Glass Ceiling
Glass ceiling term was coined by Ann Morrison in 1980s. He used this term for the very first time and introduced glass ceiling as invisible career barriers that blocks the careers of women and other minorities from climbing up the ladder of corporate sector. This term was popularized by the journalists of Wall Street Journal in 1986. They elucidated this term as obstacles capping up the careers of the capable women to gain the powerful and decision making positions equivalent to men in their organizations.
Glass ceiling, a universal phenomenon is the invisible curtain that hides the talent of the women and keep them away from the ladder leading to the top management level. It is the barrier to the progress of the upper level of management of an organization. Females usually do not get promoted just due to the general perception of the management that females are not suitable for the top executive positions. There are many reasons for glass ceiling ranging from gender discrimination to the personality traits as viewed by the top male deciders.
Glass ceiling blocks the abilities to be utilized efficiently to achieve organizational goals as well as it creates hurdles in the way of highly qualified and good female leaders to perform at their best because they are not provided with the opportunities to excel in their fields. Women are not being assigned the assignments that can prepare them for the top level management.
Shattering the Glass Ceiling
The term “Glass Ceiling” is known as those hurdles and unseen barriers women usually face when they try to ladder up the corporate positions. This term was first used by Wall Street Journal in 1986. Since then it has been a hot issue to discuss and research for the HR managers and professionals as well as for the policy developers. All the researchers and policy makers have been trying to balance this gender imbalance in their organization by having a diverse composition of workforce in their organization. This issue also caught the attention of the parliament and law makers of many countries including US to pass such laws to ensure the EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) that should be fair to both gender by providing equal chances to climb up equally for males and females.
