Glass ceiling
From Free net encyclopedia
The term glass ceiling (or officially known as 'vertical segregation') refers to the observation that upper management in corporations and other large organizations consists predominately, if not exclusively, of a certain demographic (e.g., white heterosexual men) despite non-discrimination policies. A "ceiling" is suggested because persons outside the dominant demographic group are evidently limited in how far they are able to advance inside the organization ranks; the ceiling is "glass" (transparent) because the limitation is not immediately apparent. The "glass ceiling" is distinguished from formal barriers to advancement, such as education or experience requirements. The existence of the glass ceiling is frequently cited as a failure of existing anti-discrimination action.
The term is often credited as having been originally coined 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 e.g. in a March 1984 Adweek article by Gay Bryant.
The term glass elevator is sometimes used to describe the rapid promotion of men over women, especially into management, in female-dominated fields like nursing/waitressing
The term glass cliff describes a situation wherein someone, particularly a woman, has been promoted into a risky, difficult job where the chances of failure are higher.
There is also a sometimes-used term glass floor which describes the theory that some factor both limits a group's (often women's) progress but also limits their numbers in situations like, say, imprisonment and the disproportionate numbers of male inmates. Biological factors are often quoted for these, although contentious.
The phrase glass floor is also sometimes used to describe the fact that men almost always occupy the least pleasant jobs in a society - sewage workers, miners, street cleaners, refuse workers etc.
The political aspects of these concepts limit the ability of research to clarify the issue.
Worldwide statistics
| Sweden | 45.3 |
| Denmark | 37.0 |
| Finland | 37.5 |
| Norway | 36.4 |
| Netherlands | 35.0 |
| Germany | 32.8 |
| Iceland | 30.2 |
| New Zealand | 28.3 |
| Austria | 27.5 |
| Canada | 21.1 |
| China | 20.2 |
| UK(Commons) | 17.8 |
| United States | 15.0 |
| Japan | 7.1 |
The following is a sampling of statistics related to the relative status of women worldwide which seem to support the glass ceiling theory.
- Worldwide, women work more than men, when both paid employment and unpaid household tasks are accounted for, according to the United Nations Human Development Report 2004: Section 28, Gender, Work Burden, and Time Allocation. In rural areas of the developing countries surveyed, women perform an average of 20% more work than men, or an additional 98 minutes per day. In the OECD countries surveyed, on average women performed 5% more work than men, or 18 minutes per day.
- Women are underrepresented in all of the world's major legislative bodies (see Women in National Parliaments, November 2004). In 1985, Finland had the largest percentage of women in national legislature at approximately 32 percent (P. Norris, Women's Legislative Participation in Western Europe, West European Politics). Currently, Sweden has the highest number of women at 45 percent. The United States has just 14 percent. The world average is just 9 percent. (Wales, while not an independent country has 50% of its members being women.)