Glass Ceiling

a) summary

A glass ceiling is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier that keeps a given demographic (typically applied to minorities) from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. The United States Federal Glass Ceiling Commission defines the glass ceiling as "the unseen, yet unreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." The metaphor was first coined by feminists in reference to barriers in the careers of high-achieving women. In the US, the concept is sometimes extended to refer to obstacles hindering the advancement of minority women, as well as minority men. Minority women often find the most difficulty in "breaking the glass ceiling" because they lie at the intersection of two historically marginalized groups: women and people of colour. The very first person to use the phrase was Marilyn Loden during a 1978 speech. The concept of the glass ceiling was later popularized at the National Press Club in July 1979.This was part of an ongoing discussion of a clash between written policy of promotion versus action opportunities for women at HP.

b) possible essay questions

1. Are gender quotas able to abolish the glass ceiling?

2. Does parental leave initiate the glass ceiling?

3. Are the traditional gender roles still keeping women from getting access to power and control in their professional career?

4. Does the glass ceiling show signs of breaking in the 21st century?

c) Claims and topic sentences

1. a) Quotas for women compensate for actual barriers that prevent women from running high positions.

b) Quotas are against the principle of equal opportunity for all, since women are given preference over men.

2. a) While women are on parental leave, men can continue to improve their career which leads to a lag of the female career.

b) Nowadays, more and more men participate in the childcare taking parental leave or reducing their working hours. This leads to more equality in building up a professional career.

3. a) Laws, government policies, institutions and organizations have largely abolished the traditional idea of gender roles.

b) Even if traditional gender roles aren’t legally fixed nowadays, the expectations of the living together in our society are still based on traditional gender roles.

4. a) The growing sensitisation and the political will to improve gender equality discourages the continuance of the glass ceiling in some countries.

b) In many countries, structural barriers to gender equality are not being addressed by governmental policies or fail to recognise the different needs of women and men.

d) examples

1. a) The number of women board members at 734 large publicly traded companies across the Europe is now 23%, according to EU data. In countries with quotas in place, it’s higher: 44% in Iceland, 39% in Norway, 36% in France.

b) If ten people of a selection of three women and fourteen men are being elected on a committee, and if the quota system envisages a female recruitment of 30%, 100% of the women will become part of the committee without noticing their skills while only 50% of the men can be elected due to high qualifications and abilities.

2. a) A woman, who stays at home for two years due to a baby break, often has to restart her professional career from a lower level than before which provokes a disequilibrium between male and female career.

b) If a couple decides to share the childcare by both working part-time, the woman doesn’t have to go on a parental leave for several years but both parents reduce their working time which leads to an equal buildup of careers.

3. a) The European “Directive on equal treatment of men and women engaged in a self-employed activity” of 2010 discourages the coercion into traditional gender roles.

b) Statistics of the European Union in 2015 show that cooking and household activities are done by 78,7% of women while only 33,7% of men participate in such care activities.

4. a) Due to the adoption of measures like the quota system in many European countries, the number of women board members at 734 large publicly traded companies across the Europe is now 23%, up from 11% in 2007, according to EU data.

b) In Saudi Arabia, women are discouraged from working jobs that would put them in contact with men. The unemployment rate for women is 33 percent for women, 7 percent for men.

e) solutions or fears

possible solutions:

Recruit and promote based on talent and potential Promote gender-neutral networking Provide flex-time options for all transparent talent management and performance evaluation systems

Fears:

For many women, the glass ceiling is real although often subtle and hidden. But it is not just the external barriers that are hampering women’s advancement. Of equal importance is the inner glass ceiling holding many smart, capable and talented women back from the top jobs. Fear of not being good enough ; inner glass ceiling : the Inner Glass Ceiling is the incessant self talk going on in a woman’s head. Women internalize what’s going on around them and are more susceptible to patterns of overly critical self talk; the need to be perfect, fear of not being good enough or of not being worthy, just to name a few. The negative self talk often leads to fear, inaction and shying away from doing what it takes to achieve their potential and to be seen, heard and valued as a leader.

f) Pictures

g) Vocabulary file

gender bias – geschlechtsbezogener Verzerrungeffekt

barrier – Hindernis, Barriere

brittle – zerbrechlich, spröde

to be reluctant to do sth – sich dagegen sträuben etw zu tun

self-imposed – selbst verordnet

prejudice – Vorurteil

intangible – nicht greifbar, immateriell

to shatter – zerbrechen

quota allocation – Quotenaufteilung

quota claim – Quotenanspruch

gender equity – Gleichberechtigung

gender gap – Geschlechtsunterschied

gender stereotyping – geschlechtsspezifische Rollenverteilung

equilibrium wage – Gleichgewichtlohn

business hierarchy – Geschäftshierarchie

h) additional information

Directives (EU):

The aims set out in the EU treaties are achieved by several types of legislative acts, including regulations, directives, recommendations and opinions that go into more detail about the goals that the Member States have agreed on in the treaties. A “directive” is a legislative act that sets out a goal that all EU countries must achieve. However, it is up to the individual countries to decide how. In the field of gender equality there are a number of joint directives:

• The Directive on equal treatment of men and women in statutory schemes of social security(1979);

• the Pregnant Workers’ Directive(1992);

• the Directive on equal treatment in employment and occupation(2000);

• the Directive on equal treatment of men and women in the access to and the supply of goods and services (2004);

• the Recast Directive (2006). which has modernized and simplified existing provisions and which, with effect from 15 August 2009 onwards, has repealed the following older directives:

• the Directive on equal pay for men and women (1975);

• the Directive on equal treatment of men and women in employment (1976);

• the Directive on equal treatment of men and women in occupational social security schemes (1986);

• the Directive on the burden of proof, generally establishing that the burden of proof in cases of sex discrimination lies on the employer (1997);

The Recast Directive had to be implemented by 15 August 2008.

• the Directive on parental leave (2010);

• the Directive on equal treatment of men and women engaged in a self-employed activity (2010);

Our reality today:

• Structural barriers to gender equality:

o Women and girls lack sufficient autonomy and agency

o Women and girls lack bodily integrity, including freedom from violence and reproductive rights

o Women’s rights organisations are underresourced

o Women and girls are excluded from decision making

o Institutions are discriminatory, unaccountable and lack expertise in gender equality

o Laws and government policies are discriminatory or fail to recognise the different needs of women and men

o Discriminatory social norms perpetuate and condone gender inequality

o Women and girls have less access to and control over resources than men and boys

o Public services are inadequate to address gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights

o Macroeconomic policies create and perpetuate gender inequality

• Women’s ability to generate and control regular income is a central factor in gaining greater decision making power within households and society, and in achieving gender equality more broadly. Yet women are still poorer than men, and earn less than men even when they do comparable work. Women with full-time jobs still earn only about 77 percent of their male counterparts' earnings.

• Less than 30 percent of the world's researchers are women.

• Women currently hold 24, or 4.8 percent of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies.

• By 2020, there will be 1.4 million open technology jobs in the U.S. and, at the current rate of students graduating with degrees in computer science, men will outnumber women 4:1.

• Around the world, only 32 percent of all national parliamentarians are female. That's more than double the number in 1995, but still a marker of slow change.

• African-American women earn 64 cents and Latina women earn 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man.

• In 2016, just 57 percent world's working-age women are in the labor force, compared to 70 percent of working-age men.

• 62 million girls are denied an education all over the world.

• In Saudi Arabia, women are discouraged from working jobs that would put them in contact with men. The unemployment rate for women is 33 percent for women, 7 percent for men.

• Latest Gender Equality Index indicators in the European Union (2015):

Quotas:

• May 2016 (Quotas in the EU): If a goal of the quotas is to bring more women into the top ranks of business, they seem to be working. Norway was the first to introduce quotas for women in 2003. Iceland, Spain and France followed with 40% targets. Last year, Germany became the largest economy to impose a quota, mandating 30% of supervisory board seats be filled by women. Across Europe, the number of women on boards is climbing, although from a low base. The number of women board members at 734 large publicly traded companies across the Europe is now 23%, up from 11% in 2007, according to EU data. In countries with quotas in place, it’s higher: 44% in Iceland, 39% in Norway, 36% in France and 26% in Germany.