The Struggle with the Glass Ceiling

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Recommended: Masculinity and femininity

Are all men and women really created equal? Most people would say yes, but if that is the case, why are women prejudiced in the workplace and society? Surprisingly, even in our time period, women struggle to advance to high-skill level positions. Men dominate the vast majority of these positions. Men also, in general, lead their households by making the most income for their families and make the most financial decisions. It is clear that we still live in a patriarchal society. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart show us that the effects of the gender gap are still evident in current times and women are burdened by the glass ceiling.
Women struggle to achieve high level positions. A glass ceiling exists that limits the speed in which women can be promoted in the workplace. It is very often that men advance positions much more quickly. In Things Fall Apart, the vast majority of people with prestigious titles are men. The protagonist, Okonkwo, earns a reputation at a very young age by his wrestling skills and his fearlessness (Achebe 153). Okonkwo quickly rises to be a very powerful figure in the clan. Wrestling, in their community, is one example of a way for a man to become famous in a short amount of time. There were not any women who could wrestle in the village. Another example is about a man named Ezeudu who earned his titles by being a fierce warrior. Many other men also achieved high status similarly, and these activities are only practiced by men. This limits the amount of high status women. The only respected woman in the entire village is Chielo, the priestess. The glass ceiling in their community is very exaggerated compared to today, but it is the same idea. There is a very weak repres...

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Hu, Ting. “Is the Glass Ceiling Cracking? A Simple Test”. IZA, May 2008. Web. Mar.
2014.
Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll’s House.” World Literature: An Anthology of Great Short Stories,
Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Donna Rosenberg. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc. 2004. 142-202. Print.
Prentice, Deborah A. "Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes." Princeton. American
Psychological Association, nd. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
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Quast, Lisa. "Is There Really A Glass Ceiling For Women?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 14
Nov. 2011. Web. 20 Mar.2014.

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