SOCI1005B Winter 2019: Glass Ceiling Ad Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the European Commission's advertisement addressing the 'glass ceiling' phenomenon, a form of gender inequality in the workplace. The analysis begins with an introduction to the advertisement's narrative, detailing its focus on the challenges women face in achieving leadership positions. It examines the techniques used to convey the social problem, such as visual representations of barriers and the subtle reprehension of gender stereotypes. The report further explores the events and campaigns surrounding the advertisement, including the European Commission's initiatives to promote gender diversity. It incorporates scholarly sources to support the critical analysis, discussing the historical context and societal implications of gender-based discrimination in corporate environments and higher education. The report concludes by summarizing the impact of the campaign and management theories related to gender traits.

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Contents
Introduction to Advertisement...................................................................................................3
Dear women!! You can see… you can dream… but you cannot shatter the glass ceiling.....3
Narrative.................................................................................................................................4
The focus of the advertisement and the subtle reprehension of the sub-issues associate with
problem...................................................................................................................................4
Events surrounding this social interest message....................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................7

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Introduction to the Advertisement
Dear women!! You can see… you can dream… but you cannot shatter the glass ceiling
Human civilization is a victim of gender stereotyping. Check out the details of any culture
across the world and you will find that none of the cultures treats women and men equally.
We are not denying the fact that there are cultures where they respect women, customs
“ladies first” or a “soft treatment to the ladies at public places” testifies this statement.
However, when we see these customs from the point of view of feministic or neo-feministic
thought processes then we find them regressive (Jones, 2013).
Any cosmopolitan women living in the 21st-century world don't demand this undue respect,
they demand equal opportunity. Corporate corridors across the world are proud to own the
services of some of the best socially evolved brains. It represents strata of intellectual
individuals; quite surprisingly the corporate corridors of the world are not following the
norms of gender equality. In terms of management jargon, this phenomenon is known as
"glass ceiling." More precisely glass ceiling is a practice where management and other
recruiting authorities refrain from sharing the responsible posts from the women because they
feel that women are not steady with their careers (Gibson, 2013). In the year 2011, European
commission took a serious note of this problem. They came up with a campaign against
gender-based discrimination.
European Commission in the coordination with Jul & Mat prepared an eye grappling
advertisement describing the "glass ceiling" that women across the world and especially in
the functional area of European commission are facing.
This advertisement is available at

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Narrative
The narrative of this advertisement very prudently covers the main nature of the problem.
The first few shots of the advertisement present a mashed montage of two executives
preparing for a board meeting. Director of the advertisement completes a single journey with
the help of the intercut shots of two different executives. They are studying a proposal in their
respective cabins, and then they lock the content for the presentation. Both of them come out
of their respective cabins, they are in a hurry, the journey of the female executive stops
because she finds a glass blocking her way. The male counterpart, on the other hand, moves
ahead easily and gives way to a message window that reads “break the glass ceiling, it is high
time to get more women into the boardrooms, women in top jobs mean business"
The focus of the advertisement and the subtle reprehension of the sub-issues associated
with the problem
The focus of this advertisement is clearly on the issue of gender inequality. The first few
frames of the advertisement where both male and female are busy in studying a proposal and
making notes, clearly break the notion of the gender stereotyping, they represent that fact that
both male and female are working under equal capacity (Reding, 2014).
The establishment shots of the advertisement show both male and female in glass cabins.
These glass cabins show us that both male and female are enjoying an equal status in the
office. However, when the female executive bangs her face in an invisible glass, we are not
able to see that glass ceiling (Sullivan, 2019).
With the help of this invisible glass the European Commission wants to send across a
message that the glass ceiling is not visible, still, it exists. The final message board of the
advertisement gives us a clear cut message that "women in top jobs mean business.”

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
While putting down social terminology we can also say that this advertisement starts on a
progressive note where it establishes the fact that gender stereotypes are breaking. Further, it
establishes the journey of two professionals searching for the same achievement. It
establishes the problem of the glass ceiling in an impactful way and finally gives the message
that corporate sector and other walks of the life should absorb women at the top level as the
decision maker because they can fetch in a great amount of business (Pain, 2013).
Events surrounding this social interest message
The promoters of this campaign, the European Commission in the year 2017 released a press
release that 40 percent of the decision makers in their organization are women. With this
campaign, they also raised the slogan of "gender diverse management." The thumping
success of this campaign also prompted them to launch their new campaign which was about
the "gender pay gap."
In the year 2013 researcher Elisabeth Pain presented some data related to the representation
of the women in the field of higher education and research. This data, when compared with
the presence of the women at the high-rank posts in various industry sectors, gives us an idea
that more than 40 percent of the women lost their track of the career because glass ceiling
emerged as an abruption in their career growth (Dale, 2014).
The success of this ad campaign also raises some questions related to the removal of the
gender gap. Many experts in the field of corporate affairs came up with a suggestion to
introduce a reservation quota for the women in the top brass. However, many feminist and
neo-feminist organizations denounced this idea vehemently because they thought that it will
serve as an insult to the capacities of women, after all, they are seeking for equal status, they
are not seeking for a privileged status in the corporate sector (Cores, 2018).

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The impact of the campaign run by the European Commission was so high that many
organized sector players in the corporate world of the European Union came up with an
invisible quota for the women in their top brass. Many national banks and leading telecom
service providers announced that by the year 2018, they will ensure a 40 percent
representation of the women in their boardrooms (Jose, 2018).
Conclusion
It is some sort of a journey for many institutions, at the turn of this century they were a victim
of an invisible glass ceiling and by the end of 2018, the same companies were promoting an
invisible quota for the women in their top rank. As a concluding note, we would like to
present a management theory that talks about the feministic and masculine traits of the
managers. This theory suggests that organizing a unit or going for a capacity building
exercise is a feministic management trait. On the other hand, risk-taking behavior and
exploring new opportunities is a masculine management trait. As the bottom line, this theory
says that female managers may have some masculine traits whereas male managers can also
display expertise in feministic traits of the management.

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Bibliography
Cores, P. (2018). Work-life balance beyond the glass ceiling. The Eurocadres, Retrieved
From https://www.eurocadres.eu/work-life-balance-beyond-the-glass-ceiling/.
Dale, H. (2014). Gender balance on corporate boards > Europe is cracking the glass ceiling.
GenPort, Retrieved From https://www.genderportal.eu/resources/gender-balance-
corporate-boards-europe-cracking-glass-ceiling.
Gibson, M. (2013). The first cracks in the glass ceiling': EU votes to impose legal quotas for
women in the boardroom. Independent, Retrieved From
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-first-cracks-in-the-glass-
ceiling-eu-votes-to-impose-legal-quotas-for-women-in-the-boardroom-8952718.html.
Jones, M. (2013). Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Structural, Cultural, and Organizational
Barriers Preventing Women from Achieving Senior and Executive Positions.
Retrieved From: Perspectives in Health Information Management,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3544145/.
THIS IS A PEER REVIEWED SOURCE
Jose, J. (2018). 'Women in Power' project will help European women break the glass ceiling
to reach management positions. European Cluster Collaboration Platform, Retrieved
From https://www.clustercollaboration.eu/profile-articles/women-power-project-will-
help-european-women-break-glass-0.
Pain, E. (2013). Gender Equality in European Research. Science Mag, Retrieved From
https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2013/04/gender-equality-european-research.
( THIS IS A PEER REVIEWED RESEARCH SOURCE )

Running Head: AD ANALYSIS THE GLASS CEILING AD BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Reding, V. (2014). Gender quotas are 'hammer to smash the glass ceiling' for women. The
Parliament magazine, Retrieved From
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/gender-quotas-are-hammer-
smash-glass-ceiling-women.
Sullivan, G. O. (2019). Women face greater difficulties than men in advancing to the highest
academic positions in Ireland. Retrieved From: Euro-Ireland,
http://eurireland.ie/2019/03/08/women-face-greater-difficulties-than-men-in-
advancing-to-the-highest-academic-positions-in-ireland/.
THIS IS A PEER REVIEWED SOURCE