Women in Organizations: The Glass Ceiling Essay Example

Introduction

Having women in an organization is critical for developing collaborative and teamwork in the organization. Women however are still looked down upon in most companies despite their outstanding performance in the departments they run or responsibilities falling in their dockets is a clear indication that they competent and more important to the organization just like men. The feminine feelings like empathy, optimism and intuition is very beneficial to the organization and creating an environment where all employees and stakeholders count (Sahoo 311). In general society, women have also been asserted as portraying more leadership qualities more than men and coordinate difficult situations to their successful solutions on their own. Women are therefore critical in the organization in that they help in developing an environment where each and everyone's feelings and emotions count, creating an environment of empathy rather than sympathy. In this scenario, they create a healthy working environment.

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Even though women portrays more leadership qualities than men in most organizations, there are differences between men and women in organizations that make women be seen as inferior and fail to rise up the ladders of leadership in an organization. This can be due to the perception of the society on women that defines their roles in the community and carried forth to the organization, their level of aggressiveness in organizations, gender biases, and inequality among others. Glass ceiling is basically a barrier that women reach in the ladder of corporate leadership and fails to climb higher despite their undoubted outstanding performance in the organization or business (Alston 12). This research paper, therefore, analyzes the glass ceiling that women experience in most corporates that acts as a block towards achieving their goals in or getting executive positions in the organizations which they are in.

Job segregation

Separation of jobs and opportunities in the organization is one of the major glass ceilings for women which is difficult to break. In most organizations, gender profiling has taken over the organization leaving some opportunities for men as the desired candidates and others for women as preferred candidates. The separation of jobs assigning some parties opportunities sounds like reserving opportunities for specific gender regardless of their ability to run the docket or not (Xiu 310).

This indicates that if higher ranks or technical ranks are left for male, then no woman would get the opportunity in the department regardless of the effort, ability, commitment and dedication to work or lead in the docket. The main problem here is judging employees or candidates for a position as being able for the position and then automatically eliminating women from the position. It is basically an opinion which has been for years that there are jobs and positions which should be held by women while others are reserved for men.

Most women enjoy highest ranking in departments such as public relations, personnel, finance, human resource, among other non-operational departments while men enjoy the luxury of leading operational departments like technology, general organization leadership among others. The choice of opportunities left to women rarely leads to the topmost seat for the organization and no one would like to appoint them in other departments or from the department to op most ranks or general leadership of the organization.

The line they follow reaches a point and locks them out of the race to the topmost rank like Chief Executive Officer or president of the organization. It is also disastrous that even when women get proper jobs which can line them with overall leadership, they are still not given opportunity due to the selection process which in most cases reserves the seats for men. As such job segregation which defines what men should do versus what women are supposed to do in the organization reaches a point and locks women from attaining the leadership position of the organization hence forcing most of them to remain at the support levels but not overall leadership of the organization.

Old-Boy Network Still Strong

Another barrier to women getting higher posts in the organizations is a group of men coming together on a table to make critical decisions for the company including who should lead the organization. In this scenario, when there is a discussion on who to promote to the managerial positions then there are very high opportunities that men shall always choose their male counterparts.

Corporate leaders also have the tendency of choosing someone to the top managerial positions who look like themselves, therefore considering that most of them are male, they are likely to favor male counterparts and sideline women. This is despite the qualifications and records which has been written by women. Whoever leads the organization is much more important than his performance records. Men, therefore, have maintained their old school fashion of sidelining women in anything that goes with decision making in the organization and created a barrier through male-dominated decision-making panel and processes (Cook 94).

In most cases, women at the top are sidelined in most social activities of the organization and in most cases not recognized as important (Sahoo 313). What remains at the top is purely men suit club that uses their dominance and dictatorship to decide how people should get promotions. In some organizations, men are very biased and do not invite women to some critical meetings which are required for making organizational decisions. They have been profiled and viewed as not policymakers and therefore should get an invitation for meetings that are going to deal directly with policymaking.

Women in an organization do not enjoy much freedom and power as their male counterparts. They are not given an opportunity for frequent business travels as men, not given the powers to hire and fire employees at their wish. The difference in the way men and women are treated is also carried forward to managerial appointment process where men are also considered as the first preference for leadership in the organization then women are only chosen when it is absolutely necessary or the organization is on crisis and only the woman is available for the position.

Gender discrimination

The most organization feels that women are more family oriented and cannot get the opportunity of leading big corporates or running the organization well. In this line of gender discrimination, it is very difficult to climb up the ladder in an organization where an image of incompetence, inability, weakness, and unqualified picture have been formed in the appointment team. Discrimination is caused by male chauvinism and contemptuous attitudes towards women (Cook 1084).

The attitude and male chauvinism cause the greatest barrier where one cannot be a leader because she is a woman. This is a pure indication that being a woman is a barrier itself which women have to break before they achieve their success. Women have to try three times what men does so as to climb the ladder and ensure success for them. This makes it absolutely difficult for women to compete fairly with men and attain the leadership in organizations they are in.

The business world contains a number of disadvantages to women as opposed to men. Most people, board members, men, family members do not acknowledge the importance of women and how their leadership style can change the status of the organization. Instead of seeing performance and quality in women, the overall thing being seen is the woman and weakness in women. This is a common barrier which is more of societal than organizational setup. The organization is supposed to see the quality and opportunity that women have other consistently viewing women through what has been perceived to be their roles in the society (Sahoo 315).

Most women are always mistaken as secretaries even if they have been promoted to some luxuries, therefore, the majority of people in companies still do not trust that women can head organizations and serve even better than men. Therefore male attitudes thwart women and most cases thick that they are not capable. Linking this with the fact that males dominate nomination and promotional panels, there is very little opportunity and chances for women to appointed in the executive positions of the organization with some being mistaken to be the secretaries other than their executive roles in the organization.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a major problem in most corporates. Some women are forced to have sexual intercourse with powerful people for them to get jobs or promotions. Failure to, always lead to mistreatment or worse they can be fired but nothing at all shall happen to the perpetrators of sexual harassment in the organizations. Sex is one of the favors which most men would go for when they want to promote or absorb a lady in the organization as opposed to men who shall compete on their qualifications, experience and performance records that make them fit for the position (Alston 10).

Women are quite different as a promotion or being considered for a position is seen as a favor done to them and therefore they are supposed to do a favor to the top leadership. This, however, diminishes the dignity of women, makes them less confident and reduces their aggressiveness to go for particular positions. Sexual harassment is therefore not only an evil but also acts as a barrier for women in achieving their success or dreams of being in the executive positions in the organization.

Conclusion

The biggest glass ceiling or barrier for women is a failure of men in managerial or leadership position to view discrimination as evil and awkward. Gender profiling and women discrimination are the major factors that block women from attaining luxurious positions in organizations. Male chauvinisms and contemptuous attitudes towards women are total barriers that need to be purely addressed if organizations are to enjoy the leadership style and qualities of having women in the organization. The attitude and position which has been given to women in the organization is just a resemblance of how they are viewed and the roles given to them in the society due to male dominance in most of the decision making panels and platforms. As such, there should a proper view of women in the organization if they are to break the glass ceiling and have a fair ground for competing with male counterparts in executive positions.

Works Cited

Alston, M. Breaking through grass ceiling. Routledge, 2014.

Cook, A., & Glass, C. "Above the glass ceiling: When are women and racial/ethnic minorities promoted to CEO?" Strategic Management Journal, 35(7) (2014): 1080-1089.

Cook., A., & Glass, C. "Women and top leadership positions: Towards an institutional analysis." Gender, Work & Organization, 21(1) (2014): 91-103.

Sahoo, Debashish Kumar, and Usha Lenka. "Breaking the glass ceiling: Opportunity for the organization."." Industrial and Commercial Training 48.6 (2016): 311-319.

Xiu, L., & Gunderson, M. "Glass ceiling or sticky floor? Quantile regression decomposition of the gender pay gap in China." International Journal of Manpower, 35(3), (2014): 306-326.