GLASS

CEILING

CEILING: “Ceiling means how far someone can climb the hierarchy.” And

GLASS: “Glass emphasize that everything is very clear and real that everyone can see everything very clear, that it is transparent and not obvious to the observer.”

GLASS CEILING:

The unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.

OR

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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.

DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE:

The Glass Ceiling

OVERVIEW:

An economic term, ''glass ceiling'' is a phrase that refers to the situation where a person with superior skill or experience is surpassed and locked in a job role due to their race, ethnicity, sex or other discriminatory factors, most commonly race or sex. This term has also recently been used to describe discrimination against other groups including deaf, gay/lesbian men and women, blind, and different age groups.

For any woman who has yet to feel the affects of the glass ceiling on her career, she should consider herself lucky.

As recently as last year, a study by consulting firm Accenture indicated that about 70 percent of women and 57 percent of men believe an invisible barrier-- a glass ceiling --prevents women from getting ahead in business. But there is a glimmer of hope.

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According to BreaktheGlassCeiling.com 97 percent of Fortune 100 companies have at least one woman on their boards and 188 companies in the Fortune 500 have two or more women directors; 34 companies have three or more women directors. And while 16 of 100 Senators are women – an all time high -- 74 women sit in the House of Representatives, including the first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

REASONS WHY GLASS CEILING

EXIST????

Gender bias

Lack of fair assessment

Lack of awareness

Labour laws in need of revision

Unfair hiring practices

Misinterpretation of data

Attitudinal factors

So why do women still have to fight for the right to advance to the top? There are four primary issues that perpetuate the glass ceiling.

Exclusionism

One of the biggest issues that women still face is the continuing issue of the “old boy’s club” and women’s exclusion from this network. So what are they doing about it?

According to recent information from the Small Business Administration the number of self-employed women has increased by 33 percent over the last twenty years while one third of all American small businesses are owned by women.

Not all women are in a position to start their own business, so work on building alliances. Business has a lot to do with developing good relationships. Network with other professionals, male and female, both inside and outside the organization. Having strong interpersonal and team building skills will go a long way in advancing a career.

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Commitment

Too many employers believe that women will quit beginning a family or caring for elderly parents; therefore, organizations are less likely to invest in a woman’s career, when in fact the lack of opportunity is quite often what pushes them away.

Show a commitment and willingness to take on new challenges and risks. Go beyond book learning and higher education, and learn about the business. Think big-picture strategic issues, market trends, and changes in the industry. Be vocal about personal ambitions.

Wage Gap

Employers sometimes view women as less committed because they are paid less, so they pay them less because they are less committed. According to BusinessWeek, April 2007, while women earn just 80 percent of what men earn one year out of college, that figure drops to 69 percent at the ten year mark.

Overcoming wage gap differences can be difficult because most women are starting out at a disadvantage, and to try to close the gender gap is often impossible. Learn to negotiate and ask for what you deserve. Women should not settle for what they are offered.

Instead, they should research the market value for their skills. The human resources department is a great place to start because they can determine where someone falls within the company’s established salary range for each position based upon education, years of experience, and number of years with the company.

Role Models

Though there are more role models today than ever before, it is still difficult to have someone to emulate when they are facing the same upward climb.

One of the best ways to address this issue is to find a mentor – male or female. Women should select someone who will show them the ropes, help them navigate the political minefields and point them in the right direction to further their career. When they make it, they need to reach back and help the woman behind them. When possible, promote and hire other well-qualified women

Yes, the business world is still riddled with a variety of misconceptions, assumptions and historical biases towards women in the workplace. But just because there are still difficulties, doesn’t mean women should stop trying. It is important to for them to persevere and go for what they want because they just may find they can at least crack the glass ceiling.

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Different types of glass ceiling

barriers:

Different wages for the same or comparable work

Discrimination against people due to their race, ethnicity, religion

or age

A lack of family-friendly work environments

Discrimination against people who may be gay, single parents, or

non-parents

Gender stereo-typing or preconceptions of women's work roles and

abilities

Requirement of long hours for advancement

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Levels and types of glass ceiling

barriers:

Societal barriers

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission of the United States Department of Labor identified two major societal barriers that cause and reinforce a glass ceiling. The supply barrier is related to opportunity and achievement. The difference barrier manifests itself as conscious and unconscious stereotypes, prejudice, and bias related to gender and ethnicity.

Internal business barriers

The following business-based barriers were identified:

Outreach and recruitment practices that fail to seek out or recruit women and minorities

Prevailing culture of many businesses is a white male culture and such corporate climates alienate and isolate minorities and women

Initial placement and clustering in staff jobs or in highly technical and professional jobs that are not on the career track to the top

Lack of mentoring and management training Lack of opportunities for career development, tailored training, and rotational job

assignments that are on the revenue-producing side of the business Little or no access to critical developmental assignments such as memberships on

highly visible task forces and committees Special or different standards for performance evaluation Biased rating and testing systems Little or no access to informal networks of communication Counterproductive behavior and harassment by colleagues

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission and independent research suggest that the underlying cause of the glass ceiling is the perception of many white males that as a group they are losing control and opportunity. Many middle- and upper-level white male managers regard the inclusion of minorities and women in management as a direct threat to their own chances for advancement. As a result of this "upper- and middle-level white

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male resistance", business-based barriers are not always being as forcefully addressed as they should.

Governmental barriers

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission pinpointed three governmental barriers to the elimination of the glass ceiling. They are:

Lack of vigorous and consistent monitoring and law enforcement Weaknesses in the collection of employment-related data which makes it difficult

to ascertain the status of groups at the managerial level and to disaggregate the data

Inadequate reporting and dissemination of information relevant to glass ceiling issues

Other barriers

Different pay for comparable work. Sexual, ethnic, racial, religious discrimination or harassment in the workplace Lack of family-friendly workplace policies (or, on the flipside, policies that

discriminate against gay people, non-parents, or single parents) Exclusion from informal networks; Stereotyping and preconceptions of women's

roles and abilities; Failure of senior leadership to assume accountability for women's advancement; Lack of role models; Lack of mentoring

Requiring long hours for advancement, sometimes called the hour-glass ceiling.

EXAMPLES OF GLASS CEILING:

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GLASS CEILING OF DEAF PEOPLE:

A foreign office high-flier appointed as Britain's deputy ambassador to Kazakhstan has had her posting revoked after officials ruled that her deafness makes it too expensive to send her abroad. Jane Cordell, who was lauded for her work championing disability rights during a previous diplomatic role in Poland, is suing the Foreign Office for discrimination after being told that the additional cost of providing her with trained "lip s

GLASS CEILING EFFECT:

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HOW TO CONTROL IT????

Building an inclusive work environment that allows everyone to reach their potential

The Pipeline Theory:

The Pipeline Theory describes the situation in which women are placed on a track that would eventually promote them to a top executive position. However, this process is long, and women sometimes spend 20-35 years in the pipeline waiting to advance to CEO positions. While many argue that women in the pipeline are becoming sufficiently trained and educated to compete for top-level positions, others contend that women in the pipeline are being unjustly held back from advancement. The latter would call this situation the “leaky pipe,” describing a situation in which the pipeline has not advanced women to top-level positions due to “leaks” and “blockages” in the pipe. For example, some believe that there are not enough women in the pipeline. Secondly, women make many sacrifices and tradeoffs while moving up the pipeline. Lastly, the environment in many companies discourages women from advancing because they are male dominated. In order for the pipeline to work there must be a desire from women to fill the high executive positions in order for them to even be considered for those positions.

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The glass ceiling and disclosure of

sexual orientation:

In order to excel in the workplace it is important that people are familiar with a worker's strong attributes. This may present obstacles for the LGBT community because their sexual orientation may be a large factor that plays in to how they identify themselves. In a study done by Ragins in 2004, disclosure of sexual orientation has been found to have some positive, some negative, and nonsignificant effects on work attitudes, psychological strain, and compensation. Ragins, Singh and Cornwell in 2007, found that in some cases disclosure of sexual orientation has been found to result in reports of verbal harassment, job termination, and even physical assault. (D'Augelli & Grossman, 2001; Friskopp & Silverstein, 1996). In their study, Ragins, Singh and Cornwell examined fear of disclosure only among LGBT employees who had not disclosed, or had not fully disclosed their sexual identity at work. Promotion rate and compensation were used to measure career outcomes. Promotions were defined as involving two or more of the following criteria that may occur within or between organizations: significant increases in salary; significant increases in scope of responsibility; changes in job level or rank; or becoming eligible for bonuses, incentives, and stock plans. Given this definition, respondents were asked how many promotions they had received over the past 10 years. Respondents also reported their current annual compensation, which included salary, bonuses, commissions, stock options, and profit sharing. The findings showed that those who feared more negative consequences to disclosure reported less job satisfaction, organizational commitment, satisfaction with opportunities for promotion, career commitment, and organization-based self-esteem and greater turnover intentions than those who feared less negative consequences.

MY PERSPECTIVE:

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REFERENCES:

The Glass Ceiling: Four Reasons Why it Exists and What to Do About it | Suite101.com http://deborah-s-hildebrand.suite101.com/the-glass-ceiling-a23113#ixzz1XB8LrVs3

www.google.com www.wikipedia.com Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1995a). Good for Business: Making Full Use

of the Nation's Human Capital. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, March 1995.

Fox, Mary F. and Sharlene N. Hesse-Biber. Women at Work. Palo Alto, Calif.: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1984, ISBN 978-0-87-484525-9.

Giele, Janet Z. and Leslie F. Stebbins. Women and Equality in the Workplace. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 978-1-57-607937-9.

Hesse-Biber, Sharlene N. and Gregg L. Carter. Working Women in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-515047-6.

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Lyness, Karen S., and Donna E. Thompson (1997). Above the Glass Ceiling?: A Comparison of Matched Samples of Female and Male Executives. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 82, No. 3, pp. 359–375, doi:10.1037/0021-9010.82.3.359.

Catalyst. Women and Men in U.S. Corporate Leadership: Same Workplace, Different Realities? New York, N.Y.: Catalyst, 2004, ISBN 978-0-89-584247-3.

Catalyst. 2010 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Senior Officers and Top Earners.

Federal Glass Ceiling Commission. Good for Business: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, March 1995.

Federal Glass Ceiling Commission. Solid Investments: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, November 1995.

Carvajal, Doreen. The Codes That Need to Be Broken. The New York Times, January 26, 2011.

Cotter, David A., Joan M. Hermsen, Seth Ovadia, and Reece Vanneman (2001). The glass ceiling effect. Social Forces, Vol. 80 No. 2, pp. 655–81.

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