Women and the Glass Ceiling
7 July 2015
Read by 2923 persons
Despite their increasing presence in the workplace, there is often mention of a glass ceiling that hinders women's career progression and limits their access to decision-making and management positions, these positions still often being reserved for men. The expression "glass ceiling" appeared in the United States in the late 1970s to designate "invisible barriers" to the promotion of women in hierarchical structures. This glass ceiling constitutes a barrier that is all the stronger because it is neither visible nor clearly identified. It is clear that year after year, this situation is not improving, across all sectors, which leaves one somewhat doubtful...
The question is to understand what, with equal skills, hinders the professional advancement of women compared to that of men and how this could be remedied? Is it a sexist prejudice? Several factors can explain this situation, including psychological factors related to the weight of stereotypes and norms. Ambition and competitiveness valued in careers appear as masculine and not feminine qualities. Some psychological experiments reveal that concepts such as charisma, combativeness, power and authority are implicitly associated with men and little with women. These stereotypes would have an impact both on recruitment and upstream, on the choices made by women who have internalized them.
This would explain a lower professional ambition, less combativeness and less self-confidence. Are companies responsible? The glass ceiling is also explained by obstacles and blockages related to the history and functioning of organizations and professional worlds. The question of the articulation between private and professional life has been the fundamental question at the origin of the glass ceiling. Can we reconcile the two? There is no doubt that the model of the ideal manager is still largely masculine. Companies still value above all availability, which is more difficult to combine for women who still assume the bulk of household chores. Motherhood, because it leads to career discontinuities, is also detrimental to them.
The importance given by companies to mobility (increasingly international) also poses a problem. It generally assumes that the spouse puts their career in second place, while classically it is the man's career that is favored. Another factor also highlighted, women would have more difficulty benefiting from informal networks in a very strongly masculine leadership world, which favors cooptation. Especially since maintaining one's network requires a lot of time, which they precisely tend to lack. How to remedy this? By legal means that would promote professional equality between men and women on the following axes: changing mentalities, better guidance, fairer recruitment, continuing education, guaranteeing the same career advancement opportunities for women and men, and equal pay.
A commitment from companies to make their recruitment more objective; to no longer emphasize "availability" which tends to exclude female applications; or to guarantee the maintenance of salary during maternity leave for example. It appears crucial to change the company culture so that it is more aware of the issue of gender equality. At a time when performance and efficiency are calculated according to the time spent in the company, women should be able to demonstrate, if given the opportunity, that it is quite possible to be performant by managing time and presence differently. If it turns out, men might also adopt this pace.
It goes without saying that a radical change in the whole of society would certainly be needed for this glass ceiling to disappear definitively. Men would have to accept more of their share of responsibilities in the couple and assume more household chores. Professional inequalities between women and men require the "de-specialization" of roles and greater involvement of men in the domestic sphere, which is far from being the case at present... Food for thought...
Philippe Montant General Manager ExeKutive.biz
The question is to understand what, with equal skills, hinders the professional advancement of women compared to that of men and how this could be remedied? Is it a sexist prejudice? Several factors can explain this situation, including psychological factors related to the weight of stereotypes and norms. Ambition and competitiveness valued in careers appear as masculine and not feminine qualities. Some psychological experiments reveal that concepts such as charisma, combativeness, power and authority are implicitly associated with men and little with women. These stereotypes would have an impact both on recruitment and upstream, on the choices made by women who have internalized them.
This would explain a lower professional ambition, less combativeness and less self-confidence. Are companies responsible? The glass ceiling is also explained by obstacles and blockages related to the history and functioning of organizations and professional worlds. The question of the articulation between private and professional life has been the fundamental question at the origin of the glass ceiling. Can we reconcile the two? There is no doubt that the model of the ideal manager is still largely masculine. Companies still value above all availability, which is more difficult to combine for women who still assume the bulk of household chores. Motherhood, because it leads to career discontinuities, is also detrimental to them.
The importance given by companies to mobility (increasingly international) also poses a problem. It generally assumes that the spouse puts their career in second place, while classically it is the man's career that is favored. Another factor also highlighted, women would have more difficulty benefiting from informal networks in a very strongly masculine leadership world, which favors cooptation. Especially since maintaining one's network requires a lot of time, which they precisely tend to lack. How to remedy this? By legal means that would promote professional equality between men and women on the following axes: changing mentalities, better guidance, fairer recruitment, continuing education, guaranteeing the same career advancement opportunities for women and men, and equal pay.
A commitment from companies to make their recruitment more objective; to no longer emphasize "availability" which tends to exclude female applications; or to guarantee the maintenance of salary during maternity leave for example. It appears crucial to change the company culture so that it is more aware of the issue of gender equality. At a time when performance and efficiency are calculated according to the time spent in the company, women should be able to demonstrate, if given the opportunity, that it is quite possible to be performant by managing time and presence differently. If it turns out, men might also adopt this pace.
It goes without saying that a radical change in the whole of society would certainly be needed for this glass ceiling to disappear definitively. Men would have to accept more of their share of responsibilities in the couple and assume more household chores. Professional inequalities between women and men require the "de-specialization" of roles and greater involvement of men in the domestic sphere, which is far from being the case at present... Food for thought...
Philippe Montant General Manager ExeKutive.biz
