Glass ceiling

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The term glass ceiling most commonly refers to the condition in which top-level management in businesses is dominated by men. A "ceiling" is suggested because women are seen as limited in how far they can advance up organizational ranks; the ceiling is "glass" (transparent) because the limitation is not immediately apparent. The "glass ceiling" is distinguished from formal barriers to advancement, such as education or experience requirements.

The term is often credited as having been originally coined by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24, 1986 edition of the Wall Street Journal. However, the term was used prior to that e.g. in a March 1984 Adweek article by Gay Bryant.

The term is most often used to refer to women's access to upper management. However, the glass ceiling also refers to the general tendency for women to be underrepresented at higher levels of the occupational hierarchy. Empirical evidence for this pattern in the U.S. is pervasive.^[1] The extension to other groups, such as racial or ethnic minorities, is usually made with direct or indirect reference to gender.

The term glass elevator (or glass escalator) is sometimes used to describe the rapid promotion of men over women, especially into management, in female-dominated fields like nursing.

The term glass cliff describes a situation wherein someone, particularly a woman, has been promoted into a risky, difficult job where the chances of failure are higher.

Additional variations include the celluloid ceiling, which refers to the small number of women in top positions in Hollywood, as documented by Lauzen (2002) and others.

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[edit] Footnotes

^ David A. Cotter, Joan M. Hermsen, Seth Ovadia, and Reeve Vanneman. "The Glass Ceiling Effect." Social Forces Vol. 80, No. 2 (Dec., 2001), pp. 655-681.