Introduction
Women have been seen and treated from a different perspective since the early ages. In every walk of life, men and women have been given different regard and significance whether at home, in schools, churches or even in the corporate world. Having been treated does not particularly mean in a negative connotation, but with respect to the workplace, what exactly has been the impact of the different treatment? Even in the American history, the gender role has been particularly critical for the success and downfall of the nation. There are many important questions that need to be answered while entering the business world.
Only within the last century, we have witnessed some greatest leaders like Condolisa Rice, Mary kay and Irene Rosen field who were women. Moreover, as the dynamics of the corporate world are changing, there has been an increase in female leaders; some of the famous corporations have female Vice Presidents and CEO like Google, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and even Avon. But despite this transformation, there still is the prevalence of a mindset that leads to a different behavior while managing women at work. Though there is no legal or moral hindrance for the women at the surface, but there are unseen obstacles that are unable to break due to which women cannot achieve their goals. This particular phenomenon is referred to as the “glass ceiling” which acts as an artificial barrier that is unseen but tends to prevent the career advancements for women to senior levels even if they have the required qualifications, achievements and experience (Purcell, MacArthur and Samblanet).
The research conducted in this paper analyzes the supporting as well as opposition views of the fact that women are being treated differently in the leadership positions at the workplace while also suggesting some efforts that can be made to correct this wrong and considering the ethical issues at hand too.
The Glass Ceiling
As defined by the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, the term refers to as “the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (Purcell, MacArthur and Samblanet). The term was initially coined in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but since its emergence, its meaning has changed. It was again mentioned in 1986 by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt to refer to gender bias in the corporate sector of America. The glass ceiling is invisible and prevents the women from reaching the top managerial level in the organizations; for instance, despite the experiences, abilities and qualifications of women, they could not simply reach the top level of the hierarchy.
Before the concept of “glass ceiling” was introduced, theorists has been exploring the reasons why the top positions were only dominated by white males. For this purpose, many explanations came to view; one explanation was given that women were more involved in their family and home keeping duties due to which they chose less stressful jobs; while others theorized that the reason women lagged behind were the absence of professional contacts that could have helped them in career advancements. It was only after this term was introduced that the people in particular and the general society became well aware of the unequal treatment of the women and minorities. As compared to the white men, all the other groups of people were offered unattractive career opportunities with no chances of achieving senior positions.
For centuries, the men were considered to be the bread earners for family while women took care of the home and family. There was no trend of women working in a decent position while only those from the lower class did the household works. But during the World War II, as the men went off to war, there was shortage of workforce and hence, the women were called for working in the production line. These jobs were high-skilled jobs that were earlier done by men. Even after the men returned from war, the women stayed and hence, became a significant part of the labor force. A survey was conducted by the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission including women, minorities and the corporate leaders to acknowledge that glass ceiling does exist in the organizations but it also identified that discrimination and biasness towards the women is diminishing comparatively. With the rapid globalization of the marketplace and the changing consumer market as well as the evolving labor force, the trend is shifting as women are becoming more involved along with men.
Some people strongly oppose the existence of glass ceiling and amongst those, Carleton Fiorina is a well-known name who became the first female CEO of Hewlett Packard in 1999 (U.S. Department of Labor). She claimed that there was no hindrance and obstacle for the women only if they remain determined and are dedicated to their career. Another significant example of a women in leadership role came to the global surface by the name of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was the only woman to compete with 22 presidential candidates and successfully broke the glass ceiling by becoming the Liberian president in 2006. But a report gathered by Catalyst, a research group at the same time identified that glass ceiling acted as a barrier limiting the corporate women and the phenomena affected the women of color in particular. According to Catalyst (1999), these women faced a concrete ceiling rather than a glass ceiling (U.S. Department of Labor). So, the glass ceiling phenomena has two different versions that have completely different conclusions each representing the different conditions the working women face in the modern world.
Supporting the Phenomena
The women today demand more equality in the working environment as they have gained equal access to top quality education. The government regulations that emphasize on equality of gender and focus on discrimination against the women help in protecting the rights of the women. The women are considered an equal asset by the organizations as men and the professional status is improving. The companies are involving the women more into the business decisions. By seeing women like Sonia Gandhi of India, and Hillary Clinton of the United States as political leaders, people believe that the glass ceiling has ceased to exist. But in reality the situation is different; even if the women are growing in business and representing politics, the society remains male controlled where the women are understated.
In a research conducted by Pillai, Prasas and Julia Thomas on, “Why Do Women Still experience Downward Gravitation in the corporate ladder? A close look at glass ceiling in Bahrain” it has been identified that the women are underrepresented in the organizational positions at the top of the structure. It reflects the prevalence of the gender discrimination issues pointing to the subjugation of the corporate women in terms of promotions and compensation. In Bahrain, according to the researchers, the advancement of women is limited due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors in companies (Pillai, Prasad and Thomas). Those factors which are in control of the women are known as the intrinsic factors while the uncontrollable are referred to as the extrinsic factors. Amongst the extrinsic factors, there are various policies and practices which obstruct the progress of women in their professional careers. It is a common practice in the modern day where many company policies play a significant role due to which the women have difficulty in handling bigger responsibilities. The researchers further identified that in comparison to their male peers, women get promoted very slowly and are provided with forty percent lesser chances to get promoted in advanced positions at the workplace (Pillai, Prasad and Thomas).
According to the Catalyst (2011), the U.S. labor force comprised 46.6% of women but only 7.5% of women account for the top earning positions while only 16% acquire the board positions at the Fortune 500 companies. It has even been identified that among the Fortune 500 companies, more than 125 do not have any female executive officers. Furthermore, during the 2008 recession, women had three times more prospects of losing jobs as compared to men in the senior positions (Schlesinger and Weigelt-Schlesinger). Currently, women hold 5.4 percent CEO positions of the Fortune 1000 while merely 5.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions (Catalyst).
The reason for the existence of glass ceiling is the belief that women lack the strong interpersonal and technical skills that are required for handling the managerial role as being manager is associated with being muscular. The societal values and perceptions punish the women for being soft and friendly while the men are committed, decisive, rational and confident. As identified by Hesse-Biber and Carter (2004), there is gender inequality at the workplace but the reason is the juggling up of the family and the business life for women. Women face barriers of balancing the work-family life which acts as an obstacle to reach the top position in their careers. As they have to put more time and effort in managing their family in contrast to the men, more gender gap is witnessed in the managerial positions and blue collar jobs (Hesse-Biber and Carter).
Women are being segregated to remain in less prestigious jobs which decreases their chance of promotion and it is because they seem to be lacking leadership qualities which are supposedly linked to masculinity due to which the women encounter glass ceiling preventing reaching senior status in at organization. It has further been identified by Hesse-Biber and Carter (2004 p. 205) that due to occupational segregation, the opportunities to access pensions, insurance and benefits for women are greatly reduced.
Another great example that provides evidence to the existence of glass ceiling would be the testimony by the former Vice-President Marketing at Sam’s Club, Rhonda Harper where she explains that her senior vice President, Ray Hobbs told her not to worry about career advancement at Wal-Mart and rather spend time in home-making activities. Wal-Mart has been facing numerous allegations that show how women are being discriminated against in the top American Retail Corporation where the male workers are not only given more promotions as compared to the women but also are being compensated better than their female counter-parts. Further, in 2011, it was identified that merely 33% of the total workforce at the store comprises of the females (Biskupic).
Supporting the Opposition
In contrast to the proponents of glass ceiling, many researchers and managers argue that the concept of glass ceiling has long gone and it is only present in the minds of those women who fail to achieve a senior position. According to Hillary Davey, who is not only a mother of two children but also a multi-millionaire, only the incompetent women use the excuse of glass ceiling to hide their incompetence. There is no field where women are being treated with discrimination as they have gained access to equal opportunities and rights both in the general life but also in the corporate world. To ensure the equal treatment of women, there are many regulations and laws in practice.
Similar reason has been given by Carnes and Radojevich-Kelley (2011) showing that the glass ceiling is self-inflicted as women fear to apply for the positions which are otherwise run by males. So, it is the nature of human gender which is making the glass ceiling exist and mostly women use this phenomena as an excuse to avoid the top positions considering the masculine perception of jobs. This also shows that women encounter glass ceiling in the form of male dominance due to which women tend to back off as she is not expected to fit in the male dominating culture and activities. The researchers even pointed to the fact that women avoid male dominating cultures and prefer starting their own businesses so, it is their own mentality that acts as glass ceiling to them (Carnes and Radojevich-Kelley). These women merely walk away not due to some differential treatment rather they wish to work according to their free will.
The managers completely deny the existence of glass ceiling as they believe it is an imaginary aspect that does not exist at all. In a research conducted by Elacqua, Beehr and Hansen (2009), the existence of glass ceiling is related to how the treatment of different sexes is perceived at work. Due to the interpersonal situations, the manager has different perception regarding their female workers which influences how they treat both genders differently giving rise to the belief that a differential treatment for the women tends to exist that prohibits their professional growth. Yet another aspect to be considered is that such perceptions are mostly prevalent in those cultures that do not practice and support equal opportunity for women and so, it is the dominant culture of the society and organization that gives rise to glass ceiling for women. Further, the researchers pointed out that women are not good at getting involved in interpersonal relationships especially within the male-dominated careers which eventually becomes one of the significant reasons why their chances of moving up the company hierarchy are minimized as they exclude themselves from male networks (Elacqua et al.).
But the lack of interpersonal skills in females is no way related to glass ceiling as males establish healthy relationships with their mentors which increases their chances of getting promotions. On the other hand, the lack of confidence in the females inhibits them to seek guidance from their mentors and due to their restricted knowledge and limited interpersonal relations, they are deprived of the opportunities of career advancement (Barreto, Ryan and Schmitt). Mostly women believe that using social networks is not necessary for them due to which they refrain from building strong connections and consider that it is the invisible hand of glass ceiling that is preventing them and not their inability to get more involved in the organization.
A very significant factor that that limited the opportunity to get promotion for women is their lack of geographic mobility. In large organizations, particularly in the modern era, where boundaries cease to exist, career advancement has direct links to mobility and indirectly, the level of commitment for the upper management is associated with the willingness to mobility. Due to the lack of willingness to relocate, the women have been assumed to be lesser committed to their careers by the managers (Browne). So, it is not the differential treatment which limits the career opportunities for women but their lack of full commitment towards their career due to which they are denied chances to get promoted. In addition, to the willingness to relocate, managers are also concerned about other factors like the devotion towards family and maternity leave taken by the women when taking into consideration whether to hand her the senior position which requires longer working hours and do not allow taking long leave.
Discussion
There has been a steady increase in the contribution of the women in the workforce as the traditional role of the women as being the home make is being greatly transformed. But as the women join the workforce, they are faced with the crucial issue of differential treatment at work which has raised alarm about the existence of glass ceiling which hinders the promotion of the women. The concept of glass ceiling came to the surface in the early 1990s but the gender discrimination could not still be eliminated as many modern organizations still have male workers on their top positions. According to Ryan and Haslam (2007), it is not only the women suffering from the glass ceiling challenge but the organization also has to suffer from a glass cliff when risky positions are granted to women which results in a big loss for the business. So, it is the intrinsic factors which inhibit the growth in women as no external factors are working to stop them from rising to the top managerial positions.
The discriminating treatment of the women gives rise to the ethical concern of how women are being treated at the workplace. As the married women cannot be banned from work, issues started rising about banning the pregnant women. But then in 1970s, due to the economic needs, more women got involved in the job market and new laws had to be passed leading to the concept of equality in the workplace. Though corporations have started realizing the need to treat the women in an ethical manner after facing lawsuits and paying penalties over decades, the women still need to understand the significance of acting in an ethical manner. According to Lattal (2010), “As more women enter executive positions, we, too must make decisions that demand ethical considerations at the same level of visibility as our male colleagues.” Women must understand that it is their obligation to be ethical in the workplace as she will definitely face many challenges.
Some researchers believe that glass ceiling is a real concept while others consider it a matter of perception. According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, the glass ceiling is an artificial barrier which inhibits the growth of the women and other minorities in career. But for this, it is imperative to understand the different stereotypes existing in the organizations. Many large corporations like Wal-Mart have been accused of discriminating against female workers. As women move up the career ladder, she faces high levels of discrimination and more ethical concerns which eventually force her to withdraw in most cases making her being considered incompetent. Some of the ethical issues faced by women at work are sexual harassment, glass ceiling or inhibiting promotion for women, unequal pay, and discouraging attitude by co-workers. The prevalent culture of the society and the organization also plays a significant role in setting a glass ceiling for the female workers; in societies where there is more gender inequality like the developing countries, there would be higher chances of the existence of glass ceiling for women at work (Cook).
Conclusion
Considering all the different theories and reasons, it can be concluded that there is a strong connection between the existences of glass ceiling to the perception of different treatment. And this is an ethical concern for the organizations today as gender equality is an ethical issue. Therefore, the leaders in the modern organizations should identify the discriminating practices and policies that are triggering the differential treatment of women at work. There is no other way to ensure equal opportunity for the women at work except than understanding the ethical and other issues related to glass ceiling. It is important for companies to handle the issues of glass ceiling as soon as possible to fully reap the benefits of the globalized business world as a diverse workforce is a more motivated workforce that eventually helps the company to prosper (Eagly).
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