Glass Ceiling and the Effects on Women
INTRODUCTION
It’s 4:57PM and your superior has just emailed you and a fellow co-worker a project that is needed by 8AM tomorrow morning. You glance at the clock and realize you have two minutes before you must dash out of the office and rush 45 minutes across town to pick your child up from a daycare that closes in 30 minutes. Clearly, there is not nearly enough time to complete the request. You look at the office across from you and see your childless, single counterpart who simply smiles and says “…go ahead. I’ll handle the request”. All the way home you beat yourself up. Pondering how this will look to your superior? Will you look like a slacker or not be considered a “team player”? Or even worse… what potential promotion did you just decrease your chances of getting? You also began to consider the contrary… “What type of parent would I be to leave my child waiting at the daycare or disappoint them by having someone else pick him/her up?” How disappointed would your child be if you didn’t show up to pick him/her up when you promised ice cream this afternoon? If this scenario does not sound familiar to you, then maybe it is because you’re one of the few people that have not been faced with the issues that stem from the “glass ceilings” that still exist today in Corporate America.
The term “glass ceiling” refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination. The metaphor can be simply defined as “an invisible or transparent barrier that keeps an individual from rising above a certain level in corporations”. Although the idea of a glass ceiling is widespread, there has been surprisingly very little research by economists to establish its existence or evaluate the consequences. In many corporations today, being single with or without children versus being married with or without children, leaves women or men who are married or single with huge
It’s 4:57PM and your superior has just emailed you and a fellow co-worker a project that is needed by 8AM tomorrow morning. You glance at the clock and realize you have two minutes before you must dash out of the office and rush 45 minutes across town to pick your child up from a daycare that closes in 30 minutes. Clearly, there is not nearly enough time to complete the request. You look at the office across from you and see your childless, single counterpart who simply smiles and says “…go ahead. I’ll handle the request”. All the way home you beat yourself up. Pondering how this will look to your superior? Will you look like a slacker or not be considered a “team player”? Or even worse… what potential promotion did you just decrease your chances of getting? You also began to consider the contrary… “What type of parent would I be to leave my child waiting at the daycare or disappoint them by having someone else pick him/her up?” How disappointed would your child be if you didn’t show up to pick him/her up when you promised ice cream this afternoon? If this scenario does not sound familiar to you, then maybe it is because you’re one of the few people that have not been faced with the issues that stem from the “glass ceilings” that still exist today in Corporate America.
The term “glass ceiling” refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination. The metaphor can be simply defined as “an invisible or transparent barrier that keeps an individual from rising above a certain level in corporations”. Although the idea of a glass ceiling is widespread, there has been surprisingly very little research by economists to establish its existence or evaluate the consequences. In many corporations today, being single with or without children versus being married with or without children, leaves women or men who are married or single with huge
Citations: Kingsley Browne. "Glass Ceiling, Biological Floor." Darwin@LSE. 2 Oct. 1998. 21 Apr. 2008 http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/darwin/readings/browneglass.htm R. Caffarello, C. Clark, and P. Ingram. "Life At the Glass Ceiling: Women in Mid-Level Management Positions." International Journal of Urban Labour & Leisure. 2 Mar. 2007. 22 Apr. 2008 http://www.ijull.co.uk/vol2/1/000011.htm Joyce P. Jacobsen. "Choices Changes." Regional Review Q1 (2005): 17-31. 21 Apr. 2008 www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr2005/q1/section2a.pdf Johanne Toussaint 22 Apr. 2008 www.feminism.eserver.org/the-glass-ceiling.tx Dr. Al Lee PhD. “Salary Comparison: Married vs. Unmarried.” Ask Dr. Salary. 30 May 2007. C. 2000-2008. http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/05/salary_comparis.html SCSU Scholars