The Glass Ceiling Revisited

Abstract

Gender continues to shape organizational life in profound ways. Theorizing about gender in public institutions has been scarce. This article is an attempt to reinsert gender in our research agenda. First, macro-level theories of gender in organizations are discussed; then, the literature in public administration is surveyed. The author contends that the theory of representative bureaucracy provides a tremendous theoretical platform for understanding gender's sociocultural forces as well as normative avenues and prospects for change. Such an approach will move us beyond description (i.e., lack of representation) to a better understanding of how gender is deployed and acquires signification in organizational life.

How Precarious Public Jobs Are Even More Precarious for Women: The Case of Mexican Police Forces

“…Women face structural difficulties (De Guzmán and Frank 2004) to their professional development within an organization. These challenges are summarized in the metaphor of the glass ceiling, which refers to the limits on how far women may rise in a professional environment (Schulz 2004;Cáceres-Rodríguez 2011;Bagilhole 2014). One interviewee cites the following dialogue with a male supervisor:…”

“…Even though in recent years there has been unprecedented access for women to professions usually reserved for men (Campbell and Mínguez-Vera 2008;Powell, Bahilhole, and Andrew 2009;Malone and Issa 2013;Seierstad et al 2017;Axelsdóttir and Halrynjo 2018) as well as in a variety of occupations in the public sector, police forces remain an exception (Baron, Mittman, and Newman 1991). This is striking since public organizations have sought to minimize the salience of gender through merit hiring, strict position classification systems and laws (Cáceres-Rodríguez 2011). It is true that this tendency is changing-examples of this change can be seen in a wide range of countries, for example, allowing the incorporation of women in combat (Barry 2013), as well as allowing LGBTQ population to enroll in the US military (Alford and Lee 2016), identifying women as vital agents in conflict and security and designing reforms aim to achieve equal representation of women and men in the security sector (Huber and Karim 2018).…”

Right time to join? Organizational imprinting and women's careers in public service organizations

“…Gender differences between men and women's careers are now well established, with studies highlighting a pattern of persistent inequality produced by gender regimes that impact on all aspects of employment, such as recruitment, pay and progression, and job security (Acker, 2009; Caceres‐Rodriguez, 2013; Cohen & Duberley, 2021; Duberley et al., 2017; Guy, 1994). It is not our intention here to test or reconfirm the findings of this prior work.…”

Library leadership: opinions and attributes about Nigerian women academic librarians breaking the glass ceiling

“…Despite the fact that some of the Nigerian women librarians possess the required education, training and experience, they appear not to have made much progress in entering the rank of university librarians as they encounter what Morrison (1987) referred to as "glass ceiling" which reflects women marginalization in academic enterprise. The glass ceiling which metaphorically describes the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions (Caceres-Rodriguez, 2013) is the artificial obstacle which precipitates on attitudinal or organisational prejudice that obstruct qualified women from moving upward into management level positions in their organisation (US Department of Labour, 1991). Bruckmuller and Branscombe (2011) described the glass ceiling as the informal blockade that fences women away from upper management.…”