The Glass Ceiling and the Lack of Female Executive Leadership

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The existence of the glass ceiling reminds us of current issues in gender equality and female leadership, faced by the business community both in the United States and abroad. The Civil rights movement and incentives towards feminization of various aspects of public life resulted in official recognition of equal rights and opportunities for female professionals; however, in many cases such recognition takes purely formal shapes. In too many cases women get professionally discriminated at work place. They get paid less, have fewer opportunities for promotion, and in case of performance management or even downsizing, are often considered the first to be purged from a company. The number of female CEOs in companies, both in America and abroad, remains very low, although there are signs of improvement that are being seen. It is paradox, as in other areas of professional life, such as governmental institutions or even the military, there seems to be far less discrimination, although a sort of glass ceiling also remains. It may be proven, that these obstacles to professional growth of female executives are of artificial nature, and the working style of women is by no means inferior to that of males. There are various points of view and outlook on the Glass ceiling at the executive level for female leaders in large organizations and a number of facts that verify that female professionals deserve equal rights and working conditions.
The glass ceiling is a phenomenon which originated within the past few decades and may be defined as lack of promotion opportunities for female professionals at an executive level. It is true that excessive discrimination by gender is punishable by law in vast majority of developed democratic nations, however ...

... middle of paper ...

...fessional and advancement opportunities is time-consuming and not always flexible, there are reasons to believe that even in the foreseeable future there will be no such thing as gender inequality and glass ceiling.

Works Cited

1. Albrecht, J. (2003). Is there is glass ceiling for women in Sweden? Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 21, No.1 (2003), p. 145-175
2. Pelled, L.H.(1999). Exploring the black box: an analysis of work group diversity, conflict and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 44, No.1 (1999), p. 3-28.
3. Lublin, J.S. (2012). Companies are grooming more women for the corner office. Forbes, May 22, 2012.
4. Hoenig, C.(2013). Supreme Court Redefines Workplace Discrimination. DiversityInc. Web. Retrieved from http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-and-inclusion/supreme-court-redefines-workplace-discrimination/ on December 11, 2013

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