Free Essay Example. Women Glass-Ceiling in Organizations

Men and women are equal, in a workforce organization set up equal opportunity, and the right to advance to higher positions should be given. The Glass ceiling is a famous metaphor referring to the inability to advance through a certain level in your day-to-day life. The role of modern women has significantly and drastically changed with time. With gender equality rights amended across our planet, it's not a norm to find women working in the same departments an organizations as their male counterparts. However, the glass ceiling concept comes about in organizations when women are denied equal chances in attaining senior positions (as well as higher salary levels) in corporations, government, education, and non-profit organizations.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Many studies have shown women are oppressed in the workforce and are not subject to promotions in higher seats nor equal opportunity. Lips (2013) also stated that there are several indicators to the continuing lack of pay gap awareness and its severity among employees and employers alike. Many still see the gap as justifiable because of differing male and female attitudes, behaviors and choices. Blake-Beard (2005) discovered in a research study that women in the United States of America were yet to reach the top echelon in significant numbers, irrespective of their involvement in managerial positions. Also, in the United Kingdom, women held less than 5% of senior management posts, and perhaps, some 26% of all managerial-type positions, in a situation where they made up more than 40% of the total work force (Cole, 2004). In spite of the fact that both sexes appear to have opportunities of leadership success, in reality, there existed implicit boundaries beyond which women could not go (Crompton, 2006; Udegbe, 1997). Bombuwela P. M., De Alwis A. Chamaru (2013) in their study of the glass ceiling effects have stated that the glass ceiling effect has an impact on the growth and career development of women. James Albrecht (2001) in his study drew the interpretation of a strong evidence of glass ceiling in the work places.

To understand why women are having this barrier in the workforce a deep analysis need be done identifying the root course for glass-ceiling. To begin with prejudice and stereotyping. Gender stereotype is a generalized view or preconception about attributes, or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by women and men or the roles that are or should be performed by men and women. Gender stereotypes can be both positive and negative for example, “women are nurturing” or “women are weak” A stereotype is harmful when it limits women’s or men’s capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives and life plans. Both hostile/negative or seemingly benign stereotypes can be harmful. It is for example based on the stereotype that women are more nurturing that child rearing responsibilities often fall exclusively on them. Discrimination against women includes those differences of treatment that exist because of stereotypical expectations, attitudes and behaviors towards women. Heilman, M.E. and Parks-Stamm, E.J. (2007) list the following as examples of stereotyping women face in workforce environment; women are regarded as subordinate to men perpetuate widespread practice involving violence and coercion, women working in blue-color are regarded to be inferior. Gender-oriented prejudice also pose a serious threat to women's careers and facilitate gender bias in the workplace. According to theorists, prejudice against women leaders emerges from an incongruity between their gender role and the more masculine social role of a leader. Self-reports are often used to study people's prejudice against women leaders, and these have helped to gather important information about the form intolerance and stereotyping against women in power takes. To counter this effect, Hoffmann and Musch (2018) collected responses from 1529 German students with either a conventional direct question, or an indirect question in the format of the so-called Crosswise Model. This measure includes raising awareness, speaking out, preparing to move confidently in the male dominated fields.

In finance as you go higher in office, the lesser the number of women. When it comes to balancing gender equality, finance has simply not kept pace with many other professional fields, such as law, academia, and medicine. That’s despite the fact that women now receive the majority of college degrees in the United States across every category, from bachelor’s degrees to doctorates and in university classrooms and campus walkways are populated with more women than men, finance and business degrees still slightly remain the province of male students for the most part. Women are underrepresented at all levels of the global financial system, from depositors and borrowers to bank board members and regulators. A new study at the IMF finds that greater inclusion of women as users, providers, and regulators of financial services would have benefits beyond addressing gender inequality. Narrowing the gender gap would foster greater stability in the banking system and enhance economic growth. It could also contribute to more effective monetary and fiscal policy. New evidence suggests that greater access for women to and use of accounts for financial transactions, savings, and insurance can have both economic and societal benefits. For example, women merchants who opened a basic bank account tend to invest more in their businesses, while female-headed households often spend more on education after opening a savings account. To promote more women in finance, organizations should; Offer Flexibility: Often flexible work schedules can be a myth. True flexibility means that the employees have the freedom to set their own goals and adjust their schedules around other needs in their life, such as childcare, school pick-ups, urgent hospital appointments and so on. This way the employees feel valued, in control and are more productive. It creates a positive workplace culture, where the company places more emphasis on productivity and performance rather than hours spent at the desk, Encourage Female Role Models: Companies and organizations that actively encourage, nurture and foster women in leadership roles also encourage more women into their workforce and manage bias: It has been reported that women face more bias, both explicit as well as implicit hidden bias from both men and women. Unconscious bias is a result of ingrained cultural conditioning where women are not considered as valuable to the workforce, and they are seen as not very committed to the job or the organization because of family responsibilities and conflicts. Women might not be as forthcoming in expressing their discontent and their expectations from the employers as they are socially conditioned to undervalue themselves. Women demand less often because they do not want to create a fuss, they want to be seen as an asset and prove their worth. When a community is under-represented, they have more expectations and responsibility to prove themselves.

There are structural barriers that hinders a woman success in organization environment. This will affect not only her career but also the organizational effectiveness in general. These structural barriers can range from challenges like stereotyping as discussed earlier or even go further. There are obstacles to women in the workplace on both the organizational and the societal level. Women face two types of structural issues; some are found in society generally, and others are found in corporate settings. Societal issues are those forces which are deeply rooted in culture and public policy. Contributing factors to the limited career advancement for women include some aspects of social programs and policy, limited human capital and the societal expectation of female participation in service industries such as education, health services, and social and community services (Eagly & Sczesny, 2009, p. 34). When recruiting, some organizations have a clear bias against the female gender, which decreases the proportion of women employees. In China’s securities industry, there is an implicit rule that women should not be allowed to enter at the societal level. In China, there is a popular saying: “It is better for a woman to marry well than find a good job.” Indeed, Chinese society is full of bias against single women, especially when they reach 30. Those women will receive a lot of pressure from parents, relatives, and the media to settle down. Women in Ghana are generally less likely to participate in the labor force and climb corporate and public ladders due to cultural factors. The culture in Ghana has mostly followed a paternal inheritance system in which men, rather than women, are forced to look for jobs to be able to leave an inheritance for their families. Consequently, women stayed at home, did household chores, and brought up children. Further, women would leave their homes and marry into other families, so investment in women—especially in education—was generally seen as a waste of money and time. Since education is one of the key drivers of women’s participation in the labor force, this has hampered their chances of being absorbed into the workforce. Consequently, performance and promotional opportunities are limited for them. Women should regard the glass ceiling as one of life’s obstacles and not ‘The’ obstacle in their career. It just has to be taken in our stride. It becomes easier if we can stay our course. As for the glass ceiling itself, it would erode once people fully appreciate the different leadership style of women. They are great team-makers in the workforce; they try to put everyone on the same page rather than make her team toe the line blindly. Contrary to belief, they also tend to take more risks and try out a different way of solving problems than men.

Another societal issue for women is their limited human capital. Human capital refers to the skills, experience, and knowledge an employee brings to a position (Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2005). Cultural expectations deem it more appropriate for women to interrupt their careers due to family responsibilities such as caring for children or aging parents than for men to do the same. In addition, women are encouraged to work in departments that have fewer developmental opportunities or do not translate to executive advancement (Guerrero, 2011, p. 382). Broughton and Miller noted that women in management are more likely to come from non-business backgrounds, which limits their attempts to succeed because they have little or no business leadership experience (Broughton & Miller, 2009, p. 14). Women may compensate for this lack of experience, however, by developing specialist expertise through higher education degrees (2009, p. 14). Further, the notion of the “glass border” suggests that women do not advance due to their limited international business experience which is often the result of companies typically offering opportunities to travel to male employees first (Broughton & Miller, 2009, p. 11). Finally, women’s wider acceptance in leadership in soft sectors of corporate governance perpetuates stereotypes about gender-based employment (Eagly & Sczesny, 2009, p. 34).

Lastly, it is of key to highlight women’s response to these barriers. Women can perpetuate the barriers to their advancement by choosing to respond to difficulty in unhelpful ways. If a woman sees or experiences a barrier, she may respond by internalizing it inappropriately, by rationalizing it through sensemaking, or by avoiding the career altogether.