Artificial Barriers or Glass Ceiling
The glass ceiling is an invisible, artificial barrier that prevents qualified individuals (particularly women) from advancing beyond a certain point within their employing organisation. The barrier’s existence can be deduced from the fact that there is a stark difference between the proportion of women (and of minority groups) who graduate from the leading universities and business schools, and the proportion who reach the higher echelons of corporate management.
A secondary issue is that of women’s pay. There is evidence that even when women do reach the highest levels of corporate management, they do not receive the same pay as men for the same job; a figure of 75% is often quoted. And rather than getting better over time, the position seems to be deteriorating. A survey in 2002 showed women executives in the United States earning an even lower percentage of what their male counterparts were earning in 2000 than was the case in 1995. The ratio of female to male earnings in financial services, for example, fell from 76% in 1995 to 68% in 2000. A number of theories have been presented to explain the glass ceiling.
- The time factor
One theory is that the cohorts of first-class female graduates have not yet had time to work through the pipeline and reach the top of the corporate hierarchy. Qualifications for a senior management post usually include a graduate degree and 25 years of continuous work experience. In the early 1970s, when today’s senior managers were graduating, fewer than 5% of law and mba degrees were being awarded to women. Nowadays, women gain over 40% of all law degrees in the United States and 35% of mbas. So the number of female corporate executives can be expected to rise, as it has been doing for some years. In 1972 in the United States, for instance, women accounted for only 17.6% of managerial posts; today, the figure is over 35%. There has, however, been no comparable progress at the top of the corporate ladder.
- Motherhood
Sometimes the blame for the glass ceiling is laid at the door of motherhood. Women are distracted from their career path by the need to stay at home and rear children. Even if they return to work immediately, they fall behind their male colleagues on the career ladder. With babies to care for, they are unable to undertake the tasks that are often required to reach the top; for example, taking extended trips abroad, spending long evenings “entertaining” clients, and changing plans at short notice. Few companies attempt to eliminate this disadvantage, with the result that women generally stay in corporate functions (such as human resources or communications) that do not require them to perform these tasks. They then become narrowly specialised and cannot gain the broad-based experience that is demanded for most senior posts.
- Male stereotypes
Others maintain that the glass ceiling has more to do with male stereotypes of women than with anything else. In many companies these stereotypes have become institutionalised. The standards for advancement, for instance, are set by white male graduates, and women who want to progress are judged by these standards. We all think we should be replaced by someone who is exactly like us. In her 1977 book Men and Women of the Corporation, Rosabeth Moss Kanter suggested that because managerial women are so often a token female in their work environment they stand out from the rest. This makes them (and their failures) much more visible, and exaggerates the differences between them and the dominant male culture.