8/9/2021 Women's Metaphor: From ‘Glass Ceiling’ to ‘Labyrinth’ - Santovec - 2010 - Women in Higher Education - Wiley Online Library

Women in Higher Education / Volume 19, Issue 12 / p. 1-2

Leadership Free Access

Women's Metaphor: From ‘Glass Ceiling’ to ‘Labyrinth’

Mary Lou Santovec

First published: 09 May 2014

https://doi.org/10.1002/whe.10122

It may seem like the “glass ceiling” has always been part of the lexicon, but the metaphor
actually originated in 1980 in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Alice Eagly thinks it's high
time to replace it with “labyrinth.”

“It's good to have a metaphor to think about a problem and organize your thoughts,” she said.
“But the glass ceiling metaphor is wrong on many levels.”

She was keynoter at the University of Nebraska's Women in Educational Leadership conference
held in Lincoln in October. A professor of social psychology and expert in management and
organizations at Northwestern University IL, she is a faculty fellow in the Institute for Policy
Research.

She's co-author of Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about How Women Become Leaders published
in 2007 by the Harvard Business School Press.

The glass ceiling, said Eagly, is seen as holding back those near the top of an organization. The
image suggests a bunch of men sitting on a board that impede a woman's progress as she
comes close to the top.

But that's passé. A disproportionate number of women drop off the fast track at all levels, for
reasons as varied as family, personal choice, lack of social capital and discrimination. The
obstacles for women aren't only at the top.

Labyrinth of loss
“The labyrinth is a much more inviting metaphor,” said Eagly, a continual set of barriers women
hit along the way.

Labyrinths start at the beginning of a woman's career. Women think they're walking into a
garden and everything will be linear, a straight line to success.

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But the labyrinth begins to form with every obstacle put in their paths. Its challenges are varied
and continual.

Labyrinths suggest a puzzle, implying that there's a solution. As women encounter the twists
and turns, the metaphor suggests to stay with it. And many do get to the center, where their
career goals reside.

Women have made progress in reaching the top positions in academe, business and
organizations, although it's not been easy. From 1986 to 2006 the percentage of women
presidents of a college or university rose from 10 to 23%.

But in 2006 most women presidents led community colleges (28.8%) or small, liberal arts
colleges. Only 13.6% headed doctoral schools in 2006. Even fewer women are at the top of
large research universities, such as Michigan's Dr. Mary Sue Coleman and Purdue's Dr. France
Cordova.

In the enlightened Ivies, women are half the presidents: Amy Guttmann at Penn, Drew Faust at
Harvard, Ruth Simmons at Brown and Shirley Tilghman at Princeton.

In the professoriate, 41% are female but the percentage of those with tenure is far less.

The numbers confirm that some women are getting through the labyrinth to these higher level
positions. “Women aren't exactly absent in the academy,” said Eagly.

The situation is similar in corporate America. Women are 51% of managers and professionals
but only 25% of CEOs.

At the Fortune 500 level, the number of CEOs drops to 3%. There women are only 14% of
corporate officers, 15% of board members and 6% of top earners.

With her background in management and organizations, Eagly views the numbers through the
lens of human capital. She mourns society's loss of the talent within those women who didn't
make it.

Why so few women?

Half of the public believes that discrimination still confounds the problem, which significant
research bears out.

In a meta-analysis of multiple controlled experiments—using identical resumes that vary only

by applicants’ gender as determined by name—researchers have confirmed gender
discrimination in hiring. In female sex-typed jobs, such as a preschool teacher, men face
discrimination.

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But even in gender neutral jobs, women are discriminated against. The “psychology of
prejudice” is the reason. Cultural stereotypes are stacked against women as leaders.

Why? It's because of their behavioral traits. Women are construed as communal, seen as nice,
friendly, socially-skilled and egalitarian.

Men are considered agentic. They're described as dominant, assertive, tough-minded and take-
charge types.

The old stereotype of leaders reflects the men's style. People want their leaders to be agentic,
assertive and energetic risk takers. Especially in masculine settings and at higher levels, men
are chosen to lead more often than women.

Women have an incongruity problem, said Eagly. Women are regarded as higher in
“communion” and lower in “agency” compared with men. This lack of fit means women often
aren't even considered for leadership roles.

In a series of “think manager, think male” experiments, groups rated women and men as
leaders/managers. The leaders/managers were correlated with the raters of the women and
men. There was a high correlation between men and managers in the male raters’ minds. In the
women raters’ minds, there were the same thoughts—except that the correlation was less
strong. But the men still won.

“She's awfully nice but is she tough enough?” one wondered. “Can she handle the job?” another
asked.

Women are caught in this double bind and encounter two sets of expectations for behavior.
They must first act like a leader and take charge. But they can't forget to act like a woman and
be nice and kind and certainly not too pushy.

“If you're too nice, you're seen as weak,” said Eagly. “If you take charge, women are seen as the
boss from hell.”

Responding to this double bind, women attempt to be super confident and take charge. Then
they're not considered nice. Consider the image of then-Senator Hillary Clinton during the 2008
presidential primary.

Solving the labyrinth

How can women resolve these cross pressures? Try to be androgynous, using both masculine
and feminine traits as appropriate in the situation, Eagly suggested.

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Early leadership studies comparing women and men looked at top down versus collaborative
leadership. Women tended to have a more collaborative leadership style.

But contemporary studies of good managerial practices find that neither top down nor
collaborative leadership traits is effective enough in today's complex organizations. Today's
leaders must be transformative.

Good leaders must be able to inspire and stimulate creativity, act as coaches, inspire others
and build teams, act as role models and develop others’ skills. Transformative leaders take
charge of the interpersonal in a sophisticated way.

Eagly pointed to Rosemarie Bravo, CEO of the Burberry Group, who said that her role is to keep
teams of creative people on track. Bravo sets the vision and tries to set an agenda throughout
the company where everyone's opinion counts.

Comparing transformational leadership traits with female and male strengths, women come
out ahead. They're inspirational, motivational and they walk the talk. They favor reward over
punishment, which works better in most cases.

Men, on the other hand, score higher on transactional or laissez-faire leadership. They're either
active or passive in managing by exception.

Transformative leadership is androgynous. Women benefit from taking on transformative

leadership traits because that style is seen as neither female or male. Over time, the leadership
stereotype is gravitating from distinctly masculine to more androgynous.

Prejudice against women leaders still exists, but it's much weaker than it was, Eagly said. A
Gallop poll asking respondents about their gender preference of a new boss found that the
number of those choosing a man has decreased.

Men are still winning, but the number of workers who would prefer a woman boss is
increasing. Compared to the 1950s, the change is profound. Interestingly, a lot of the
respondents didn't want to give an answer. They just wanted a boss who was good, Eagly
explained.

Why the beef?

Why does it matter if women hold leadership roles? Beyond the obvious, there's research to
confirm that women do indeed belong at the top.

“Creativity and problem solving gain from diversity,” said Eagly. “And there's a correlation
between gender diversity and a company's financial performance.” Groups work better if they

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contain a diversity of thought.

Although women don't always rate other women as high in leadership positions, studies show
that when more women are in authority, there's an increase in women in other positions at a
school or business. A stronger push will bring more women and minorities to the table.

Because of the current lack of an active feminist movement, the labyrinth metaphor is
appropriate now, Eagly noted. Its subtlety along with its ability to inspire complex thinking can
support the next set of challenges.

Contact Eagly at eagly@northwestern.edu or 847.467.5026.

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