Introduction
Glass ceiling is a term that describes invisible obstacles on a woman’s way to a leadership position. The circumstances have improved over the past decade, and now there are more female leaders. However, the situation still needs more improvement, and a number of ways exist to provide it.
What Is Glass Ceiling
“Glass ceiling” is an expression used to indicate the non-seen yet existing barriers, which prevent women from a further advancement by career ladder, usually to a leadership position. Recently, the term has been used to describe the similar problems of minorities of both genders, but in a general sense it applies to females of any race.
Glass ceiling prevents a great number of women from getting controlling positions in various spheres of social life, from politics and education to business. Consequently, the low presence of women on controlling positions make many other women believe that they are not worthy of such positions.
The Changes Over Past Decade
Despite the fact that the situation does not look delightful, the things have improved since ten years ago. Over the last few years, 500 major companies, such as PepsiCo, eBay, and Facebook, have appointed women for its top positions. The proportion of women in top positions is growing.
The number of top-earning women has increased dramatically over the past decade, which has a direct influence on their presence in top positions. Previously, female top earners were twice more likely to drop out of their earning group than male ones; now men and women are equally likely to drop out (Cassidy par. 7-8).
Additionally, gender roles in families are rapidly changing, and nowadays sitting at home, raising kids, and doing the housework is less a trend among women than it was ten years ago, even though it still ends many female careers. Meghna Sabharwal indicates an increase in the number of women holding senior executive positions and the facilitation of female upward mobility.
The researcher even considers that the term “glass cliff” is nowadays more relevant than “glass ceiling” (“glass cliff” is the situation when women are more likely to receive leadership roles) (Sabharwal 20-22). However, the problem of gender pay gap is still as urgent as it was ten years ago.
Ways to Improve the Situation
However, there is still room for an improvement. A number of ways exist for the society to break the glass ceiling. First, leaders should be appointed based on talent and potential instead of presumptions about their roles and abilities such as “she has children, so she will not have enough time for this job.” Second, organizations should establish a just evaluation system to avoid bias.
Third, successful female leaders should transfer their knowledge and experience to other females, provide them with feedback, and train them for future leadership positions. Fourth, professional networking needs to become gender-neutral.
Team-building activities need to be as gender-neutral as possible. Fifth, there should be no group, company, profit or non-profit organization, where harassment and discrimination are tolerated and go unpunished. Sixth, the employees and coworkers need to be understanding towards those females, who have to devote a significant amount of time to family.
Conclusion
The term “glass ceiling” defines the barriers on women’s way to high positions. Despite the improvement over the past decade, various techniques need to be used for further improvement.
Works Cited
Cassidy, John. “The Hole in the Glass Ceiling Is Getting Bigger.” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 2014.
Sabharwal, Meghna. “From Glass Ceiling to Glass Cliff: Women in Senior Executive Service.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 25.2 (2013): 1-29. Print.