Glass Ceiling

13 Pages 3169 Words

One of the hardest and most frustrating issues being faced by groups or certain individuals in the corporate world today is the vast difference in gender treatment. This is commonly known as the “glass ceiling”, which is defined by Buzzanell as the “focus on women’s historic under representation in powerful organizational positions and the culmination point at which time women recognize the discriminatory practices, gender stereotypes, and individual biases that have hindered their advancement . The glass ceiling functions as a barrier to women (and minorities) as a group rather than to individual women. There appears to be no industry type without glass ceilings, no other similar form of structural plateauing, and no comparable barrier for white males. This blockage occurs in governmental, scientific, business, and educational organizations.” There are steps being made to try to change corporate cultures so that both males and females have equal opportunities, but as we learned, changes such as this take time, and in this case it is said that it could take up to a hundred years before women are receiving the same pay per dollar as men, given the same opportunities as men, and are looked at as being equal in ability to get the job done. Cultures develop over time and are historical, which we talked about in class. They are based on what has happened in the past and on the upbringing of those that shape the culture. If you see things in old ways, it’s difficult to act in new ways. This is what seems to be happening in the corporate world, because women are having such a hard time breaking into the male dominated culture of corporations that has been implemented all through history up until recently.
It is encouraging to see that there is progress being made, but it is at somewhat of a slower rate than women hope for. In a study done by the PRWeek Magazine, a salary survey in March of 2000 said that women “wer...