The Glass Ceiling in Modern Day Employment
The "Glass Ceiling" in Modern Day Employment
"On March 24, 1986, the Wall Street Journal coined a phrase that has come to symbolize a variety of barriers faced by thousands of women and minorities as they seek to improve their employment status..." This phrase is "glass ceiling." It has come to represent a variety of biases that prevent qualified minorities and women from advancing in the work-place particularly into mid-and senior-level management positions. We will look at some statistics on places where the glass ceiling has reared its head and also see what things as far as awareness and prevention have been done to stop this from occurring in the workforce.
The U.S. Congress acknowledged the glass ceiling issue by enacting the Glass Ceiling Act on November 21, 1991. This act encourages employers to remove barriers to the advancement of women and minorities. It includes a mandate that focuses on studying how businesses fill management and decision making positions, trains and develops people for advancement into such positions. It also focuses on the compensation systems and reward structures currently used in the workplace.
The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission’s report summarized the major barriers to women’s advancement in organizations. Included in its list was placement in "relatively dead-end staff jobs"; lack of mentoring, management training, and career development; and lack of job rotation and "critical development activities" opportunities.
Despite the rapidly increasing rates of female education and participation in the workforce worldwide, most women continue to suffer from occupational segregation in the workplace and rarely break through the "glass ceiling." Fewer than 5% of women occupy senior-level positions in major corporations, and only two women hold the position of chief executive officer in Fortune 1000 companies. The women who do land a management job tend to be clustered in certain activities to the point where certain functions are almost feminized. For example, in the US, the increase in women’s share of personnel and labour relations managers was higher than in other areas. It went from 21 percent in 1970 up to 58 per cent in 1991. The study notes that career paths in human resource management and administration are less likely to lead directly to the top than other strategic areas such as product development or corporate finance. Minorities and women were more likely to be placed in staff positions, such as human resources and public relations, than in...