Minority Women And The Glass Ceiling

8 Pages 2056 Words

s ceiling is a barrier not only to individuals but also to society as a whole. This barrier reduces the potential pool of corporate leaders by discriminating against over one-half of the population. The barrier prevents new leaders from bringing new foundations of creativity and insight to our economy.

For the past 25 years, the percentage of women and minorities participating in the work force has increased. This increase has been restricted to entry-level positions, while the middle and senior level management positions still reflect a shortfall of women and minorities. The data collected by the Department of Labor (DOL), during the reviews of 94 Fortune 1000 companies, reflected this trend. From the 147,149 employees in the sample, the participation of women and minorities was such that:

· Of all the employees 37.2% were women and 15% were minorities.
· Women represented only 16.9% of all the managers while minorities represented only 6%.
· At the executive level of management women made up 6.6% and minorities 2.6% of all positions.

In 1987, DOL published a report, Workforce 2000, that brought dramatic attention to changes taking place in our economy and in the composition of our workforce. Significant among these was the increased importance of minorities and women to the competitive status of the American economy. Since the publication of Workforce 2000, ample evidence has been gathered to show that minorities and women have made significant gains in entering the workforce. But there is also significant evidence that documents a shortage of minorities and women at management levels.

The symptoms of this problem are apparent, qualified minorities and women are all too often on the outside looking into the executive suite. DOL in the fall of 1989 investigated the glass ceiling in corporate America to see if there was a problem, what were the causes, and if there was a problem how this problem...