Charles Cooley's Theory Of The Looking Glass Self

A young girl growing up in 21st century America has a much better chance of achieving a high-paying, high-prestige, management level job than most all of her predecessors in the early, middle and late 20th century. Despite this, however, women who have such a position, depending on the field of course, are likely to find themselves as the token woman among men, which puts her in a tricky position (Conley 311). A woman that asserts herself in a way seen as “masculine” would likely be negatively received by her male counterparts, making her job harder than it would be without such pressures (Conley 311). Should the woman fail at coping with this and fail at some aspect of her job, it becomes ammunition for her aggrieved male coworkers who see this as justification that women cannot handle such positions (Conley 311).

At almost every stage of life, men have a helping hand, while women have much more of an uphill battle to equal their counterparts (Conley 310). A woman in the aforementioned scenario who thinks she is weaker than a man would be a prime example of someone experiencing Charles Cooley’s theory of the “looking glass self.” She has been completely shaped by her social environment, through no fault of her own, and has determined her strength through viewing the how males perceived her (Conley 117). This lose-lose scenario of a woman in a management level position who faces far more scrutiny than the equivalent man is known as the glass ceiling (310-11). It almost says enough by itself that there is a term for this phenomenon, because it occurs so often. While men can steadily increase in standing in a particular career, women face far more challenges that could potentially bring their career to a