The Glass Ceiling for Women Managers: Antecedents and Consequences for Work-Family Interface and Well-Being at Work

Abstract

Despite significant promotion of diversity in companies, as well as legislation for equal opportunities for women and men, it must be noted that women still remain largely in the minority in decision-making positions. This observation reflects the phenomenon of the glass ceiling that constitutes vertical discrimination within companies against women. Although the glass ceiling has generated research interest, some authors have pointed out that theoretical models have made little attempt to develop an understanding of this phenomenon and its implications. Therefore, our study aims to fill this gap and to better understand the phenomenon of the glass ceiling by considering both its antecedents and its possible consequences. More precisely, we extend the model developed by Elacqua et al. (2009), proposing a more comprehensive model including organizational gender culture as a third factor (in addition to situational and interpersonal issues) in the emergence of the glass ceiling through the perception of differential treatment. We also investigated the glass ceiling’s consequences for organizational attitudes and well-being at work by considering work-to-family conflict (WFC) as a possible mediator. We surveyed 320 women in managerial positions in a Belgian organization. Our study highlights the importance of all three factors in the emergence of the perception of differential treatment and, ultimately, the perception that a glass ceiling exists. Moreover, our results show that WFC fully mediates the effects of the glass ceiling on job strain and job engagement, and partially mediates the effects of the glass ceiling on job satisfaction and intention to quit.

Equal Representation Does Not Mean Equal Opportunity: Women Academics Perceive a Thicker Glass Ceiling in Social and Behavioral Fields Than in the Natural Sciences and Economics

“…Thus far, most research on the perceived glass ceiling was conducted in male-dominated organizations (e.g., finance, business management, law firms, science, and technology) and with a sole focus on women (e.g., Cech and Blair-Loy, 2010 ; Downes et al, 2014 ; Cohen et al, 2020 ; Babic and Hansez, 2021 ; but see Foley et al, 2002 for exception). These studies typically identify cultural (e.g., masculine work climate) and structural (e.g., family unfriendly policies) factors in male-dominated organizations as important antecedents of women’s glass ceiling perceptions.…”

“…The glass ceiling can be defined as a structural, discriminatory barrier that women (but not men) face when advancing to the highest ranks in an organizational hierarchy. Compared to other forms of gender discrimination, the glass ceiling is a particular form of inequality following a specific set of criteria (see also Babic and Hansez, 2021 ). First, the glass ceiling refers specifically to discrimination against women for leadership positions and therefore exists beyond potential other gender differences in for example the level of education, tenure, experience, or skill ( Cotter et al, 2001 ; Kulik and Rae, 2019 ).…”

“…We see this in Dutch academia too such that relative to career progression at lower ranks (e.g., from PhD to assistant professor) women face the largest barriers when progressing from associate to full professor (i.e., the highest level; Figure 1 ; LNVH, 2018 ). Third, scholars agree that a glass ceiling is difficult to establish objectively or in absolute terms because the barriers that individual women face when trying to reach the highest levels of leadership are often intangible and difficult to attribute to gender discriminatory processes ( Elliott and Smith, 2004 ; Babic and Hansez, 2021 ).…”

New Ethics In The Grammar And Lexicon Of Russian Media

“…At the same time, it should be noted that since the first use of objectification to denote a discriminatory attitude from the point of view of new ethics, no cases of words with the same meaning in the corpus of the language have been recorded. The phrase glass ceiling (an invisible barrier that hinders the career growth of women (Babic et al, 2021) occurs 28 times in the newspaper corpus. In four cases it is used in the direct meaning of the construction of architectural structures.…”

Peranan Pondasi Moral dalam Menjelaskan Seksisme

“…Dalam organisasi, wanita sering terbentur dinding diskriminasi sehingga sulit mendapatkan kesempatan yang sama dengan pria untuk mencapai puncak tertinggi organisasi (glass-ceiling effect). Fenomena glass-ceiling effect mengacu kepada hambatan diskriminatif yang mencegah wanita yang terkualifikasi untuk naik ke posisi atau memiliki tanggung jawab yang lebih tinggi dalam sebuah organisasi karena seksisme atau rasisme (Babic & Hansez, 2021). Contohnya, di pemerintah provinsi Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, hanya 24.3 persen wanita yang menempati posisi pimpinan instansi (Krissetyanti, 2018).…”