A

REPORT

ON

SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

IN MANAGEMENT

2010-12

TITLED

“Glass Ceiling”

Submitted by: - Submitted to

VIJAY CHHIPA MR.TANVEER AHMED
 PREFACE

This report is prepared as the partial fulfillment for two years degree
programmed of MBA curriculum of Rajasthan Technical University, Kota.
It is expected from an MBA. To possess a good communication &
effective presentation skills. There for this paper “contemporary issue”
has been added to in MBA IInd Semester.
 ACKNOWLEGEMENT

Talent and capabilities are of course necessary but opportunities and right guidance is two
very important back-ups without which any person cannot climb the ladder to success.

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete
this thesis.

Vocational training is indeed an important aspect of MBA programme and it is our great
privilege to have project report on CONTEMPORARY ISSUES. For this I am very
grateful to Dr. S.P. MATHUR (Director, Department Of Management Studies) for giving
us this valuable opportunity, in the first instance and to do the necessary research work and
to use departmental data.

And I am also thankful to mentor Mr.TANVEER AHMAD, without him this project
would not be successfully completed. His help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement
helped me in all the time

(VIJAY CHHIPA)
MBA – II Sem.
2010 – 12 Batch
 GLASS CEILING
The term 'glass ceiling' refers to gender discrimination that limits a woman as inferior and
is harassed by the society. This has a subtle effect that blocks her peace of mind. It is the
accepted domination practiced by stereotypical society that makes a woman weaker not
only physically but mentally as well.

Sexism and gender discrimination are concepts that are later classified into glass ceiling.
It is a barrier in the progress of gender minority groups especially working women.
Recent reviews in the United States state that the top Fortune 1000 industrial companies
have 95 percent of the senior managers as men; also 97 percent of them are white!

Feminism is the new idea of glass ceiling. We use the hierarchical distribution of work
based on conventional differences between two sexes. In 1980’s female authors rewrote
the male dominated literature and demanded equal rights for women. Recently, senator
Hillary Clinton applied the theme glass-ceiling plea for her participation in presidential
election in United States.

Origin and Use of the Concept ‘Glass Ceiling’:

The term glass ceiling was used basically in corporate field as the Wall Street Journal
promoted this issue in March 1986. It described conflict that arose when qualified women
were denied higher positions in corporate ladder and did not get equally paid for similar
type of work.

Many women writers raised their voice to point out how they have been treated in
America and that they keep bumping their heads on the glass ceiling without any result.
A quote by women’s activist and writer, Nora Frenkiel in 1984, sums up the situation:

"Women have reached a certain point. I call it the glass ceiling. They're in the top of
middle management and they're stopping and getting stuck. There isn't enough room for
all those women at the top. Some are going into business for themselves. Others are
going out and raising families."

Glass ceiling is found in workplaces, not only in the discrimination of pay scales, but is
also marked by sexual harassment, exploitation at work and also as a feeling of insecurity
in women due to conduct of the opposite sex. Women struggle to incarnate their own
personality in spite of restriction of gender discrimination.

United States’ Civil Rights Act of 1964 grants equal treatment for all human at
employment or workplace. This law holds the opportunities without any deterrent(s)
according to sex, race, color, and religion to each individual.

An example of how and what heights women can achieve if given the chance is -
Quentin Bryces became the current Governor-General of Australia, for the first time in
the world history, on 5 September, 2008. One can look up to her for the impartial
judgments and long experience of teaching (1968-1983) in the Faculty of Law at the
University of Queensland.

Issues on Glass Ceiling:

One should not take glass ceiling as the subject of gender earning penalties, since it
totally depends on the company and workplace a woman is into.

We require proper management to deal with problems in profession and for women’s
progress in general. Creating a cooperative environment without bullying a junior by
overload of daily work would be one way out.

Human resources should promote people who meet the goal of their program eliminate
any cultural and gender prejudices. Try to encourage women for their talent and
leadership.

A workplace should consider the ability of an individual and not the issues of ‘glass
ceiling’ based on sex, religion, culture and race of minority class.

In today’s world of equality, wo(man) is not "Frailty, thy name is woman!" but she is the
one who represents the quote "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world!"
Women and the Glass Ceiling
Glass ceiling is the mindset of the traditional patriarchal society habituated to
discriminate women from basic rights. The term is particularly used for women at
workplace who are denied pay equal for the same work as the opposite gender.

Glass Ceiling in the U.S.

Sexual discrimination in employment was outlawed in the United States through the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 in the hopes of allowing women to rise in the working world once
proper experience has been achieved. Though sometimes unspoken of, gender
discrimination still occurs in the workforce. It has been shown that even if a woman has
received the proper education and credentials, they are often not considered for the same
job as a male with either equal or less credentials . This has created a greater gap in the
income wage gap. Studies have shown that women without high school diplomas, on
average, have an effective income less than that of men with comparable education levels
and years of work experience .

The term "glass ceiling" has been thought to have first been used to refer to invisible
barriers that impede the career advancement of women in the American workforce in an
article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24, 1986 edition of the
Wall Street Journal However, the term was used prior to that; for instance, it was utilized
in a March 1984 Adweek article by Gay Bryant. The term glass ceiling was used prior to
the 1984 article by two women at Hewlett-Packard in 1979, Katherine Lawrence and
Marianne Schreiber, to describe how while on the surface there seemed to be a clear path
of promotion in actuality women seemed to hit a point which they seemed unable to
progress beyond. Upon becoming CEO and chairwoman of the board of Hewlett-
Packard, Carly Fiorina proclaimed that there was no glass ceiling. After her term at HP,
she called her earlier statement a "[d]umb thing to say."

The term was used by the U.S. Department of Labor in 1991 in response to a study of
nine Fortune 500 companies. The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission study confirmed
that women and minorities encountered considerable glass ceiling barriers in their
careers; these barriers were experienced earlier in their professions than previously
thought.

In 1972, the first organization that examined the position of women in economics, the
Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP), was created.
This committee monitored the progress of women in professional positions and engaged
in activities that would help to further this process. Organizations such as this one have
helped focus more academic attention to the glass ceiling, helping raise awareness of this
issue.

Throughout history women have become aware of the strains being put on them and have
begun to fight it. As and example of this, Hillary Clinton in her run for presidency, which
is often seen as the highest glass ceiling in America. While many women have already
broken these barriers and have successfully become CEO of companies, putting a women
in the White House remains the ultimate challenge.

Levels and types of glass ceiling barriers

Societal barriers

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission of the United States Department of Labor
identified two major societal barriers that cause and reinforce a glass ceiling. The supply
barrier is related to opportunity and achievement. The difference barrier manifests itself
as conscious and unconscious stereotypes, prejudice, and bias related to gender and
ethnicity.

Internal business barriers

The following business-based barriers were identified:

• Outreach and recruitment practices that fail to seek out or recruit women and
minorities
• Prevailing culture of many businesses is a white male culture and such corporate
climates alienate and isolate minorities and women
• Initial placement and clustering in staff jobs or in highly technical and
professional jobs that are not on the career track to the top
• Lack of mentoring and management training
• Lack of opportunities for career development, tailored training, and rotational job
assignments that are on the revenue-producing side of the business
• Little or no access to critical developmental assignments such as memberships on
highly visible task forces and committees
• Special or different standards for performance evaluation
• Biased rating and testing systems
• Little or no access to informal networks of communication
• Counterproductive behavior and harassment by colleagues

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission and independent research suggest that the
underlying cause of the glass ceiling is the perception of many white males that as a
group they are losing control and opportunity. Many middle- and upper-level white male
managers regard the inclusion of minorities and women in management as a direct threat
to their own chances for advancement. As a result of this "upper- and middle-level white
male resistance", business-based barriers are not always being as forcefully addressed as
they should.
Governmental barriers

The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission pinpointed three governmental barriers to the
elimination of the glass ceiling. They are:

• Lack of vigorous and consistent monitoring and law enforcement

• Weaknesses in the collection of employment-related data which makes it difficult
to ascertain the status of groups at the managerial level and to disaggregate the
data
• Inadequate reporting and dissemination of information relevant to glass ceiling
issues

Other barriers

• Different pay for comparable work.

• Sexual, ethnic, racial, religious discrimination or harassment in the workplace
• Lack of family-friendly workplace policies (or, on the flipside, policies that
discriminate against gay people, non-parents, or single parents)
• Exclusion from informal networks; Stereotyping and preconceptions of women's
roles and abilities; Failure of senior leadership to assume accountability for
women's advancement; Lack of role models; Lack of mentoring
• Requiring long hours for advancement, sometimes called the hour-glass ceiling.

Sexism and glass ceiling effects

This gap is the difference in both the wages and earnings between males and females who
have equivalent job titles, training experience, education, and professions. A comparison
frequently cited is that women make 75.3 cents on the dollar to men, which is derived
from statistics maintained by the United States Census Bureau from 2003, relating
specifically to an across-the-board comparison of year-round full-time workers.

A study by John McDowell, Larry Singell and James Ziliak investigated faculty
promotion on the economics profession and found that, controlling for quality of Ph.D.
training, publishing productivity, major field of specialization, current placement in a
distinguished department, age and post-Ph.D. experience, female economists were still
significantly less likely to be promoted from assistant to associate and from associate to
full professor. The results suggest the presence of a glass ceiling.

Women in the Work Place

In 2009, David R. Hekman et al. found that white men receive significantly higher
customer satisfaction scores than equally well-performing women and minority
employees. Customers who viewed videos featuring a black male, a white female, or a
white male actor playing the role of an employee helping a customer were 19% more
satisfied with the white male employee's performance and also were more satisfied with
the store's cleanliness and appearance. This despite that all three actors performed
identically, read the same script, and were in exactly the same location with identical
camera angles and lighting. In a second study, they found that white male doctors were
rated as more approachable and competent than equally-well performing women or
minority doctors. They interpret their findings to suggest that customer ratings tend to be
inconsistent with objective indicators of performance and should not be uncritically used
to determine pay and promotion opportunities.

A customer preference for white men may also help explain why white men hold the
highest paying, most prestigious, and most powerful jobs in the occupational
structure.This is referred to as occupational segregation. Men tend to be highly
concentrated in the top professions, such as supervisors, managers, executives, and
production operators. On the other hand, women tend to be over-represented in the
lowest-ranking and lowest paid professions in the workforce, such as secretaries, sales
associates, teachers, nurses, and child care providers. As a result, occupations become
“sex typed” as either being specifically male or female jobs. The stereotypically male-
characterized occupations, in which at least 60–75% of the workers are males, are more
highly paid than occupations in which 60–75% of the jobholders are women. This
segregation of women into less-prestigious and lower-ranked jobs also decreases a
woman’s chance of being promoted, as well as the chance of having any type of power
over others. Moreover, occupational segregation reduces women’s access to insurance,
benefits, and pensions.

Women are concentrated into the lower-ranked and lower-paid occupations within a
given profession. If women are in management positions, they are more likely to be in
personnel than in marketing professions; the averages salaries of each are $48,048 and
$56,940 per year, respectively. Another example occurs within the medical field. Female
doctors are much more likely to be heavily constricted in the family practice,
obstetrics/gynecology or pediatric specialties, which average about $130,000 and
$126,000 per year, respectively. However, men are more likely to become surgeons and
highly specialized medical practitioners, who tend to average $240,000 or more per year.[

Women hold only 16% of the top executive positions in America’s largest corporations
and enterprises. Additionally, the median weekly income of full-time working women is
only 70.5% of full-time working men. This statistic tends to hold true across all fields of
work. This gender imbalance in occupations occurs to some degree because women are
more likely than men to be newcomers in many fields; therefore, they lack the primacy
and the increased pay that comes with seniority.Even though most women are able and
willing to make it all the way to the top of the workplace, they are still unable to get the
jobs they desire. When it comes to promotions executives look at all the work that a
women has done but then only looks at the potential that a man has. A women has to
prove herself and her talent in ordered to be considered for the same job that a man would
only have to show potential for.

Gender Inequality is often embedded within the social hierarchy and this affects how
women and men are perceived in leadership roles. Different traits are ascribed to females
when compared to males that often color the selection process with unfounded bias. If a
female does have other traits aside from the gendered traits that she is believed to
possess, then she is viewed negatively. For example, in a study conducted by Thomas-
Hunt and Phillips (2004) they found that when women possessed expertise they were
actually viewed as less influential by others. However, expertise was positive for males.
Also, female led groups were less productive than male led groups even though the
women held expertise in the area just like males. Therefore, possessing expertise is not
viewed as positively as it is for males. This also suggests that lack of skills is not the only
reason why women are not deemed worthy of leadership roles. As cited by Lyness and
Thompson in 1997, one consequence of sex stereotypes is that women's achievements
tend to be devalued or attributed to luck or effort rather than ability or skill, and therefore
this stereotype has the potential to reduce the organizational awards that they receive.

Lyness and Heilman (2006) found that in a study conducted with 448 upper-level
employees that women were less likely to be promoted than males, and if they were
promoted they had stronger performance ratings than males. However, performance
ratings were more strongly connected to promotions for women than men. This suggests
that women had to be highly impressive to be considered eligible for leadership roles,
whereas this was not the case for men. In a number of longitudinal studies (Cox &
Harquail, 1991; Olson, Frieze, & Good, 1987; Strober, 1982; Wallace, 1989; Wood,
Corcoran, & Courant, 1993), that track comparably qualified men and women, such as
graduates of the same MBA program or law school, it has been shown that over time
there is degradation of the women's compensation that cannot fully be explained by
differences in qualifications, work history, experience, or career interruptions.

Women are more likely to choose jobs based on factors other than pay, for instance:
health care and scheduling that can be managed with the duties of primary care of
children for which women are still overwhelmingly responsible, and thus they may be
less likely to take jobs that require travel or relocation or jobs that are hazardous. On
average, women take more time off and work fewer hours, often due to the unequal
distribution of childcare labor, domestic labor, medical needs specific to women, and
other family issues that tend to fall to a woman's responsibility per the gender roles
assigned by society. The ending result of women’s extensive obligation to attend to
responsibilities of the home and children is that their wages plummet. Family demands
have a downward pull on women’s earnings as they proceed throughout their life course.
The earnings gap tends to widen considerably when men and women are in their early to
mid-thirties; the gap reaches the widest point when men and women are in their fifties.

Another perspective on the gender wage gap comes from a 2008 research study by Judge
and Livingston. They investigated the relationship(s) between gender, gender role
orientation, and labor marker earnings. The study did not specifically look at the gender
wage gap, but focused more on the impact that the interaction between gender role
orientation (people’s beliefs about what occupations are considered suitable and
appropriate for males and females) and gender has on earnings. The researchers
suggested that the gender wage gap cannot fully be explained through economic factors,
offering that underlying psychological components and attitudes account for some of the
difference. They found that while traditional gender roles were positively connected to
earnings, that gender significantly predicted the amount and direction of this relationship.
For instance, traditional gender role orientation was positively related with earnings for
males, providing them with strong earnings. Meanwhile, traditional gender role
orientation was slightly negatively associated with earnings for females, providing them
weaker earnings. This suggests that men who have traditional male-female attitudes about
working are rewarded in the workplace for seeking to maintain the social order, while
women were neither rewarded nor punished. In general, the study indicated that even
though gender role beliefs are beginning to become less traditional for men and women,
traditional gender role orientation continues to intensify the gender wage gap.

The Pipeline Theory

The Pipeline Theory describes the situation in which women are placed on a track that
would eventually promote them to a top executive position. However, this process is
long, and women sometimes spend 20-35 years in the pipeline waiting to advance to
CEO positions . While many argue that women in the pipeline are becoming sufficiently
trained and educated to compete for top-level positions, others contend that women in the
pipeline are being unjustly held back from advancement. The latter would call this
situation the “leaky pipe,” describing a situation in which the pipeline has not advanced
women to top-level positions due to “leaks” and “blockages” in the pipe. For example,
some believe that there are not enough women in the pipeline. Secondly, women make
many sacrifices and tradeoffs while moving up the pipeline. Lastly, the environment in
many companies discourages women from advancing because they are male dominated.
In order for the pipeline to work there must be a desire from women to fill the high
executive positions in order for them to even be considered for those positions.

The glass ceiling and disclosure of sexual orientation

In order to excel in the workplace it is important that people are familiar with a worker's
strong attributes. This may present obstacles for the LGBT community because their
sexual orientation may be a large factor that plays in to how they identify themselves. In
a study done by Ragins in 2004, disclosure of sexual orientation has been found to have
some positive, some negative, and nonsignificant effects on work attitudes, psychological
strain, and compensation. Ragins, Singh and Cornwell in 2007, found that in some cases
disclosure of sexual orientation has been found to result in reports of verbal harassment,
job termination, and even physical assault. (D'Augelli & Grossman, 2001; Friskopp &
Silverstein, 1996). In their study, Ragins, Singh and Cornwell examined fear of
disclosure only among LGBT employees who had not disclosed, or had not fully
disclosed their sexual identity at work. Promotion rate and compensation were used to
measure career outcomes. Promotions were defined as involving two or more of the
following criteria that may occur within or between organizations: significant increases in
salary; significant increases in scope of responsibility; changes in job level or rank; or
becoming eligible for bonuses, incentives, and stock plans. Given this definition,
respondents were asked how many promotions they had received over the past 10 years.
Respondents also reported their current annual compensation, which included salary,
bonuses, commissions, stock options, and profit sharing. The findings showed that those
who feared more negative consequences to disclosure reported less job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, satisfaction with opportunities for promotion, career
commitment, and organization-based self-esteem and greater turnover intentions than
those who feared less negative consequences.

Women surpassing the glass ceiling

Although some believe there to be a glass ceiling, many women have still found much
success. When at the top management, many women feel like outsiders. Most of the time
they are the only female at that level and are surrounded by males. Some women have
faced sexual harassment, wage inequality, blocked movement and gender stereotyped
roles.Women are said to have different styles of leadership and management once they
break the barrier. They are generalized to be more nurturing and caring in nature than
men. Men are stereotypically, more “tough” and shrewd in business, which are
sometimes seen as positive traits. Women’s traditional role is in the home, taking care of
children, and keeping house. The stereotype of maternal leadership stems from that.
Some men in senior management that do not want to see women climb the corporate
ladder believe that they do not have the qualities to lead a company. Many believe that
making assumptions about the way women act in a leadership position perpetuates the
stereotypes that cause the glass ceiling.

There are many reasons why women have found success. Some believe that having
women on an executive board is a positive thing. Women make 60% of all purchases in
the United States – therefore it may be of benefit to have their opinion. The more women
that are accepted into management positions, the more will get promoted to senior
management and serve as role models for the younger. Younger men have also been
more accepting of female superiors. The perception of a woman’s role is changing with
the younger generation. However some authors like Alice Eagly and Linda Carli and
organizations such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission attest that many
barriers still exist. Stereotyping and bias are issues which organizations are often trying to
understand and tackle to ensure fairness. Much is left to rhetoric about equal opportunity
and diversity, but where adequate diagnosis of the organizational issues are not
conducted, so therefore implementation of successful strategies are limited.

Women who break through the 'glass ceiling' may also face a glass cliff whereby they are
more likely than men to occupy risky or precarious leadership positions. It is still difficult
for women to break the glass ceiling to reach the top echelons in organizations, with still
very few women at the top of organizations, as some research has shown.

Many believe that men in female-dominated professions, such as education or nursing,

also face a glass ceiling. However others believe that due to the widely existing role
model for men, in these sectors they even experience a "glass escalator" effect, where
they are promoted quickly into top positions.
The Glass Ceiling in Developing Countries

The glass ceiling phenomenon is one not specific to the U.S.; other women also
experience barriers similar to the glass ceiling. In many developing countries ,improving
the number of educated women has decreased the number of hours a women works in a
household. In countries such as Mexico, India, and South Africa, women work
substantially more hours than men.. On average women work one hour and nine minutes
more. With this gap women would be able to provide more money than the men if they
were in paid positions.. However, because women’s wages are roughly twenty percent
lower than that of men, it is more difficult for them to make a substantial contribution
even if they did work outside the household.. Statistics also show that ninety percent of
people countries surveyed in East Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa,
and other transition economies thought that both husbands and wives should contribute to
the household income.. The glass ceiling comes into play when these women do want to
go out to find work and support their family but are stopped because of lack of
experience. The glass ceiling affects women and the workplace in countries all around the
world.

Women CEOs who broke the glass ceiling in India

India Inc is dominated by men. Women do not have proportionate representation in

companies, and yet they are better off than women in other parts of the world when it
comes to top positions.

Eleven per cent of 240 large companies -- Indian-owned as well as multinational, private
as well as state-owned -- have women CEOs, according to a study carried out by
executive search firm EMA Partners. By contrast, only 3 per cent of the Fortune 500
companies have women CEOs.

Still, most experts say women are under-represented in corner offices across the world.
"Given that roughly about 50 per cent of our population is female, that about 50 per cent
of staff is female in most markets, the gender is hugely unrepresented in boards and at the
CEO level," said EMA Partners International chairman James Douglas.

"For instance, out of 1,000 public companies in the USA, with at least $1 billion in
annual revenue, there are only 30 female CEOs. In the UK's FTSE 100 list, there are just
three."

Chanda Kochhar

The financial services sector is dominated by women in India. As many as 54 per cent of
the women CEOs are, according to EMA Partners, in financial services.
Chanda Kochhar is among the leading women in India's financial services sector. She
took over as managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank from May 1, 2009.

According to Chanda Kochhar who was appointed as ICICI Bank's new chief executive
officer, companies must consider merit and not be biased to any gender and women
should not expect to be treated differently in any field.

Shikha Sharma

Shikha Sharma heads Axis Bank. Shikha Sharma worked with the ICICI group for 28
years. Sharma is credited for the bank's growth in personal financial services.

"Amongst private and foreign banks, women almost outnumber men. This has been
helped in no mean measure by women from ICICI Bank who have joined other financial
institutions in recent times," said EMA Partners managing partner K Sudarshan.

Renuka Ramnath

Former chief of ICICI Venture Renuka Ramnath launched the Multiples Alternate Asset
Management in 2009.

Multiples is raising their first private equity fund targeting both domestic and
international institutional investors and ultra high networth individuals.

The target size is approximately $400 million. Multiples Alternate Asset Management
will make sector-agnostic investments in India.

Image: Shikha Sharma, CEO and MD, Axis Bank.

Naina Lal Kidwai

Naina Lal Kidwai is the CEO of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited,
India. Fortune magazine listed Kidwai among the World's Top 50 Corporate Women
from 2000 to 2003. She has been awarded with Padma Shri, one of India's highest
civilian honours.

According to various studies and EMA Partners' estimates, there is no shortage of female
talent. In Germany, over 25 per cent executives are women, in the UK more than 30 per
cent and in France over 35 per cent. In board appointments, the numbers decline further.
Image: Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO, HSBC

Meera Sanyal

Meera Sanyal was appointed as CEO of ABN Amro Bank in December 2007.

Sanyal was working as corporate executive vice president and head of services (Asia) of
ABN Amro. She was earlier the chief operating officer of the bank.

In Germany, just over 10 per cent of board members are women, according to EMA
Partners. In France, it is as low as 7 per cent.

To address this imbalance, some countries have insisted on minimum levels of board
female members. Norway, in 2004, inaugurated a quota system stipulating that 40 per
cent of the board of a publicly quoted company should be women otherwise that
company could be delisted. In 2007, Spain decided to go the same way.

The Royal Bank of Scotland took over ABN's assets globally, including in India, early
this year.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Eleven per cent of the Indian women CEOs are in the media and another 11 per cent in
pharmaceuticals.

Thus, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the chairman and managing director of Biocon and
Villoo Morawala Patel is the founder, chairman and managing director of Avesthagen.

Image: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, MD, Biocon.

In the Fortune 500 list, in contrast, 48 per cent of the women CEOs came from FMCG
and consumer durables. Manufacturing and IT & IT-enables services returned 13 per cent
each.

Sudarshan said the IT and IT-enabled services do not have many women CEOs because it
requires a fair amount of travel to on-site locations. It also comes with the pressure of
working through multiple time zones.

Image: Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo, with her daughter.

Photographs: Paresh Gandhi.
Example of Glass Ceiling
The glass ceiling is a description of a situation in which a person or group can't progress
to a higher position in employment or social status. The expression was originally coined
to describe the fact that women weren't promoted to higher management positions in
corporations. That concept has extended itself to refer to a range of similar situations in
other contexts, like the absence of members of ethnic groups in positions of authority or
in employment or social demographics

An economic term, ''glass ceiling'' is a phrase that refers to the situation where a person
with superior skill or experience is surpassed and locked in a job role due to their race,
ethnicity, sex or other discriminatory factors, most commonly race or sex. This term has
also recently been used to describe discrimination against other groups including deaf,
gay/lesbian men and women, blind, and different age groups.

Examples of Glass Ceiling:

Lack of women in senior office in politics in the US.

Lack of minority groups holding government office, globally.

Although Mary had the dedication and desire, she could not work the long hours required
to advance with that company since she was a single mother.

Frank was surpassed year after year for the job of supervisor, by younger men, even
though he had seniority and tenure.

The management team at Greene Industry was known for its mistreatment and lack of
support towards its women work force. Women made up a majority of their secretary
staff, but were never advanced beyond that position or hired in management positions