Female Participation in the Workforce and the Glass Ceiling Effect

This essay presents the argument on the give statement ‘Female participation in the workforce has risen sharply in the last two decades’. At the same time, the advancement of females in organizations seems to be hindered by the ‘glass ceiling’.

Running head: ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR
O R G A N I S A T I O N B E H A V I O U R

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INTRODUCTION
This essay presents the argument on the give statement ‘Female participation in the
workforce has risen sharply in the last two decades’. At the same time, the advancement of
females in organizations seems to be hindered by the ‘glass ceiling’.
FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN THE WORKFORCE HAS RISEN
SHARPLY IN THE LAST TWO DECADES. AT THE SAME TIME THE
ADVANCEMENT OF FEMALES IN ORGANISATIONS SEEMS TO BE
HINDERED BY THE ‘GLASS CEILING’
The glass ceiling effect is defined as the barrier that restricts the women from advancing to
the higher position at the workplace. It is a kind of gender discrimination. It is related to the
human resources, which is most significant resources to get the competitive benefits in the
workplace. At the same time, gender stereotyping, leadership stereotyping and generation
bias is the distinct paths to leadership amid men and women. It also contributed to fewer
women in a powerful position in leadership. It is stated that career advancement is a function
of both organizations as well as individual factors (Patwardhan, Mayya, and Joshi, 2017).
The glass ceiling and stereotyping are identified as the key organizational factors, which
contributes to the underrepresentation of women at senior ranks. There is also need to assess
their career aspiration and work on creating effective careers. It is assessed that there are
some women who do not plan their career and this deficiency is one of the key impairments
to the career advancement of women (Upadhyay, Singh, and Singh, 2016). There is not only
some woman fails to plan their career, but also most of the women still have not learned how
to plan and organize their career effectively.
It is argued that the women have lack of courage to plan their careers and their own fears of
doubts limit them. In addition, their careers mostly have been intended to take restraints into
account at the workplace. A woman who faces barriers in the workplace requires different

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career development strategy. It is stated that career development of women may not differ
fundamentally from men. The career development for women is significantly more complex
due to barriers forced by gendered social contexts. In support of this, some authors stated that
the difference in career development shows that men consistently position themselves with
the end objectives in the mind while women tend to highlight too much of their efforts on the
current phenomenon. It is evaluated that multitude of barriers are faced by women on their
way of leadership (Rhode, 2016). Women have a need to get navigate on their journey but, it
is indicated that the routes to the company do not suitable for them.
It is argued that there is a number of concern faced by the female managers at the workplace.
Furthermore, the career of women and personal life are linked hence women search for the
best fit amid successful professional and personal lives. But, it is identified that there are
several organizations, which faces 1950s framework. The organizational realities demand the
separation of life and careers, and families hence there are complexities for women to grow
their career. It is also addressed that company primarily reward upwardly mobile career paths
to women at the workplace (Turner, Bernstein, Taylor, Asangba, Bekelman, Cramer, and
Middleton, 2018).
In support to this, it is stated that experience of women in management has been increasing in
last two decades. The unique challenges faced by the female supervisor in male-oriented
company deserve further responsiveness. Moreover, gender stereotypes; bias, inflexible
working arrangements, sexual harassment, bias and strong trust on long working hours
creates challenges for women in the organization. It is also addressed that there are certain
complexities in implementing external control like health and safety regulations, employment
law, and managerial authority. It is also caused by those challenges. Along with this,
maintenance of the masculinization of the project, role incongruity barriers and the masculine

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logic surrounded by the projects profession (Cain, and Leahey, 2014). These factors also lead
to female underrepresentation in leadership in the project-based company.
According to Epstein, Seron, Oglensky, and Saute (2014), the pressure is placed on the
female managers in an organization. There is also a relation between the stereotype of
managers and stereotype about men and women. There is also fact that men were primarily
inhabitants of management accountabilities. This leadership and roles biases creates
complexities for female managers at the workplace to grow her career.
There is stereotypical association regarding women that is inconsistent with those regarding
superior. There is relationship amid leadership roles and gender roles. It is argued that there is
bias towards female leaders. It consists of two kinds of disadvantages like the perception of
women as possessing less leadership ability as compared to men and the less favorable
assessment of female leadership behavior as compared to male behavior (Bezbaruah, 2015).
As consequences, females superiors see themselves and seen by others as they are not fitting
the leader stereotype at the workplace and hence experience creates higher complexities to
progress their career and exercising leadership roles within the business atmosphere. It is
evaluated that women are highly influenced by the demand for efficiency and commitment.
Due to their family responsibilities, the requirement for flexibility, childcare needs and lesser
working hours, women are scored lower on commitment appraisal as compared to men. As a
result, women have lower visibility, less exposure to deal with challenges and networking
opportunity that is required for career advancement (Broadbent, Strachan, and Healy, 2017).
It is also argued that networking facilitates a medium to manage the efficient career strategy.
It also aids to build liaison with others and become more transparent to organizational
leaders. These all factors are used to enhance the promotion of women to a management
position. In support to this, it is stated that networks are a significant component to navigate
an upwardly mobile career particularly, for women who perform in male dominant working

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culture. Joining a formal network is complex for navigating the women in the traditional
male-controlled atmosphere. It is identified that women are prevented to reach the top
position if they do not network outside and inside of their working place (Flynn, Haynes, and
Kilgour, 2017). The explanation for the availability of the glass ceiling could be classified
into four groups such as gender stereotype, similarity-attraction theory, human capital, and
psychological glass ceiling. The first three groups are external elements from climate and
practices and corporate culture whereas the last one is the internal element from women
themselves. It is stated that women who choose to confront the glass ceiling, could accept it
as an excuse for career development (Benería, Berik, and Floro, 2015).
There is certain sex discrimination in employment, which demonstrates the availability of
two associated phenomenon named glass ceiling and glass escalator. In this way, women may
be endorsed in their job only to find they reach an invisible ‘glass ceiling’ beyond which they
cannot get endorsed as well as, they cannot get promoted at first place. Under the largest
Australian companies, women constitute only regarding approximately 16% of the top
executives and women managers are paid much less than their male associates. As a result,
these differences originated from the evidence that women joined the company ranks higher
than the men. It also depicts the glass ceiling in the business world and also prevents the
qualified women from increasing population (Conde-Ruiz, and Marra, 2016). In contrast to
this, men can also ride as glass escalator to the top even in the female project.
Furthermore, conceptual structure of social role theory and role congruity theory facilitates
gender gaps to increase a gender perspective for creating the knowledge of structural and
cultural influences on the experience of women in project-based careers. As per the social
theory, women being projected to conduct domestic roles and men being prospected to
conduct paid work roles, men and women actively build distinct abilities, traits, and
behaviors. It is adopted by society into fundamental gender roles. It also illustrates that how

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men and women behave and should behave. This prediction may generate the negative
impact on women in leadership roles. In this way, professional deeds and acts do not link
with the stereotypical expectation of their social roles. Hence, they are perceived as poor
leaders. Apart from this, role incongruity theory facilitates perception into career issues of
female project executives across the organizational dimension (Hassentab , Ramet, and
Hassenstab, 2015). There is three organizational dimension, which creates complexity in
career progression named cultural, structural, and action dimension.

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CONCLUSION
From the above interpretation, it could be concluded that the glass ceiling effect is
demonstrated as the barriers which restrict the women from advancing to the top position
within an organization. It is also evaluated that there is some difficulty faced by the
organization in implementing external control like employment law, health and safety
regulations and managerial authority. It could be also summarized that the women constitute
only
16% of the top manager and women managers are paid much less as compared to male
associates. It could be also concluded that there are different theory is used to understand the
women advancement named social role theory and role congruity theory.

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