Staying Informed: Women, The Glass Ceiling, and Smashing Through It
By Mary Kaitlin Enright
After my Instagram feed blew up on Monday for International Women’s Day, I am, and I’m sure you are too, well aware that it is Women’s History Month. This month exists to recognize, celebrate, and uplift women and all of the successes and growth that we’ve had in our history. It begs us to consider the adversities we’ve faced through the struggles for women’s rights, suffrage, and equality, as well as the many adversities we’ve still yet to overcome.
A whole article could be dedicated to the many subsets of those adversities, and the successes, failures and opportunities related to them. This article will be dedicated to women’s success in business: the ability and rate with which women around the world are breaking the so-called glass ceiling.
We’ve all heard the term before: the glass ceiling. But what does the glass ceiling really mean and why does everyone talk about breaking it? As ThoughtCo puts it, the glass ceiling is “an invisible upper limit in corporations and other organizations, above which it is difficult or impossible for women to rise in the ranks...a metaphor for the hard-to-see informal barriers that keep women from getting promotions, pay raises, and further opportunities.”
For me, the glass ceiling manifests itself in moments where I feel like I can’t speak up in a classroom because of my (incorrect) preconceived notion that men are smarter than me and therefore might look down on my contributions to class discussion. It is the nervousness I feel when I walk into a meeting at my internship and everyone in the room is male. It is the fear I have of the first time in my future career that I may need to ask for a raise, or negotiate a salary, or make a case for a promotion.
Did you know that:
“Both male and female managers are twice as likely to hire men over women.
40% of people notice a double standard against female candidates.
Men are 30% more likely to achieve managerial roles.
Only 38.6% of managerial roles are held by women.
Just 10% of leadership in the workplace is represented by women.
34% of people see male executives as better risk assessors.
Women make up 23% of C-Suites.
Women make up 4.1% of Fortune 500 CEOs.”
(Source: Built In)
So as you can see, the glass ceiling is omnipresent. And it can take so many other forms than those that are described above. I ask you to consider: What does the glass ceiling look like for you? What ceilings are you trying to break in your own life endeavors? And how are you going to do so?
Breaking the glass ceiling, collectively as the female population, is no small feat. Whole countries have worked to break that ceiling, and many have not even come close to doing so. The United States is one of those countries. The Economist provides a regularly updated Glass Ceiling Index that gives a representation of the countries most successful in creating environments conducive to female success, proven by the rate of women in leadership positions across industries. The United States falls 18th on the list.
At the top of the list right now? Sweden.
So, how did Sweden do it?
In a presentation given by Christina Ullenius, former President of the Swedish Association of Higher Education and former VP of European University Association, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Policy Measures in a Swedish Perspective,” Ullenius points to national government and EU policy-making, and their focus on:
Women encouragement in academia
Research funding for women academics
Women in leadership positions in the academic world
as key sources. She also mentions the cultural and governmental structure of the country as a welfare state that prioritizes work-life balance, and its efforts towards equality. This, by no means, is an exhaustive list, nor does it assert itself to say the ceiling no longer exists in Sweden. The country still has a long way to go to achieve the equality for which they strive, but the progress they’ve made should be both celebrated and imitated.
So what do we have to learn from Sweden, and what can we, as female AND male students and young adults, do to create an environment that encourages glass breaking?
On a governmental and political level: Support and vote for leaders that will invest time and resources into rebuilding academic infrastructures and programs for the development of young girls and the placement of women in leadership roles.
On a corporate level: Be a part of the generation that redefines equality in the business world; demand equality of both opportunity and pay from the corporations that make up the business environment of our country.
On a social level: Treat, and expect others to treat, females as counterparts and equals in all settings, whether in a classroom or at a party or in a boardroom, and so on.
And most importantly, on an individual level: Be stewards of the change we want to see.
To the women reading this (and to the men, too): Lift one another up, hold one another accountable, and light within you the confidence to be unafraid of rooms full of men, raising your hand, and demanding what you deserve. Though daunting, these are the ways that we, in Villanova fashion, can ignite the change we wish to see in the business world.
