This actually made me ill. I love the term Glass Ceiling, it is such a direct yet hidden way of saying, its within your reach but you will never obtain it. I love the phrase and think that for how dark it is, its genius. However, I did not know what the actual definition was… that is the sick part.
So, I did a Google search for ‘Glass Ceiling’ and what I received back was very disturbing. The definition, according to our favorite friend Wikipedia is as follows, “A glass ceiling is a political term used to describe “the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.” HOW SICK IS THAT?!?!?!
I had no idea that the actual definition was a shot at women and minorities, I just thought it was a blanket statement for, you know, excelling past diversity for everyone, blah blah blah, but I am actually finding myself feeling dirty that I loved that phrase so much. It actually speaks truth that our system (of white, upper class businessmen) need to target and keep down minorities and women in order to keep their place. THis is just like the Capital and 12 (13) Districts (Nerd reference). Anyway, what I am trying to say is, a phrase that that we use all the time and I bet many of you also didn’t know that it was targeted at a certain group of people, this is how we perpetuate hate and nothing changes in our society.
We are smarter then the words we write down, the Bible says Man shall not lie with Man as he does Women, really???? get over it, we have evolved, we are better now then were were then.
- We no longer whip African Americans
- Spit on the Irish
- Burn the Jewish people
- WEAR MIXED COTTONS…
Come on world, wake up and put the hate behind you.
Ted Charles Craig says
Your blog was definitely an attention grabber. I respect the amount of emotion that you conveyed towards the current situation and our cultures condoning of the glass ceiling. “Culture is the learned behaviors characterizing the total way of life of members within any given society” (Hofstede, 2001, Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012). I think that we need to break the cycle in order to transcend this oppression.
My definition of a glass ceiling is a ceiling that you cannot see, but is there. How do we accept this? Currently women face organizational, interpersonal, and personal barriers that prevent or slow their advancement into leadership positions. I feel that in this situation, subtlety is the worse enemy. In todays age, no company or workplace is going to have written policy that outright oppresses women. At the same time subtle decisions made by management may be skewed by cultural norms. This is hard to prove on a case by case basis but when you look at the big picture, it is quite evident. For instance, our text states notes the disparity in the percentage of women that lead Fortune 500 companies (Northouse, 2009). Now you can’t blame every single company that has a male as a CEO for a company, nor should all companies rush out and look to replace their CEO with a female. However, there is an issue here that needs to be addressed.
I believe that the first step to overcome the issue of the glass ceiling is to raise awareness to its presence. Once we acknowledge this as a problem, we can then work to change the culture to solve it. We should then stress the dangers of subtle favoritism that is skewed by the norms that were acceptable in the past. We need to break the cycle and start off with a new slate that promotes people based on the merits as a leader regardless of their sex.
References
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
August Miriah Bruce says
There is actually another phrase used now instead of the “glass ceiling” and that is the “Glass Labyrinth.” It is too easy a matter to view it as a single pane of glass that stops all women or minorities at a certain point and then has to be cracked. According to Northouse (2013), the glass labyrinth is a complex path riddled with challenges and obstacles that come at all levels of career development, not just at the final end level. It has been navigated by women and minorities, but there are so many obstacles and lack of support that it is more difficult
References
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Nash W Hutter says
This post was honestly probably one of my favorites that I have read throughout this semester. The only question that I have is, what type of leadership does this relate to? I can see many possibilities here, but am not sure exactly which one you were pertaining to. That being said, I agree 100% with what you had to say. Life is a clock. The clock hand moves, and with the passage of time, things change. People change. Words and phrases change meanings. There are to many hidden realities in this day and age and though everybody knows it, most are to stubborn to accept it. So though you and myself might be smarter than the words previously written down, it is a sad fact that in reality, the rest of this country is not. 🙂