Glass Ceiling Women

Although women have made progress in their search for equality, “the glass ceiling” has been halting their progression in society for years. This glass ceiling, as first made popular by a Wall Street Journal article in 1986, serves as a metaphor for the invisible barrier that keeps women from receiving promotions, pay raises and further opportunities within a company or organization. The ceiling gets its name because it isn’t an established level at which women experience this phenomenon, it hits them unexpectedly while progressing in a company. Looking at the statistics, women make up only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. They make up over half our population, yet so few

Schellhardt with the phrase in its title. They focused on the “imperceptible obstacles faced by female managers, stymied by ‘corporate tradition and prejudice’ rather than overt discrimination” (Zimmer). Although the article popularized the phrase, it had already been in print for two years when in an interview with Adweek in 1984 Gay Bryant, an editor, was quoted saying “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.” It’s apparent that these ideas are deeply embedded in our society as decades earlier women were facing the same issues as today. However, the phrase has been traced back even further to July of 1979 when Katherine Lawrence spoke at the annual conference of the Women’s Institute for the Freedom of the Press. In her speech she declared “in corporate America, the official policy is one way—the sky’s the limit—but in actuality the sky had a glass ceiling for women”. The concept of a glass ceiling has been traced back nearly 40 years and could probably be traced back further under different names. Regardless of its origin it’s been stuck in use for decades and has even spurred variations such as “bamboo ceiling” (for Asian-Americans), and “marble ceiling” (for women in government), all tracing back to the 1979 speech by

Their ability to watch the children and keep up the h use was important because it allowed the men to go out and make ends meet for the family. Historically it has been shown that children are a detriment to women’s success, as successful women are more likely to be unmarried than successful men (Licea). This is because of the responsibilities women face after they have a child, which are rarely or never taken care of by the father. Women have had to choose between having a family and being successful, and although it’s not always this way, it is evident through studies done that women have an easier time making it up the ranks when they don’t have children to tend to. This old tradition of women being the primary caretaker dates back hundreds of thousands of years to the times of hunting and gathering societies, as the men would go out and hunt and the women would stay home watch over the children and maybe forage some nuts and fruits in case the hunt was unsuccessful. Today women typically spend more time with the child, especially at a younger age. It’s only natural for the women who carries a child for 9 months to initially care for the baby more, as she supplies the baby with breast milk which is all they need for the first few months. However, children get older and are less