Glass Ceiling Case Study

The glass ceiling is the imaginary barrier inhibiting women and minority groups from climbing into top leadership positions. Three items that explain the barriers which result in the glass ceiling are corporate activities such as staffing, retention, and advancement; behavioral and cultural reasons such as typecasting and preferred leadership style; and organizational and cultural descriptions rooted in feminist philosophy. Additionally, methods accounting for the development of gender-related activities in corporations, which support the glass ceiling idea, fall into three categories which are biological explanations, socialization explanations, and structural and cultural explanations (Weyer, 2007). Women are just as impactful as leaders, dedicated to their work, or determined to attain leadership roles as men are. Still, women are less inclined to promote themselves and engage in negotiation (Northouse, 2022).

The glass ceiling has had many impacts on women. It can create an emotional toll, causing stress, anxiety, and frustration. When women attempt to demonstrate their expertise by acting like a man, they are judged to be less than women. When there seems to be some merit in what would normally have been considered a “female” approach, men adopt it as their own. Behavior previously viewed as weak is now flexible; what was emotional now merges with the logic to create balance. The concept of the greater good, which was once not appropriate in the corporate world, is now visionary (Applebaum et al., 2003). The business sector has been structured to support men who are free of family obligations and have a stereotypical trait of assertiveness. Because of this, women have naturally taken a back seat to men. Companies must build a culture to promote gender equality especially as they seek to promote women to high-level roles that have been dominated by males for decades (Tripathi, 2021). It is shocking today that there is still such a large gap between male and female senior leadership in the United States. More than half of women in technology roles depart their job at the mid-point of their career, which is over two times higher than the rate men leave. Likewise, the staff turnover rate for women in the industry is 41%, compared to 17% for men (Atcheson, 2021).

An example of the glass ceiling we have all seen in our lives lies within the office of the president of the United States. Never has a woman been elected to lead the country. We have made great strides finally having a minority woman, Kamala Harris, elected as the vice president, however, a woman has never held the highest office in the country to date. Unfortunately, the glass ceiling still exists today on a global scale. Mostly men are in executive ranks in organizations and other points of power. In recent times, more attention has been focused on barriers like these, but we still have a long way to go. When looking at the C-level leaders in my organization, it is mostly made up of white males.