Breaking the ceiling Glass
Glass ceiling is an invisible barrier limiting women from progressing to the top of the corporate ladder. In the article, Women in leadership: persistent problem or progress”. Kochanowski argues that there is multiple reason for the “glass ceiling” barrier. She argues that women face gender based stereotypes. Women receive the argument that they all have family responsibilities. Women’s traditional roles hinder their ability to succeed In. Although research suggests that “women who are highly career focused found little evidence in work and family interference between men and women”. In the “The real reason so few women are in the boardroom” Nemko argues that women do not make progress at the top because they would
However, women are less likely to get a top position job. Women are not able to surpass the phenomenon “glass ceiling”. Naturally, such a significance topic has spawned heated debate. There are people who believe that women put more efforts at home rather than at work. Although, People think women don’t have the capabilities to run a company, Executives should consider them because they are more biologically better nurtures and they understand the women consumers (Hall).
Women are better leaders because they are better nurturers. They are able to talk to their employees better and understand them better. It is also easier for them to build relationships. According to Zagner “women will excel at nurturing competencies such as developing others, inspiring and motivating others, relationship building, collaborating and teamwork”. When there is a company that does all this it will lead to a well-organized and prosperous company. It will also result in a more interactive environment in the company (Sherwin). According to the CEO of Influence & Co John Hall, when you are nurturing you are creating an environment where you can ensure that every interaction — with leads, partners, recruits, and the public at large — will be enriching and inspiring. Plus, your employees will develop a sense of pride, connecting them to the company on a profoundly emotional level.
That’s important because there are more women consumers (Nekmko para. 1). In order to have a successful business, you need to have successful employees. In order to have successful employees you need to have great managers. Peter Drucker, one of the greatest management consultants, once said “The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the of the worker but of the manager.” A good manager is what drives a company. Women Managers can also speak to the consumers. Women drive 70-80% of all consumer purchasing (Brennan). Having women as managers will lead to relevancy. Companies have to be able to communicate with the market place and if you don’t represent the market place it will be difficult to keep up with your relevancy. Since women understand what the consumers want it is better to hire
The glass ceiling is defined as the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps… women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.” According to the Department of Labor, the glass ceiling is made up of “artificial barriers [that are] based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organization into management-level positions.” Qualified women are continuously denied a promotion to the highest levels of corporate America and other professions. Once women reach a certain level at their career, they plateau and the glass ceiling prevents them from advancing any higher.
This phenomenon was first described in a Wall Street Journal report by Hymowitz and Schellhardt (1986). Morrison, White and Velsor (1987) adopted the term in academic settings in their book titled: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Can women Reach the top of America’s Largest Corporations? They defined glass ceiling as “a transparent barrier that kept women from rising above a certain level in corporations”. Many studies across different disciplines adopted the term since then (Bullard and Wright 1993; Cornwell and Kellough 1994; Crum and Naff 1997; Kellough 1989; Lewis and Emmert 1986; Lewis and Nice 1994; Mani 1997; Naff 1994; Naff and Thomas 1994; Newman 1994; Pfeffer and Davis-Blake 1987; Reid, Kerr, and Miller 2003; Wilson 2002). As a consequence, social psychologists provided the theoretical explanation of why there is fewer female on managerial positions. They came to the conclusion that this phenomenon is closely related to the fact that leadership is considered as a male quality. Traits that can be found in the literature, such as: ambitious, directive and risk-taking, are generally associated with men (Sabharwal, 2013). Moreover, there are some theories that try to expand the role of men in leadership even further. The “think-manager-thin-man” is undoubtedly dominating the literature (Agars
... market conditions for women for professional jobs can be extravagant due to many work related factors. Financial markets can become extremely volatile in certain times and women who have problem solving abilities can work just as efficient as men.
The "glass ceiling" has held women back from certain positions and opportunities in the workplace. Women are stereotyped as part-time, lower-grade workers with limited opportunities for training and advancement because of this "glass ceiling". How have women managed their careers when confronted by this glass ceiling? It has been difficult; American women have struggled for their role in society since 1848. Women’s roles have changed significantly throughout the past centuries because of their willingness and persistence. Women have contributed to the change pace of their role in the workplace by showing motivation and perseverance.
The “glass ceiling” is a barrier to advancement that affects women when they work in
Also, the majority of women have been able to secure employment from traditionally female occupations such as teaching compared to male-dominated careers like engineering. Moreover, democratic country like the United States of America has recognized gender inequality as a fundamental issue and espouse equal right between men and women in contributing to social, economic and cultural life. Despite this improvement, gender inequality persists as women are not represented and treated equally in the workplace (Michialidis, Morphitou, & Theophylatou, 2012). The increasing number of women in the workplace has not provided equal opportunity for career advancement for females due to the way women are treated in an organization and the society. Also, attaining an executive position seem impossible for women due to the glass ceiling effects which defines the invisible and artificial barrier created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which inhibit women from attaining top executive positions (Wirth
This type of favoritism results not only in the glass ceiling effect but also the “glass door effect” [Caceres-Rodriguez, R.]. The glass ceiling is not being able to go upward in the organization. Glass door refers to women being “excluded from male dominant occupations”. This results in lower salaries for women and lower authority power.
Women face an unofficial barrier called the glass ceiling, which limits how high a women can advance in a profession. “Women holding the titles of chairman, CEO, COO (chief operating officer), and executive vice president remain at about 7 percent of the population of executives in the United States” (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon, 2009). Women seem to have more of a family-work conflict then men, so bosses don’t seem to have as much desire, to promote females compared to men (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon 939-940). Men still view women as having a social role, examples are cooking, childcare, and household chores. Men feel threatened, and scared when females are able to handle both work and their personal life. Excuses are created by men, where they believe females should focus on one role, because they won’t be able to accomplish family roles and work roles efficiently. Women can help themselves with this issue of family-work conflict, by, improving communication with their employers. Women can communicate to their employer, by explaining and clarifying their expectations on how much workload they can
The old aphorism, “The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife" has to be rephrased: "The consumer is not a moron; she is your BOSS." How did this development take place? The single most significant reason for this development has been the dawn of the consumer era. Today, it is neither the industry nor the government sector that drives the economy. The expenditure and savings of the household sector have become the driving force of the urban industrial economy. The growing economic power and autonomy of the woman is giving her greater power in the boardrooms also. This is because she is the consumer and understands both the needs of the household as well as another woman better than men do. Men have controlled the corporate world till date but are now being forced to reckon with the fact that women can now contribute to corporate profits as well as - if not better than - men can.
For many decades, women have faced inequalities in the workforce. At one point, they were not allowed to work at all. Although women's rights have improved and are now able to work alongside men, they are still treated unfairly. According to the 2012 U.S. Census, women’s earnings were “76.5 percent of men’s” (1). In 2012, men, on average, earned $47,398 and women earned only $35,791. This is when comparing employees where both gender spend the same amount of time working. Not only do women encounter unfairness in work pay, they also face a “glass ceiling” on a promotional basis. This glass ceiling is a “promotion barrier that prevents woman’s upward ability” (2). For example, if a woman is able to enter a job traditionally for men, she will still not receive the same pay or experience the same increase in occupational ability. Gender typing plays a huge role in the workplace. It is the idea that women tend to hold jobs that are low paid with low status. Women are not highly considered in leadership positions because of social construction of gender. Society has given women the role of “caretakers” and sensitive individuals. Therefore, women are not depicted as authoritative figures, which is apparent with the absence of women in leadership roles in companies. Furthermore, sex segregation leads to occupations with either the emphasis of women in a certain job or men in a certain job. In 2009, occupations with the highest proportion of women included “secretary, child care worker, hair dresser, cashier, bookkeeper, etc.” (3). Male workers typically held job positions as construction workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, etc. (3). Sex segregation represents inequality because the gender composition for these jobs depends on what ...
Women managers’ perceptions of the successful manager are only slightly less conclusive. Unlike the women managers in the 1970s and 1980s not all female managers today sextype the successful manager as male; however, no one, male or female, ever identifies the successful manager as feminine. Male, and only to a slightly lesser extent, female, managers continue to describe successful managers as possessing masculine traits, such as self-confidence, competitiveness, decisiveness, aggressiveness and independence.
The goal on gender equality and impact of gender discrimination varies from country to country, depending on the social, cultural and economic contexts. Anti-discrimination laws have performed a critical role in expanding work place opportunities for women, yet they are still denied full equality in the workplace. Even though they can now secure powerful professional, academic and corporate positions once reserved for men, the ever present glass ceiling still deters the advancement of large segment of the female workforce (Gregory, 2003). Interest in the careers of females remained strong among both scholars and practitioners. Women have made considerable progress in entering the managerial ranks also but not at the highest levels. However, the promotion of women who hold top management positions increased only slightly during the last decade (U.S. Department of Labor, 1992). Shrinking gender differences between men and women in job related skills and aspirations may not reduce employer discrimination that is rooted in the belief that women’s emotions prevent them from managing effectively (Kanter, 1977). Stumpf and London (1981) identified criteria that are commonly used when decisions are made about management promotions. The specified job-irrelevant criteria, such as gender, race and appearance, and job-relevant criteria, such as related work experience, being a current member of the organization offering the position, past performance, education and seniority.. The central question is whether the hiring, development, and promotion practices of employers that discriminated against women in the past have been remedied or continue in more subtle forms to impede women’s advancement up in the hierarchy
Gender inequality is present in all aspects of human society, from culture, politics, and economic stand point to personal relationships. Gender inequality can be viewed as a major problem especially within the business world (Corporation, 2016). In the past, men are seen as leaders in all aspects. For example, men could work without any criticisms, they could participate in political issues and were given higher education. Women on the other hand, were given no political participation, criticized for working outside the household as they were responsible for chores such as takes care of their children, cooking or cleaning and given limited education compared to men. Although there are claims rights equality of women in 21st century and much has been written about it in the field of business (Player, 2013), but there is still a gap between male and female. This essay aims to explore the impact of gender inequality in business and will analyze the details in terms of the men are given high pay and specific jobs over women.
...d women’s biological purpose has provided men a source of comparative advantage in work. It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participative and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market.
In the context of the aforementioned facts, the hotel and the consumer industry can viewed as a major source of employment for both men and women. The contribution of both men and women in the society has increased as they are not treated with low expectations in whatever the profession they choose to step in. According to Laff (2006), the women positions in the senior management in the banking industry showed an increase of 63 % during the p...