Sociology Essay: Gender Discrimination in the Business World - The Glass Ceiling

Essay by zahrahaidariUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, March 2013

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Gender discrimination against women is not only common in North America, Europe and Australia but is a repetitive pattern globally (Johnson & Lee, Mandel 2012). This paper composes of extensive research on the subject of gender inequalities and how the glass ceiling phenomenon effects women as they are generally paid less, ask for less promotions and are perceived to be psychologically weaker (Acker 2009, Allison & Yap 2009, Johnson & Lee 2012, Mandel 2012, McDonald & Kmec 2010). The essay looks into some recent sociological issues on the role of women and the hardships they have to overcome due to gender bias which in turn restricts them from achieving the same status-quo as men. Research also shows however that women face various obstacles at different stages of the organizational hierarchy in order to reach top managerial positions and what they have to do in order to break these barriers.

Glass Ceiling, Mid-Level Bottleneck, Sticky Floor

Twenty out of fortune five hundred CEO's are women (Eagly & Carli 2007, Colleen 2012).

This alarming fact is a result of "The Glass Ceiling Effect", which highlights the defeat of women in many businesses along the corporate ladder in today's society. The Climbing the Job Ladder article metaphorically refers to the Glass Ceiling Effect as an invisible obstacle that emphasises the struggles women and ethnic minorities have to face in order to be treated equally and advance within the organizational hierarchy to upper management levels (Hester 2007, Johnston & Lee 2012). In relation, other articles not only define the Glass Ceiling but go into for depth by also looking into the "Sticky Floor Hypothesis" as well as the "Mid-level Bottleneck" (Acker 2009, Allison & Yap 2009, Johnson & Lee 2012, McDonald & Kmec 2010). A business consists of three major levels; the bottom,