RUNNING HEAD: THE GLASS CEILING

The Glass Ceiling: A Review of Literature

Sethavuth Paradee
University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract
In business, the fact that there is a ten to one ratio of men to women who
held an executive position shows that there is an unseen barrier that
prevents women from climbing the business ladder. This unseen barrier is
known as the glass ceiling. Glass ceiling is a global concern where serious
actions have to be taken in order to shatter it. Cultural issues is one of the

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largest hindrance of getting rid of glass ceiling since women are expected
to take charge of their family wellbeing. This generalization then creates
biased within the workplace. The believe that women could not take part
and be successful in both family and business is somewhat ignorant.
Women can take part in the well-being of the family and still be successful
in the business world, if there are no discrimination on gender. From a
survey conducted in attempt to know how people feels about womens
business opportunities in El Paso, people feels that womens business
opportunities is much more better than some other cities. However, they
felt like there are still rooms for improvement.

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Differences in gender ideologies as times goes by have affected

women tremendously. Just a few decades ago, women are expected to be in charge of the
well-being of the family. Until recently, those ideologies have change. Women are working
and finding money for the family just like men. However, because this change in ideology is
fairly new and does not sets its root deep enough in the community due to time, women could
not climb up the business ladder. This phenomenon can be clearly observe at higher level
position within the company. The name for this phenomenon is called glass ceiling.
Glass Ceiling acts like an invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing and
becoming successful. The ceilings does not have concrete proves of its existence, but, it is
believe to be existing as stats and more and more research confirms this the phenomenon. For
example, stats like a ten to one ratio of men to women in executive position could only make
this glass ceiling more visible to people. (Biagetti 2011) .
There have been attempts to break this ceiling by both governmental and nongovernmental organization that tackles the problem from a local level to a global level.
Government pass out acts in attempt to create equality in work place. They also issue policies
that makes hiring process more transparent than ever. On the other hand, non-government
organization raises the awareness of the issue and make sure that people are alert and inform
that glass ceiling really do exist.
In order to understand more about Glass Ceiling, these four questions are to be answered
and review:
1) What is the "glass ceiling", and how can it be shattered?
2) What are some effects, and specific issues that women face confronting the glass ceiling?
3) Is there still a choice for women between family and business, or can they both be
attained?

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4) Survey 5-10 people---How do you feel about womens business opportunities in El Paso?
By answering these questions, this literature review will be narrow down to Glass Ceiling
issues that are relevant to our everyday life.

What is Glass Ceiling and how can it be shattered?

The term glass ceiling came into use in 1986, when two Wall Street Journal reporters
coined the phrase to describe the invisible barrier that blocks women from advancing to
senior leadership positions. (Daily 1999) However, the glass ceiling itself have been there
way long before there was a term for it. The glass ceiling is found in many if not all field in
business ranging from manufacturing to service industries. Research shows that glass ceiling
existed because of ideologies on gender roles and the stereotype that women is not fit for
management. Plus, with the fact that the ratio of men to women in executive position is ten to
one, employer would definitely be reluctant to hire more women because they would not
want to risk women in line positions when there are not enough women at that position to

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prove their capability.

Glass ceiling will not be gone soon. It will still be there and only time will be able
diffuse it. Efforts to shatter it would only make the process goes faster but will not be able to
break it at that very moment. For example, one of the very first effort to solve this problem is
made by the government. In 1963, The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed in attempt to
eliminate discrimination against gender in workplace. Even though the term glass ceiling was
not invented yet at that time, this is one of the first efforts to shatter it apart. The result of this
Act does not break the glass ceiling. What it does is that it makes the barrier easier to get
though.
Because biases against women are deeply embedded in corporate culture, systematic
approach are needed in order to see more women advance in the business world. According to
research done by Cornell University. Several things needs to be done in order to tackle this
issue. First, statistical procedures for monitoring advancement of minorities and women
needs to be improve. Doing this allows us to know where we stand in our attempt to remove
the glass ceiling. The second thing that needs to be done is to support organizations that
address the glass ceiling for women. This needs to be achieve with the help of the
government. Government should provide more funding for their operations and also their
research. This way, there will be more information on glass ceiling and people will become
more aware of it. Finally, there needs to be an increase in financial support for academic
programs in non-traditional fields like science and engineering and business. This will expand
the pool for female candidates for position in workplace. (Anne 1993)

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What are some effects, and specific issues that women face confronting the glass ceiling?
The main issue that women face confronting the glass ceiling is usually bias and
discrimination. Many women who qualifies for a job is not being hired do to the false
assumption that women are not capable of doing that specific job. These women are not given
a chance to prove themselves in the workplace. This result in a many women getting paid
lesser than what they are worth and companies not using their employees effectively. Women
who encounter being rejected for their gender then losses their motivation to work since
employer do not see the good in them. (Baigetti 2011)

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Women facing
these type of

complications
in

the hiring
process can cause a
ripple effect that
could

affect the entire industry on their view on women. When women who are qualified for a job
gets rejected from higher level job several times due to their gender, they will lose the
motivation to excel in their field. Employee then see these women as being unproductive
rather than looking back to themselves and thinking that the company itself should increase
its openness to women. As a result, the glass ceiling gets thicker as people misunderstood
womens not being motivated due to discrimination for not having the ability to perform. This
then leads ignorant people to confirm to themselves that women in general could not perform
well in the workplace and escalating the problem on gender discrimination.
Another thing that women face when confronting glass issue is gaining support from the
government. This issue gets lesser degree wise as countries become more develop and more
people gets educated. Developing country like India is known for offering women fewer
political, economic and social opportunities. Women in these countries where
traditional view on women is still in grain deeply in the community have to
face great pressure from the workplace. What makes it worse is that in

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these country where people are openly discriminating against women,

women will have to fight for their right and make their way through the
glass ceiling themselves with little or no help from the government.
However, these countries that discriminate women openly faces pressure
from organizations operating at a global level forcing the government to
make some changes to improve womens opportunities in workplace.
Is there still a choice for women between family and business, or can they both be
attained?
They can both be attained. A woman in todays society has the ability to run a business
and still be able to take care of a family. However, these women needs to be very strong and
determine in order to be successful in both sides. Doing family chore is can gets very hard,
especially when there are children at home. Choosing a career means the amount of time
devoted to your children family will be significantly reduced. (Fitzpatrick 2013) But that does
not mean that it is bad for the family. Many women spent so much time with their family and
still fail to make a positive impact on the family members lives. It is quality rather than
quantity. There are ways for dedicated women to focus on being successful in their careers
while making sure that all their family needs are met. (Kramer 2005)

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The very first step to take is to talk to the family. Discuss the concern and tell them
what is going on. This way, the entire family take part in finding a solution for

Concern
mother needs to do
well in her career in order to keep

the family well-being. Things that need to

keep in mind is that women do

need to spent some time with their family, but with just one or two hour a day not counting
Saturday and Sunday, if those time are quality time. It should be enough to for women to
maintain a healthy relationship with their family, while being able to focus on their work.
The second step is to find a company that has a positive feedback in tackling the glass
ceiling. This company will be more willing to help women to advance further in their career.
(Bukalew E.) Women who needs to spent some time with their family will be receive by the
company with understanding and the eagerness to help. Getting into a more traditional
company with many issue on giving the women right they should receive will only give more
pressure the women would then result in a breakdown in at the workplace and at home.
Taking care of family and doing well in workplace is achievable by women with careful
planning and getting into a company that understands and support equal rights for women.
While some people argue women will not be able to spend time with their family if they
focus on working. However, two hours a day plus Saturday and Sunday makes up fifty-eight
hours per week to spent time with family. This amount of time average out to a little more
than 8 hours per day. If quality time is spent during their available time for the family. There
should be no problem in keeping the family happy and being successful in the workplace.
Survey 5-10 people---How do you feel about womens business opportunities in El Paso?

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10

Women business opportunities in El Paso are slightly unequal, because some men are
given a higher rank and move up faster in the company while performing the same jobs as the
women. The men are treated with higher respect in a way just based off their gender. While
eight out of ten women surveyed felt that El paso is doing well in giving women
opportunities in advancing in their career. Ten out of ten people still thinks that there the glass
ceiling still exist in the city. That is a shocking 100 percent of people surveyed giving the
same answer. This points out the sad reality that many people are satisfy of the situation even
though all of them thinks that the glass ceiling still exist. What this means is that there might
not be attempt to try to improve it because according to the survey, most women surveyed are
already satisfied with the current situation. This is really something to think about. While
women knows that they are still thwart by this barrier, eight out of ten are saying that they are
okay with it because it is not as bad as it is supposed to be. This is almost like saying that
they are fine being treated unfairly because it used to be worse. These type of mindset will
not improve the situation. The glass ceiling might not be as thick in El Paso compared to
other places around the world, but the glass ceiling will probably last for much more longer
before it gets shatter because people does not really give the problem the importance that it
deserves.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this literary review analyses data and articles on different concerns on
glass ceiling. Four questions that this literary review answers are What is the "glass
ceiling", and how can it be shattered?, What are some effects, and specific issues that women
face confronting the glass ceiling?, Is there still a choice for women between family and
business, or can they both be attained?, Survey 5-10 people---How do you feel about
womens business opportunities in El Paso? Glass ceiling existed long time before the term
itself was coiled in 1986. Because of its existence, women are not able to advance further in

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11

their career. There have been efforts to try to shatter it but the best it could do is only speed
up the process of breaking it. Completely breaking the glass ceiling will take time and
planning since many developing countries are still barely taking their first step to stand up
and fight against this invisible barrier. Women in these country are openly discriminated
because the ideology that women are incapable of doing certain things is deeply engrave in
their culture. Teaching the next generations of kid about equal right might be the only way to
improve the situation in those countries. While many people think that it is not possible for
women to do well in both keeping the family well-being and their career at the same time, it
is possible to do it. Women just have to spend quality time with the family during the
weekends and work hard on the week days. They should also find employers with good
feedback on treating women. According to a survey conducted to womens in El Paso asking
what they think about their career opportunities in the city, most said that they are very
satisfied with their career opportunities but all are aware that there is still some sort of
discrimination against women in the workplace. Glass ceiling is a global issue that needs to
be eliminated sooner or later. Government and large organizations needs to find ways to raise
awareness about the issue and funds research in order to find a solution for it. (Paradee 2016)

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12

Reference
1. Kramer, L. (2005) Sociology of Gender. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing.
2. Daily, C.S. (1999). A Decade of Corporate Women: Some Progress in the Boardroom,
None in the Executive Suite. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 20, 93-99
3. Anne, A (1993). Successful Initiative for Breaking the Glass Ceiling to Upward Mobility
for Minorities and Women. Retrieved from
4. Fitzpatrick, L. (2013) Why do women still earn less than men Retrieved from
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1983185,00.html
5. Biagetti, M. (2011). A Note on the Gender Wage Gap among Managerial Positions Using
a Counterfactual Decomposition Approach: Sticky Floors or Glass Ceiling? Applied
Economics Letters, 18, 939-943
6. Bukalew, E. The Future of Female CEOs and Their Glass Ceiling. Journal of Business
studies Quarterly, 3, 145-153
7. Paradee, S. (2016, October 13). Telephone Interview
8. Journey Man Pictures (2008, December). Raising the Glass Ceiling. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSFelx3NrSw
9. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (September 28, 2008). The Equal Pay
Act of 1963. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/epa.html