Capitalism

The concept of a glass ceiling refers to the prevention and barrier women face on a daily basis in their pursuit to a higher position in the job market. Rising within a corporation has become a common struggle for women and minorities alike for some disturbing reasons such as generalizations of ability. Within Dunn and Dubeck's book Chapter 7 acknowledges the glass ceiling concept and touches on the issues that arise for females. Referring to the generalizations and stereotypes women face each day theres a strong belief that women have deficiencies in the working world and that's why they do not achieve higher positions at a higher rate. "Feminist researchers have generally rejected this perspective, claiming instead that women's lesser achievement is due to gender discrimination and sexual harassment, not to women's supposed deficiencies compared to men" (Dubeck and Dunn 75). Considering these assumptions about women are untrue why do they still face the glass ceiling? Why do women constantly struggle in the rise to higher more prestigious positions within the federal government and well established corporations?

The articles I found ranged in many different manners mostly revolving around strategies women use to beat the glass ceiling, explanations and factual data of women within the higher position sector or the working world specifically within the government and corporate world. The first issue that we can tackle will be the public sector of the working world. The state government generally and state administrative agencies in particular have been the fastest- growing components of the public sector according to the Cracking Ceilings article. The ability to advance for women within these sectors of the working force is blocked by the belief there is a glass ceiling. Potential female candidates that are overlooked for the job titles such as manager or CEO are stopped by this term. The glass ceiling term refers to certain situations when an individual's progress upward within a job is minimal. These opportunity stopping situations are usually started by your typical catalyst racism, sexism and basic generalizations of females. Despite these alterations in society for women they are still being paid less, discriminated against and frowned upon simply because they are women even though they have accounted for almost half of all paid workers in history in 1995 at "45%" (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Considering the consequences of women being excluded from the top management positions held within Fortune 1000 companies and Federal Government position you have to factor that women account for about half the population in the world if not more. When companies and the government decided to block women from reaching top positions in the world they actually muzzled half the voice of population. As an example for how much women contribute to the working world, "women in 1972 held 17 percent of managerial positions and this proportion swelled to 42.7% in 1995" (Article 2). These statistics are great but what about the superior positions such as executives and CEO's of Fortune 500 companies. Women reach the glass ceiling when they get to the point of potential advancement into the "boardroom" where mostly men make decisions for companies on a daily basis and are then stopped by barriers because of their sex. Around 1995 women only accounted for 10 percent of corporate officers and only represented 2.4 percent of the most highly compensated officer positions within Fortune 500's. These statistics all revolve around the concept of having a glass ceiling. Women are both highly educated and qualified for these top positions but over "92%" (article 2) of executive women report still that these barriers exist today.

Barriers can stop anyone male or female but you think about the women that do work within these companies and within the government and understand that if they feel as if there being blocked in making progress within their jobs, how much productivity will be lost and how good will workers performance be at the end