The Glass Ceiling

“Glass ceiling” is a term coined in the 1970’s in the United States to describe the invisible artificial barriers, created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which block women from senior executive positions (Wirth, 2001). This term is often used in economics to refer to the situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination (wikipedia.org). Many of the prejudices held against women are based on the social roles and behaviors that are attached to women versus men. Women are seen to be emotional and impulsive where as men are seen as level headed and driven. When the average person thinks of the social roles between men and women it is thought that the woman will stay at home with the kids and look after the house while the men goes to work and supports the family. Now more than ever women are going managing a career and having a family. It seems that there has been a new era for women in terms of wanting to be career oriented. In the past women have strived to be the perfect housewives and it seems that now women are striving to have the perfect balance between career and family. The consequences of gender inequalities include women being “crowded” into a narrow range of occupations where there is less responsibility and lower pay, or having to work part time, where there are fewer opportunities for advancement (Wirth, 2001). A common misconception of women in the job market is that women only want to work part time based on their roles at home and their family lives. Many women are able to balance both a full- time job and raising a family without any problems. There is also a growing number of women who have opted out of staying home and raising a family and focusing more on getting their careers started. It seems that more people in Generation Y, in general, and not just women, are a lot more career oriented and are looking at starting families later in life after their careers take off. Women like Oprah Winfrey, Indra Nooyi, and Irene Rosenfeld have all broken through the glass ceiling to reach their goals of becoming successful CEO’s of successful companies. In a personal interview with Indra Nooyi she talks about her personal struggles with balancing her work and her family. She talks about the balance being all about the choices that you make and that no one is perfect at one aspect all the time but you learn from your mistakes and it takes years of practice.