Glass Ceiling - Glass Ceiling in The U.S.

Glass Ceiling in The U.S.

Sexual discrimination in employment was outlawed in the United States through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the hopes of allowing women to rise in the working world once proper experience has been achieved. Though sometimes unspoken of, gender discrimination still occurs in the workforce. It has been shown that even if a woman has received the proper education and credentials, they are often not considered for the same job as a male with either equal or less credentials . This has created a greater gap in the income wage gap. Studies have shown that women without high school diplomas, on average, have an effective income less than that of men with comparable education levels and years of work experience.

The term glass ceiling has been thought to have first been used to refer to invisible barriers that impede the career advancement of women in the American workforce in an article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24, 1986 edition of the Wall Street Journal. However, the term was used prior to that; for instance, it was utilized in a March 1984 Adweek article by Gay Bryant. The term glass ceiling was used prior to the 1984 article by two women at Hewlett-Packard in 1979, Katherine Lawrence and Marianne Schreiber, to describe how while on the surface there seemed to be a clear path of promotion, in actuality women seemed to hit a point which they seemed unable to progress beyond. Upon becoming CEO and chairwoman of the board of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina proclaimed that there was no glass ceiling. After her term at HP, she called her earlier statement a "umb thing to say."

The term was used by the U.S. Department of Labor in 1991 in response to a study of nine Fortune 500 companies. The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission study confirmed that women and minorities encountered considerable glass ceiling barriers in their careers; these barriers were experienced earlier in their professions than previously thought.

In 1972, the first organization that examined the position of women in economics, the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP), was created. This committee monitored the progress of women in professional positions and engaged in activities that would help to further this process. Organizations such as this one have helped focus more academic attention to the glass ceiling, helping raise awareness of this issue.

Throughout history women have become aware of the strains being put on them and have begun to fight it. An example of this would be Hillary Clinton's run for presidency, which is often seen as the highest glass ceiling in America. While many women have already broken these barriers and have successfully become CEO of companies, putting a woman in the White House remains the ultimate challenge.

A 2011 government report, "Women in the Federal Government: Ambitions and Achievements," followed up a previous 1992 report that examined this subject. The 2011 report's findings include: 1) Women have made considerable gains since 1992, when they represented just 35% of the professional, middle-tier federal workforce. Females "now hold approximately 44 percent of the positions in both professional and administrative occupations, which constitute the pipeline for positions at the highest grade and pay levels, including the Senior Executive Service"; 2) Despite these gains, women still only account for roughly 30% of the Senior Executive Service. Part of this might be due to lower willingness to relocate among female employees and the fact that "approximately 72 percent of positions in the career Senior Executive Service are located in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area"; 3) Women remain less likely to hold higher-paid positions: "While women are a majority of employees in professional and administrative occupations that have a median salary between $70,000 and $79,999, they remain a distinct minority in occupations with a median salary of $90,000 or above."