Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women's Struggle for Equality in the Workplace
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Most women still believe that their duties are only restricted to household works and caring for children. In reality, our society is compelling women not to think beyond that. But the introduction and advancement of education and changing mind set of ‘generation-Y’ have compelled women to think differently maintaining social values and ethics. Besides, globalization and changes in economic and social condition act as a positive catalyst for changing of the role and self-perception.
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Now a days, women are trying to participate in the public domain and progressing towards managerial ranks or higher level of management of their participating organization. But the career path does not welcome women with a red carpet. In spite of these positive changes, women still have to face intangible barriers in climbing up the corporate ladder. Along with “glass ceiling”, women, in the leadership position, may have to face the metaphors like “glass elevators” and “glass cliffs” which refer to greater scrutiny and criticism.
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We have to focus on the glass ceiling effect or gender diversity issue in organizations along with cultural biases, gender stereotypes and the approaches that all organizations should take to encourage and promote eligible women in respectful and managerial positions. For decades, it has been seen that the presence of women in senior managerial positions is very low in spite of having good scholastics, plethora of knowledge, quality and efficiency and this happens only due to the barriers like mental blockage or prejudices and the glass ceiling phenomenon.
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Organizations publish their balance sheets to disclose their financial health and to motivate shareholders as per financial considerations but the invisible balance sheets of human resources are unbalanced from the long past as far as gender is concerned and are discouraging our society and women. We simultaneously utter “Half the sky thou art woman” and celebrate International Women’s Day(IWD) not only for the role of women in society but to draw the attention of gender issues or gender discrimination which is all pervading and continuously affecting our modern society.
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Standing in this 21st century, women are still fighting for their rights in every aspect of life and the women employees too are not the exception. The word “Glass ceiling” refers to an intangible barrier within a hierarchy that restrains qualified women or minorities from obtaining higher level positions at their workplace. Glass ceiling effect is instigated by the issues of gender differentiation and gender stereotyping which affect women continuously. There are some barriers e.g. psychological barriers, societal-related barriers, organizational barriers against which women are still fighting to strengthen their presence in the higher level of management of organizations.
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From the very childhood days, women are bound to abide by some so called social rules which are deeply rooted in their mind. In some cases, they accept these rules as the rules of thumb and flow their lives as it goes. This kind of mindset gradually demotivates them and results in loss of confidence and enthusiasm. There is also a class of women who try to overcome these rules and reshape their mind as career-oriented. This class of women has the potential to cope with any Corporate Glass Ceiling. Society, government and private organizations should take collective efforts to diminish the practice of gender diversity and gender stereotyping for the amelioration of society.
