Problem
The history of women and minorities in the American workforce has been shaped by diverse cultural, legal, demographic, and ethno-racial influences. African American men had to prove themselves worthy to fight alongside white Americans in past wars for the same rights. Women had to fight for their rights to work along men whether it was for paid or unpaid labor. Minorities have had to prove themselves to others to advance to a higher position. Sometimes after proving their skills and leadership abilities, the job or else the opportunity still does not get delivered. Minorities have been struggling to get notice in America for hundred of years. Many people have been paving the way for future advancement of people no matter the race, sex, or national origin.
Whenever a minority has the opportunity and skills to advance in the workforce, but is not given a fair chance, this is commonly known as glass ceiling. According to the online database, Answers, glass ceiling refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination. This situation is in reference to the term glass ceiling because there are limitations of upward movement or advancement. The word glass comes from being transparent because the limitations are not immediately apparent and is normally an unwritten or unofficial policy. This barrier prevents large numbers of women, ethnic, and sexual minorities from obtaining and securing the most powerful, prestigious, and most gross job in the workforce (Glass Ceiling, 2007). The invisible barrier continues to exist, keeping minorities from acquiring advance job positions. The term glass ceiling is mostly put in context when it comes to women advancing. This barrier makes women believe they are uncapable of achieving these high-ranking positions, but they also may think their boss are not taking them seriously and not even looking at them as a potential candidate for future positions (Glass Ceiling, 2007). It does however, affect women the most in the workforce. African American men have an easier time advancing in corporate America than women.
Review of the Literature
History
The year 2005marked the 150th Anniversary of a movement by women to achieve full civil rights in the United States . The first Women Rights Convention was held in 1858, July 19th and 20th at Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York (Eisenberg and Ruthsdotter, 2008). In 1909, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed. NOW was helpful in enforcing maternity leave rights, tax deductions for child-care expenses, and equal and unsegregated education to name a few (Women’s Movement, 2009). One of their greatest accomplishments was the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment gave all citizens, including women, the right to vote, where before they had no rights or opinions (United States Archive, n.d.). During the World War II era, women began to work in manufacturing factories because the men were scarce and away at war (Boydston, 2006). This evolution began the civil rights era. In 1964, title VII of the Civil Rights Act passed prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, and national origin. Within this passing came the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC was put in place to investigate discrimination complaints (Eisenberg and Ruthsdotter, 2008). Sexual discrimination was outlawed in the United States through the Civil Rights Act. This allowed women to rise in the workforce (Glass Ceiling, 2007). The NOW organization supported the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) which went to the United States Constitution to ensure equality of rights, regardless of sex (Women’s Movement, 2009). Many women were denied many rights and privileges that men were given. Equal Rights Amendment was worded “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” This was a large stepping stone for women during this time (Eisenberg and Ruthsdotter, 2008).
Women have been neglected for many years because in the early 1900’s women were taught to take care of the home and the children. Women did house chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. Now during today’s era, women are transitioning into working class women. Women roles are starting to change with the newer generation (Equal Employment Opportunity, n.d). Most women are starting to want things out of life. They are wanting to become more independent with a desire to provide for themselves and their family. They want recognition in the workforce. Even though these rights and amendments were passed, women are still being overlooked in the male dominant workforce.
As women were entering the workforce and trying to advance to higher positions, they were starting to realize that they were being stopped at certain levels. This level of stoppage was later introduced to as being called glass ceiling (Glass Ceiling, 2007). Two reporters with the Wall Street Journal first put the words glass ceiling together in 1986 (The Glass Ceiling, 2009). United States Department of Labor first used the term in 1991 in a study of Fortune 500 companies. They confirmed that women and minorities both encounter glass ceiling barriers in their career (Glass Ceiling, 2007). Glass ceiling is a term used to describe how some organizations claim to have equal opportunities but block upward progression for women. The metaphor suggest that women or minorities can see the potential for growth available at higher levels of the organizational hierarchy, but there is this invisible barrier denying them access to these positions. The reason for this barrier can range from prejudice against women to discrimination against a particular race where unnecessary conditions or qualifications are being used to decide on promotions (Glass Ceiling, 2008). The glass ceiling effect has different types of barriers that exist. One barrier is different pay for comparable work. Certain parts of corporate America are known for men to make more money than women. Gender gap is the difference in both wages and earning between male and female with equivalent job titles, training experience, education, and profession. The United States Census Bureau cited women make 75.3 cents on the dollar to men. Some people may face the sexual, racial, religious discrimination, and harassment barrier in the workplace. Women may be excluded from informal networks which may make them withdrawn from the rest of the work environment. Women also lack mentoring and role modeling, which could help them in the advancement of their career. Stereotyping and preconceptions of women’s roles and abilities is another barrier because upper management has this certain idea of the way women are suppose to be like in the workforce (Glass Ceiling, 2007) . Women have a tendency to be represented in the lowest ranking and lowest paid profession. The profession can range from jobs such as secretaries, teachers, nurses, and child care providers (Glass Ceiling, 2007). Manufacturing industries are least likely to employ women as officials and managers. Women have the lowest odds of being managers at headquarter facilities. Some senior management men believe women don’t have the qualities successfully to lead a company (Equal Employment Opportunity, n.d.). This outcome gives an occupation as being either a male or female job which is also called “sex-type” job. The glass ceiling does not always exist in all businesses. Some women are given the opportunity to be in management positions. Most of those management positions do tend to be lower level management positions and have less authority than men though. Whenever a woman do rise to a management position, they are more likely to be in personnel than in a marketing profession. There are considerable amounts of women who strive for top management positions and are unable to obtain those positions (Powell & Graves, 2003). Some refer to glass ceiling as just blockage of women career advancement (Glass Ceiling, 2007).
Present
Women are reaching management positions now rapidly than before (Ryan and Haslam, 2006). Estimates report that only 10% of management positions are held by women (Tai, 2008). Almost half of the Fortune 500 companies have no woman among their executive officers. Only 13 of the 500 companies have a woman CEO (Heilbronner, 2009). The only problem is the condition of the business when they acquire these sought out positions. Women are more likely to be appointed to companies that had experienced consistently poor performances in the preceding months. Men, on the other hand, were likely to be appointed to more stable companies. This analysis can be referred to as glass cliff rather than glass ceiling, meaning the women are more likely to fail and be knocked down from their high position. Women believe they lack the opportunity to progress and must therefore, accept risky leadership positions. They might get the impression they get these risky positions because the company acts as if they are more expendable in the workplace in comparison to a man (Ryan and Haslam, 2006).
The cause of the glass ceiling barrier varies. Some may suggest that women self-impose this barrier on themselves. An example is that women may choose to work fewer hours to spend more time with their children. Women may measure their success by their relationship with their colleagues, while men measure their success by their salary and rank (Powell & Graves, 2003).
Several theories exist that may explain why this glass ceiling still exists today. One theory is the time factor. The time factor suggest that it takes a successful college graduate almost 25 years to go through the working pipeline to even qualify for a senior management position. Some records state that women just started counting for 40% of law degrees and 35% of MBAs. As of in the 1970s there were fewer than five percent of these degrees awarded to women. So giving this statement, America will have more women executives in the next 10 to 15 years (The Glass Ceiling, 2009).
Another theory suggests that motherhood is to blame for women not reaching full career advancement. Women may get distracted from their career path to start a family. After childbirth, some women believe they have to spend more time with their child. Then they are unable to undertake the tasks required to reach the top like: multiple business trips, extended hours working late, entertaining clients, and changing plans on a short notice. Some women make the sacrifices of delaying starting a family until later in life, while some women deal with both the family life and work life simultaneously (The Glass Ceiling, 2009).
The last theory proposes that women lack role models in their career path. Women at lower levels do not have other women to direct and lead them into the right path of success. Some women think they do not have a person to lean on for guidance, whereas a man has much more channels to follow to have a successful career path. If there were more women role models for them to follow, they would have a better success rate. Since there are few female managers also, these female managers have a tendency to stand out from the rest of managers. This event makes them and their failures much more visible (The Glass Ceiling, 2009). Women also argue that they don’t fit into the “good old boys” network. They state that they have to work harder than their male counterpart and do more work just to get notice for their work (Tai, 2008). CEO leaders have this lack of confidence in women abilities and long-term commitment (Mattis, 2004).
Women businesses are growing rapidly and studies show the glass ceiling to be a primary factor for them leaving. They are tired of blockage by the glass ceiling and glass wall. Glass wall is a functional segregation that prevents women from obtaining line and general management experience. This wall mainly occurs in corporate businesses (Mattis, 2004). Women who left their jobs were getting the impression that they were not being taking seriously. They saw other people being promoted ahead of them and they felt they did more to deserve the promotion. The higher the position, the less likely women and minorities were to fill it (Pai and Sameer, 2009). These women felt the lack of role models and were tire of the company not crediting them for their hard work (Mattis, 2004). In a study done by Mattis, Jennifer Gosher gave this statement about her experience:
I worked for a corporation in the area and I just got tired of people coming in, especially male counterparts, who were being promoted above me. I spent about six years at a Fortune 500 company. Eventually, I topped out in my pay grade and there were always management changes; so you were always proving yourself over again to another team, and that got pretty old. So the option was to spread my own wings. Entrepreneurs have a perception by the pubic as having masculine traits (Pai and Sameer, 2009). United States Census Bureau states a woman owned business is a business where the woman owns 51% or more of that business. African-American women are starting more business than any other race. Black women have the “double-yoke” of racism and sexism (Mattis, 2004). Almost 48% of women say that they had a mentor or role model when starting their own business.
Today, the glass ceiling is starting to shatter. Women are taking key roles in some top key executive positions and are surpassing the glass ceiling (Equal Employment Opportunity, n.d.). Many people believe that government has a role to play in breaking the glass ceiling (Renѐ, 2008). In the past few years there has been a significant amount of women taking top political seats in government. An example is, Sonia Sotomayor, the current appointed first female and first Latina U.S. Supreme Court Justice Judge. Today women hold about 21% seats in Congress and 35% of seats the state legislative (Heilbronner, 2009). United States Senator Hillary Clinton used the term glass ceiling in her endorsement speech to President Barack Obama. She said, “And although we weren’t able to shatter that highest hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you , it’s got about 18 million cracks in it”( Glass Ceiling, 2007). Barriers to women’s advancement in major corporations are persistent, preventing companies from retaining valuable female talent. This is a expansive cost to these companies current operations and to the talent pool for future leadership of their organizations (Pai and Sameer, 2009). Many of the top companies in America are realizing that women play an important role in the business environment and are starting to appoint them on the executive board. Women make 60% of all purchases in the United States. The percentage of women officials and managers in private sectors has increased from 22% in 1990 to 37.4% in 2006 (Equal Employment Opportunity, n.d). The more women who get appointed to the board, the more women their will be in the future to serve as role models for the younger generation (Heilbronner, 2009).
Data Collection and Analysis The sample that was used in the survey consisted of mix background of males and females. One sample is an Hispanic female. Four samples are African American females. Two samples are African American males. The sample includes one Native American female. Lastly, there are two Caucasian females. They were all given instructions on what the aim of the study was and were also told to be as truthful as possible when answering the questionnaire. The 10 samples total has a all have a different background. Out of the 10 samples two were men. The samples age ranges from 26-42. With this is very broad age group, which hopefully, gave the experiment a broader outlook on the questions being delivered. Two of the samples being interviewed were managers at their jobs. One of the samples were self-employed, while the rest were just regular workers at their job. Given the sample size, sex, age, and origin background should give the survey a very open conclusion. The survey had a list of 10 questions that dealt solely with women in the everyday working environment.

Finding and Conclusion
• The table suggest that 60% of the participants in the study will prefer a woman as their manager. Can this be interpreted as women are better managers or the majority of the sample size are women and they favor more towards women?
• 70% of the sample disagreed with the statement that women were giving the same opportunity as men.
• 70% also felt that there was a difference in pay between males and females too. It can not be fully determined if the population was referring that men make more money than women overall or if given the same job men would probably make as much as his female coworker.
• When presented with the question, “Do women get extra privaleges?” Nearly 60% agreed that women do have extra privalages. Those privilages can vary depending on the situation. In a manufacturing job, a person might believe that women have an extra privilege by not picking up a heavy object. In some work environments, men are called upon first to pick up, push, or pull certain items while women are overlooked.
• “Do women advance equally?” The response was nearly one-sided. The sample evidence had 7 out of 10 to believe that it was unequal. The researcher was trying to figure if one male and one female candidate was giving the same opportunity with the same education background. Who might advance to the top faster.?
• “Do men get promoted or advanced faster than women?” The sample suggest that 80% of men will reach higher levels in a company faster than women. This could relate back to the research where men were giving more oppurtunities like: more mentors, more role models, or they fit in more social gathering that would progress them up the ladder and get them more rapidly noticed than women.
• Given the above situation, a woman is not going to feel as if she was treated fairly. That may be why 70% of the participants felts women are treated unfairly in the workplace.
• “Do women have to work harder to get noticed” Again, 70% of the participants agreed with that statement. To get notice for their valuable work women may have to work harder than the person next to them.
• The last question had 60% of the study participants agreeing that women make more sacrifices than men to advance. Throughout the study, it was found that women do tend to put life on hold to stop and raise a family. Some women even sacrificing not having a family while trying to climb to the top of the success ladder.
Overall the findings from this study suggest that women are more favorable than men in managerial roles. There seems to be no indication of the age or marital status of their managers’ status they prefer. Slight indication suggest that women are mistreated or not given a fair opportunity to advance. Men might have the better advantage than women given they have a bigger network to interact with and help them progress in the workforce. The study did indicate that nearly 40% of the women in the sample did proclaim that they have experience or seen the effect of the glass ceiling in their work experience. Women have to sacrifice much more than men because they are giving up their jobs, work status, social status, and income earnings for a family. To conclude the research, the glass ceiling still exist today in America . Women and minorities have had a long journey throughout history to get to this point. Many organizations have been put together to aid in the advancement of women and their rights. These organizations are still present and active today helping women overcome the glass ceiling barrier. Some corporate businesses still neglect to see minorities and women as an asset to their company. The glass ceiling can be shattered or broken. The glass ceiling barrier can get bypass, but doing so may require extra determination and hard work. Certain sacrifices have to be made by people to reach a higher level in the workforce. It is up to the individual own personal values and determination if they are willing to make those known and unknown sacrifices. Women will be more likely to encounter sacrifices because of the desire to want a family. Men don’t have to make this sacrifice as often.