The glass ceiling, in terms of job positions, can be defined as an intangible barrier within a hierarchy that prevents women and minorities from being promoted into upper-level positions. Removing the glass ceiling is the act of taking away this invisible barrier for women and minorities to move up into upper-level positions. In the U.S., only 5% of women are running a Fortune 500 company which is equivalent to twenty-five companies. In the U.S., feminists will use this term excluding minorities including minority men, but this article when referring to the glass ceiling will encompass women, minorities, and minority men.
Contents
Background
In the realms of finance, the glass ceiling can be seen through trends, new CEOs, and stock performance. Looking at trends in the number of female and male CEOs, one can find a steady increase in female CEOs from 1992 to 2004. In 2002, this increased tapered off a little bit. For male CEOs, they have increased from 1992 to 1999, and since then male CEOs have decreased. An interesting observation from this chart will reveal that when the female increase in CEOs tapered starting in 2002, the male CEOs continued to decline. This brings insight into the United States economic state in the year 2002. Coincidentally, there was a recession in the U.S. in 2002 through 2003.
When a publicly traded company switches to a new CEO for any reason the stock on average will go down, but, the amount it goes down is affected by what gender the new CEO is among other factors. On average, when a male takes over as the role of CEO the stock will drop .5% while when a female becomes a CEO the stock will drop 5.7%. There is no explanation for this difference, but it can be assumed that gender does play a role in this large average difference.
In the long-run of a publicly traded company, there is no significant difference in excess returns between female-led companies and male-led companies.
Barriers to removing the glass ceiling
The barriers to removing the glass ceiling in the United States comes from a survey of 1,251 women with positions of vice president or higher in Fortune 1000 companies.
According to the survey, the cost of the glass ceiling is extremely high. Because of the glass ceiling, women and minorities are not able to break into higher level positions. This causes a large turnover in employees. So, if they cannot get into a higher position then they will leave the company in order to find a position at another company that will allow them to be in a higher position. On average this costs a company 150% of an annual salary of a mid-level managerial position.
The top three barriers that women and minorities faced while trying to obtain upper-level managerial positions are the following: consistently exceed performance expectations, developed a style that men are comfortable with, and seek difficult or highly visible assignments. Each of these is assigned a percentage of how critical it is to move up. For consistently exceeding expectations it is 77%, for developing style men are comfortable with it is 61%, and finally seeking a difficult project is 50%. Noting that superior performance is always a critical factor in being promoted for males, females, and minorities. The most notable barrier is developing a work style that men are comfortable with. This barrier shows the glass ceiling. As said before, performance is needed for everyone and seeking difficult projects is also needed for most of everyone, but finding a work style that makes men comfortable is not for everyone. This is specific to women.
Established ways and practices of removing the glass ceiling
Companies in the United States that have already removed the glass ceiling from their organization have a common company structure compared to companies that have not already removed the glass ceiling. The commonalities of company structure that have removed the glass ceiling from their organization are having higher upper management turnover, having lower-level management positions filled with women, and the company investing more time and resources into promoting its employees. Interestingly enough, this type of industry also has an apparent effect on women being in upper-level management positions. It is said that the manufacturing industry has fewer women in upper-level management positions compared to other industries. Another commonality found is the size and age of the company. A younger company will generally have more women in top management positions as well as larger companies. Lastly, companies that have government contracts will also have more women in upper-level managerial positions compared to those companies that do not have government contracts.
Few U.S. based companies have already implemented internal strategies to remove the glass ceiling from their organizations. Companies have started to require the CEO and other top executives to attend gender training programs focused on gender-bias and minority bias. The program has a three-year follow-up to see how the top executives have implemented what they learned at the program into the company culture. The companies that have removed the glass ceiling already have mandatory workshops on policies against racial and gender discrimination. These workshops focus on building better relationships and teamwork in a company's diverse employee base. Other companies have provided cash bonuses to top executives on their progress in promoting women and minorities within the company and in general. This has resulted in a 25% increase in hiring women and minorities. These same companies have created networking panels composed of entirely women and minorities to promote equal hiring opportunities. Another set of companies requires a rotation process of both men and women that allow them to experience two to three different company departments before being eligible for being promoted. This allows the company to select the best person for the promoted job regardless of gender and background. Many companies have also required employees to attend workshops to teach that men and women manage and may come up with the same solution through different thought processes and that this is not only valid but highly encouraged to think differently.
Companies that have already removed the glass ceiling from their organizations feel that they are doing much better than other companies. 80% believe they are doing better than their competitors while 68% feel they are better off than other companies in general. Companies that have removed the glass ceiling include both men, women, and minorities in special projects and tasks.
Future ways and practices companies can remove the glass ceiling
Many U.S. based companies have not removed the glass ceiling from their organizations. Although some companies already have set an example of some practices and ways this can be achieved there are many different other ways of removing the glass ceiling at a company-wide level. Many ways of removing the glass ceiling from companies have already been mentioned in the latter section, but some ways of removing the glass ceiling have not been implemented yet. The strategy is called a clear plan of action between the employee and the employer. This plan calls for an upper-level manager to act as a mentor and to help create achievable goals within the company with an employee. This will help remove the glass ceiling in two ways. One, that the employers and the employee have a mutual understanding of what each wants and want to achieve. Two, that the employee can visualize and work for a specific set our goal, and once accomplishing the said goal, to move on to the next goal. By doing this, the company will see the dedication and highly motivated employee striving to achieve upper-level positions and therefore, in theory, promote the employee regardless of gender and background.
United States government on the glass ceiling
The United States government is connected to the removal of the glass ceiling for economic and social purposes. The U.S. government strives for equality through policy and law making no matter the gender or background. This plays into the economic reasons. The government also wants to maximize its "human capital". Human capital is intangible collective resources of a group of individuals that possess certain knowledge, skills, and abilities. In order to make full use of the countries human capital, the United States government created a recommendation for businesses and a recommendation for the government.
The U.S. government’s recommendation for businesses that are for the CEO and other top executives to demonstrate full commitment to remove the glass ceiling. This includes adding diversity to the businesses business plan, and, to promote and retain qualified individuals.
The U.S government's recommendation for itself is that companies must give yearly outlines and reports about the progress and steps they are making to include more diversity within the company.