Glass Ceiling

The glass ceiling is a conceptual term that describes a lack of women in upper-level positions in various organizations. The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1991-1996) stated that the glass ceiling refers to artificial barriers to the advancement of women and minorities. The term glass ceiling is used because women can see the jobs that are above those they have, but cannot break through the “glass” to gain those positions. This unbreakable barrier keeps women and minorities from moving up the job ladder regardless of education, experience, or ability. The effects of a metaphorical glass ceiling are to relegate [Page 394]women to the lower rungs of the job ladder, compared with white heterosexual men. This entry discusses the effects of the glass ceiling.

The term glass ceiling has often been credited to Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Scelhardt in the March 24, 1986, issue of the Wall Street Journal. But research demonstrates that the term was used in many prior works, including that of Gay Bryant's March 1984 article in Adweek. Therefore, where this concept was derived is still under considerable debate.

The glass ceiling has been used in many works to describe artificial barriers that women and minorities face, but the actual criteria of what distinguished the glass ceiling from other forms of labor market discrimination was not put forth until D. A. Cotter and colleagues identified four particular requirements that are necessary to claim that a glass ceiling is in effect. The first criterion is that the gender difference cannot be explained by any other job-relevant characteristics of an individual. This means that a man having more training than a woman cannot explain the glass ceiling. Men and women must be equal in job-relevant characteristics. Second, Cotter et al. assert that the glass ceiling has a stronger effect at the higher levels of the organization than at the lower levels. Consequently, there will be a higher rate of gender inequality at the top of the hierarchy than at the bottom. This higher rate of gender inequality at the top of the hierarchy widens the wage gap, whereas the gender wage gap at the bottom of the hierarchy is smaller. Third, the glass ceiling is not just about proportions at each level in an organization. Cotter et al. maintain that a better indicator would be promotions to higher positions and raises of income, rather than just the proportion of men and women at each level. Last, the effects of the glass ceiling increase over an individual's career. The effects of a glass ceiling are stronger the later one is in one's career. Discrimination increases as one moves up the job ladder and increases throughout an individual's career, so the disadvantages grow. The glass ceiling has the effect of flattening women's career trajectories in comparison with men's career trajectories. Consequently, women's wages do not increase as much as men's do. The glass ceiling hypothesis has been supported by substantial evidence of male-female earnings differences that are small at first and increase immensely over time.

Results are mixed about whether the glass ceiling is evident in other countries. Comparative research has demonstrated that the effect of the glass ceiling may be stronger in Western Europe than in the United States. This is attributed to weaker barriers faced by women in the United States in comparison with other countries. Women in the United States have greater access to higher education and participate in a more dynamic economy. These ideas are counterintuitive to what one knows about work and gender in Western countries, but researchers claim that the interplay of gender ideologies, availability of jobs, and the possibility of organizing women's labor movements are more significant.

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