Eve on Top

9

The ‘glass ceiling’

I think it exists, but I think it’s a cultural way of looking at it. (Carrie)

I don’t think it’s broken, I think it’s getting slightly thinner. (Diane)

Introduction

The ‘glass ceiling’ – ‘a barrier so subtle that it is transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women and minorities from moving up in the management hierarchy’ (Morrison and Von Glinow, 1990) – has long been talked and written about, in both the public and private sectors (see, for example, Meyerson and Fletcher, 2000; Bihagen and Ohls, 2006; Connell, 2006; Kumra and Vinnicombe, 2008; Sampson and Moore, 2008; Sanders et al., 2009; Smith and Crimes, 2007; Storvik, 2008; Wirth, 2002). We sought to find out whether the senior women involved in our study ...