Opinions of Educational Administrators on Glass Ceiling Syndrome Preventing Women from Becoming Senior Managers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal the opinions of educational administrators about the factors that arise from the glass ceiling syndrome which prevents women from becoming senior managers in educational organizations. In addition, in this study, suggestions have been developed for women to overcome the obstacles they face in reaching senior management positions. Qualitative method was used in this research. The research was conducted as a descriptive study in the survey model. The participants of the study consisted of educational administrators working in Niğde province. Semi-structured interview technique was used to examine and reveal the views of the participants in depth. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of data. According to the results, all participants think that women face glass ceiling barriers in the promotion of senior managerial positions. Obstacles to the glass ceiling are mostly due to individual factors. Individual factors were followed by organizational and social factors, respectively. Among the individual factors, the most important obstacles are women's negative view of management and their family responsibilities. Women do not aspire to management tasks because they require more workload and responsibility. In addition, male-dominated organizational policies and the sexist approach, which sees management as man's job are barriers for women. It has been suggested that women should be more willing and challenging to overcome the glass ceiling barriers. In addition, suggestions were made for senior management positions such as allocating quotas and providing flexible working hours for women.

Breaking the glass ceiling: A study of single academic women in one Zimbabwean university

“…Glass ceiling is also described as a well enshrined phenomenon supported by conclusive evidence (Man et al, 2009cited in Al-Manasra, 2013. Although the glass ceiling could exist at different levels in different organizations or industries, the term naturally is used to suggest a barrier for women from entering into top-level management positions (Akkaya, 2020;Amaefula, 2021). These beliefs of women glass ceiling are similar to the patriarchal thinking where women"s place is believed to be in the kitchen, hence, when given a chance to work, they are not accorded higher posts (Abbas et al, 2021).…”

“…The glass ceiling is usually a result of unconscious bias, innate beliefs about ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, social class and religion (Akkaya, 2020). In some cases, glass ceilings have become a problem in the culture of an organization (Rana and Raju, 2019;Abbas et al, 2021).…”

“…However, glass ceilings are rarely in the form of strictly defined corporate policies and they are almost never deliberately obvious (Akkaya, 2020). It is because of these barriers that women are more likely to face restricted access, limited opportunities, low esteem and lower compensation, which prevent them from gaining promotions (Canning et al, 2020;Abbas et al, 2021).…”

“…Research has proved that single parenthood is associated with a lot of challenges and adjustments. Some of these challenges include financial instability, time management, balancing different responsibilities such as work, social life and child rearing, sometimes with little or no help from others (Mugove, 2017;Mupfumira, 2017;Akkaya, 2020;Abbas et al, 2021). With reference to Korea, Kim and Kim (2020) report that single-parent status of families is mainly caused by divorce, and in most cases single parents often face the challenge of blaming themselves for having failed in life and may be stressed by perceived negative societal sentiments.…”

“…According to Terry (1995, cited in Abbas et al, 2021, empowerment research agrees that the conditions under which teachers work are often accompanied by too much isolation, which denies them a sense of efficacy, success, and self-worth. In order to break the "glass ceiling" that these barriers form, universities need to do more to eliminate the obstacles that prevent women from advancing and to foster work environments that allow them to work collaboratively to achieve their goals (Akkaya, 2020). This study focuses on the factors that facilitated the success of single mothers in academia as university lecturers.…”