Women Leaders: Is There Still a Glass Ceiling?

"Women's rarity in powerful roles has most often been ascribed to the glass ceiling, but this explanation no longer fits.  The glass ceiling  metaphor conveys a rigid, impenetrable barrier, but barriers to women's advancement are now more permeable" writes Alice Eagly and Linda Carli in their recent book, Through the Labyrinth: the truth about how women become leaders.

They list seven reasons why the metaphor no longer applies:

1.  It erroneously implies that women have equal access to entry-level positions.

2.  It erroneously assumes the presence of an absolute barrier at a specific high level in organizations.

3.  It erroneously suggests that all barriers to women are difficult to detect and therefore unforseen.

4.  It erroneously assumes that there exists a single, homogeneous barrier and thereby ignores the complexity and variety of obstacles that women leaders can face.

5. It fails to recognize the diverse strategies that women devise to become leaders.

6.  It precludes the possibility that women can overcome barriers and become leaders.

7.  It fails to suggest that thoughtful problem solving can facilitate women's paths to leadership.

Whaddya think?  We will be looking at this book in the days ahead.

 

 

Comments

[Existential Punk]

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

i think we have come a long way, especially with Hillary Clinton's candidacy for president. YET, we have a long way to go, especially in the church.

i blog about this issue and Emergent here:
http://www.existentialpunk.com/existential_punk/2008/12/emergent-beyond.html

Warm Regards,

Existential Punk

[Maria Kirby]

Yes, I think there are glass ceilings still. I'm not really into this sort of thing, but some of my observations are that if women are trying achieve the ambitions created by men there will always be limitations, but if they are creating their own goals, their own places of achievement, there will be no limitations other than self.