Friday, September 19, 2008

Glass Ceiling Show-&-Tell

[from various sources, click and see:]

"And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons…"
--Barack Obama



"...2008! ...women still only make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. When you break it down, the facts get more dismal: African-American women make 63 cents and Latinas make 52 ..."
--Louisa Warren, Writer, The Progressive Pulse


"This cartoon is also (inadvertently) an interesting illustration of something I think a lot of people get wrong about the proverbial "glass ceiling." The glass ceiling is a metaphor for the idea that women as a group are prevented by sexism and other gender-related factors from rising to the upper echelons of politics, science, business, you name it. (I'd actually argue there's one glass ceiling for white women, and another, harder-to-crack glass ceiling for women of color.) It is not something that can be busted by the achievements of one single woman."
--Ann Friedman, Editor, Writer, Television Commentator

Sexual discrimination 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. Variations and related terms ("Glass Ceiling" wikipedia)

  • Bamboo Ceiling - The exclusion of Asian-Americans from executive and managerial roles on the basis of subjective factors such as "lack of leadership potential" or "inferior communication ability" where the East Asian-American candidate has superior objective credentials such as Ivy League credentials (in comparison to their white counterparts with only state university credentials). [15] For example, research shows that there are a decent number of partners at leading prestigious law firms in the United States who did not attend top notch law schools. However, you will seldom find an East Asian American partner of a leading law firms who did not attend a "T14" (Top 14 according to the US News ranking) law school.
  • Glass Closet - The exclusion of openly gay men and women from certain jobs, espescially in the media.
  • Glass elevator (or glass escalator) - The rapid promotion of men over women, especially into management, in female-dominated fields such as nursing.
  • Glass cliff - A situation wherein someone has been promoted into a risky, difficult job where the chances of failure are higher.
  • Celluloid ceiling, referring to the small number of women in top positions in Hollywood, as documented by Lauzen (2002) and others.
  • Sticky Floor - refers to women who are trapped in low-wage, low mobility jobs in state and local government.
  • Sticky Ladder - A term used to describe women's struggle to reach the top of the corporate ladder. This term describes the theory that women are not incapable of reaching the top; they just get "stuck" on the middle rungs of the ladder.



"The upshot for chief executives should be to move over to the ‘female’ side of management, whether you're a thoroughgoing left-brainer or a woman trying to manage ‘male’. Turns out, girls can do it better."
--Joanna L. Krotz, President and Founder of Muse2Muse Productions, Inc. and author

"Gotta go. My husband appears to be packing my bag, shredding my useless resume, and writing down some things I should say like, "Yes, of course I'm carrying a gun." He's a fast learner and supportive -- like Republican men."
--Dr. Kathleen Reardon in:

The Palin Glass Ceiling Bypass

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