Over the last few decades, women have made great strides in moving up the corporate ladder. Women such as Carleton Fiorina have managed to reach the top of their field by becoming the president and CEO of their companies. Looking at the incredible progress of these women, the "glass ceiling" -- the concept used to describe the barriers blocking women from top-level positions -- seems to be obsolete and irrelevant to the working women of today. However, working in a world dominated by male decision-makers and their established practices, most women have been unable to shatter the glass ceiling, regardless of their talent, efficiency and experience. Although women have made tremendous progress in the workplace by achieving mid-level managerial positions, top-level positions remain as elusive to them today as they were more than a decade ago. One of the most significant factors is cultural stereotype. To many CEOs, women cannot compete against their male counterparts because they get pregnant and are responsible for domestic tasks. Therefore, they are placed in dead-end managerial positions with no real potential of reaching the executive suite.
In this paper, the relevance of the concept of the glass ceiling to the area of management will be assessed. Essentially, this paper will prove that in spite of the fact that some women have made it to the top of the hierarchy, the CEOs of corporations have not overcome their biases against women. Furthermore, the underlying causes of the existence of the glass ceiling at the management level will also be discussed.
Advocates who believe that the glass ceiling is fiction often point to women who have triumphed against the male-dominated system to reach the top echelons of their career. According to the survey of 1200 female vice presidents of Fortune 1000 companies conducted by Catalyst -- a group originally founded to assist mothers' re-entry into the workplace -- it was found that these...