscribe to those not yet available to their researchers.
4.2. Limitations and Future Research Agenda
The study’s main limitations stem from the selection of the sample of articles and the bibliometric techniques used. We used a single database (WoS) to select the documents under study. However, other databases such as Scopus or Abi-inform could also be used to increase the number of documents analyzed. Concerning bibliometric techniques, a co-citation analysis or bibliographic coupling could be carried out.
As future lines of research, this glass ceiling review should be complemented with other bibliometric techniques to understand the research topic’s social and intellectual structure. Similarly, data searches could be extended to new search queries and other terms to search for the resulting articles. Another limitation may be related to the fact that the study used abstracts and titles rather than full text to select papers. However, as already pointed out by Vázquez-Carrasco and López-Pérez [ 64 ] and Lechuga Sancho et al. [ 25 ], although it is necessary to mention certain research limitations, we should also bear in mind that the shortcomings of these studies are inherent to bibliometric analysis as a genre.
Based on the most important issues identified and considering that the glass ceiling is a hot topic in business management, more research is still needed on the problems faced by groups other than women. Little is known about the glass ceiling in terms of ethnicity or sexual orientation. It would be interesting to learn about the problems faced by people of color and LGBTI people in gaining access to management positions. Similarly, the “glass ceiling” issue in specific economic sectors remains unexplored; for example, it is interesting to learn about this phenomenon of inequality in the tourism sector, which is a sector with predominantly female employment.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, M.P.L.S. and S.M.-F.; methodology, S.M.-F. and M.P.L.S.; validation, M.P.L.S. and S.M.-F.; formal analysis, M.P.L.S. and S.M.-F.; investigation, S.M.-F. and M.P.L.S.; resources, S.M.-F.; data curation, M.P.L.S.; writing—original draft preparation, M.P.L.S. and S.M.-F.; writing—review and editing, S.M.-F.; visualization, S.M.-F.; supervision, M.P.L.S.; project administration, M.P.L.S.; funding acquisition, M.P.L.S. and S.M.-F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
This publication and research has been partially granted by the Programme for the Promotion and Encouragement of Research and Transfer of the University of Cadiz, and partially granted by INDESS (Research Universitary Institute for Sustainable Social Development), University of Cadiz, Spain.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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- The glass ceiling
The glass ceiling - Essay Example

- Subject: English
- Type: Essay
- Level: Undergraduate
- Pages: 1 (250 words)
- Downloads: 3
- Author: wlangosh
Extract of sample "The glass ceiling"
Bypassing the Glass Ceiling in Psychology The glass ceiling is something that prevents women professionals from being able to enter in to the highest echelons of a profession. Though recent advancements for women in the workplace have allowed them to achieve higher rates of entrances in various professions, there are various systematic and cultural barriers that prevent women from advancing to the truly highest levels. These systematic barriers include things like minimal maternity leave, allowance for family emergencies and cares, and so on.
The cultural barriers include issues like false perceived superiority of men in administrative and leadership roles, diminishment of women’s voices in decision-making situations and valuation of perceived ‘masculine’ traits, such as, aggression and dominance over perceived ‘feminine’ traits like understanding and patients, especially in highly competitive and political environments. The glass ceiling has a variety of effects on women. The first and most obvious is to subtly exclude them from reaching top positions in their fields.
While a few women do make it into upper management or leadership roles in their fields, the vast majority of most professions, and especially the highest echelons of those professions, remain dominated by men. This process can also create a significant negative impact on a woman’s personal life. Most obviously, professional stalling that occurs when women hit the glass ceiling and are no longer able to advance creates significant emotional problems, such as, professional frustration and decreased self-worth.
Women are often made to make lose-lose choices, for instance, having to decide between having a child, and thus loosing time, energy and prestige at work, or focusing on their careers and losing out on family opportunities – choices men are never forced to make. (For question three, maybe focus on things such as the fact that you can use traditionally feminine traits to be an excellent psychologist, you can side-step traditional hierarchies that exist in other professions, and publish work in a merit-based fashion to achieve prestige without needing to go through patriarchal hierarchies.)
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