Women have come a long way since the days of just being stay-at-home mothers. Researchers, CEOs, scientists, mathematicians, engineers, managers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and secretaries are just a few of the non-traditional and traditional jobs of women today.
There is a deficit of women in leadership roles when it comes to male-dominated professions. What prevents women from advancement into leadership roles? Women seem to be hitting barriers when it comes to advancement within organizations. How can we describe those barriers to moving up? The glass ceiling.
Over the weekend I attended the First Annual PA Leadership Studies Conference held at the Dixon Center in Harrisburg, PA. Majority of students, faculty, and staff came from Alvernia University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Shippensburg University. The theme of the conference was “Leadership: People and Process in a Climate of Uncertainty.” The conference consisted of 5 blocks of three concurrent presentation sessions and a keynote speaker during lunch.
One of the sessions I attended and enjoyed the content of was a workshop called "Are Women Executives People?" During this session, Sue Diehl of Westmoreland County Community College gave a presentation on the barriers women have when entering executive leadership roles. This workshop included a lot of discussions and personal examples given by the attendees which I enjoyed hearing different perspectives from leaders across many industries.
Diehl discussed the four approaches to studying "Women in Leadership" which include: 1. Men have a natural advantage 2. Women have a natural advantage that either helps or hurts women 3. Leadership is gender neutral 4. Leadership is contextual.Throughout my studies in the Organizational Development and Leadership Master of Science program at Shippensburg University, I have studied all four of these approaches.
In my Gender and Leadership course, we discussed the effects of women having a career in a male-dominated field and men having a career in a female-dominated field. The glass escalator for men and the glass ceiling and glass cliff for women are real. The glass escalator can be seen when men enter a female-dominated career and rise to management level at a speed greater than female counterparts with the same experience.
The glass ceiling is when women hit an unacknowledged barrier in advancement in their career. Lastly, the glass cliff is when an organization places a woman in power when the probability of succeeding in said position is low. A prime example of the glass cliff is when Marissa Mayer was named CEO of Yahoo! at a time of despair.
As discussed in another session by Amy Diehl and Amber Stephenson there are also inter-sectional barriers that prevent women from obtaining executive positions. Parental and marital status is one of the controversial inter-sectional barriers for women. Many times women don't accept or want leadership positions because they plan on having children and will have to go on a leave of absence from their position.
The issue here is the fact that many organizations do not have maternal leave. As a woman, I believe this should be a basic right. Amy Diehl and Amber Stephenson concluded their research presentation the idea that organizations "want what you're not." Diehl and Stephenson discussed that the only way to change these ideals is to change the culture. Once the culture is changed, the opportunities for women will be endless.
