Glass Ceiling“Those who complain about glass ceiling

should keep in mind that glass can be shattered if one strikes it hard enough and

long enough.”

What is glass ceiling???Glass ceiling is an unacknowledged discriminatory barrier that prevents minority (women in this case) from rising to position of power or responsibility within an organization.

In this context, what ceiling means is that there is limit to how far some one can climb the hierarchy.

Where as Glass emphasizes on that while every thing is very clear, very real one can see each and every thing very clearly, that is it is transparent and not obvious to the observer.

The term glass ceiling is most often applied in the business situation in which women feels that men are very much involved in the usage of power and women find it difficult to or rather impossible to reach to that level or break the glass ceiling.

Some referencesMeg Whitman became the President and CEO of eBay, largest

online auction company of the world.Carly Florina, became the CEO of H.P.Carly Florina, again became CEO of Dow 50 Company, and

the CEO of a fortune 50 Company.Patrica F. Ruso, President and CEO of Lucent Technologies.Indira Noori, chief financial officer aand president of Pepsico.

And she was the highest ranking women in the corporate world of America.

Fortune ranked her as one of the most powerful women.Naina lal Kidwai , vice chairman and MD of Indian

Investment banking division of HSBC,She was the third amongst the most powerful women of Asia according to Fortune.

Representation of Women in Management,2000

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DOES GLASS CEILING REALLY EXISTS????

Debate Still continues…In Ladies perception Glass Ceiling Still exists.And if we ask boys about Glass ceiling the

answer is NO SUCH PHENOMINON EXISTSAnd one thing I would like to share that all

the names I mentioned in the reference have been asked the same question and everybody here would b surprised to know that they denied the existence of Glass Ceiling.

Some words……“I hope that we are at a point that every body has

figured out that there is no glass ceiling”- Carly

“I did face a few obstacles in my career but most were because I was very young, not so much because of gender bias people with much more experience seemed to be available and that was a problem sometimes but none due to my being a women”

- Naina“ICICI has always displayed more of a pro-women bias

than an anti women one. I have never encountered a glass ceiling here.”

-Lalita

All of them said that it took a little extra effort, some compromises and a little bit of support from the family to reach the top.

But still the debate is on between the feminists and analysts……..

Reasons why feminists feel that glass ceiling existsMale dominated management, which made

all the decisions for the company.Lack of proper anti discrimination law and

government action on discriminationMen's attitude towards problems faced by

womenPreference of men over women of same

educational qualification and caliber.Sexual harassment was seen as another

major hindrance in the women's career.

Story of LINDA

MORGAN

Story of KAREN

BAURIES KING

Now in support of these ladies as well as many other victims, the feminists group took the front seat of the argument and emphasized on the existence of glass Ceiling.

And analysts on the other hand argued upon the non existence of glass ceiling

According to analysts there were some major reasons because of which women could not achieve higher positions in any organizations.

The reasons quoted were:Women left their jobs midway due to personal

problems(like marrige and raising family)In order to get into top management it

requires commitment,dedication and determination, which was lacking.

Less paid because they worked for lesser time and joined low risk jobs.

Debate still goes on…..

Asian PerspectiveWomen are better seen as a homemaker. So the corporate organization in these

countries did not seem to favor women It was a matter of a policy for not hiring

women.

Some Asian examplesVideocon international – “ we are from an

orthodox family”Tata motors- “no women rule”Many other company hire ladies for their

work and not for the corporate work.On the other hand many company hire only

ladies because of their inter- personel skills

Still the feeling of GLASS CEILING exists and to avoid that many ladies/ women have became entrepreneurs

However becoming enterpreneurs was not the solution to the problem of the glass Glass ceiling.

My perceptionNo glass ceiling in the corporate worldMany incidents where women perform better

than their colleaguesAll about passion, obsession and

determination for the workMany have done it n many are still doing

it.but in many these thing are missing and they call it

THE GLASS CEILING

A survey revealed that women graduates from the premier B-school like the IIM’s were not very keen to build a career.

A study on women graduates from IIM A showed that more than 70% of them do not possess a career.

AND STILL THE GLASS CEILING

EXISTS!!!!