ISBN: 978-0-6397-4568-8
Women Breaking The Glass Ceiling
Glass Ceiling (noun): An unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities. – Oxford Languages.
*A metaphor usually applied to people of marginalised genders, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents an oppressed demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy. No matter how invisible the glass ceiling is expressed, it is actually a difficult obstacle to overcome. – Wikipedia
*The invisible – but impenetrable – barrier(s) between women and the executive suite, preventing women from reaching the highest levels of the business world regardless of their accomplishments and merits. – The US Department of Labor.
The term ‘glass ceiling’ was first popularised in the late 1970s to describe invisible barriers to women’s career advancements. Though society has made giant strides towards levelling the playing field, the odds are still stacked against women who have the ambition and potential to lead.
In this book, 18 scholars dissect these unacknowledged rules and obstacles waylaying women in their paths of career advancement. Each chapter, backed by published studies conducted around the globe, probes these ‘speedhumps’ that are not in a form of well-defined policies, but still go a long way in preventing women from gaining leadership opportunities, leaving them at the bottom of the workplace hierarchies and appreciated merely as homemakers.
PUBLISH’D AFRIKA co-founder Thokozani Magagula said the book is a must for every woman with an ambition to climb the corporate ladder in business, government, construction, engineering and any other sphere known to be male-dominated.
“The authors look into the glass ceiling at institutions of higher learning, the business world, industries and in how the glass ceiling affects widows in the African cultural setting,” he said. “The book also covers colonial influence, White domination and power structures in academia, as well as gender and age biases in the workplace, culture and widows.”
Professor Maehabo Magano, a full professor in the Department of Psychology of Education at the University of South Africa (UNISA), said there are many critical issues regarding the lack of equity and parity for women of colour in the workplace. These include unequal representation, lack of sociocultural understanding, embedded institutional racism, and insufficient collaboration and relationship building.
“In many societies around the world, women also face greater societal scrutiny as well as unequal treatment in the workplace, at home and in relationships,” she said. “In this volume, titled Women Breaking the Glass Ceiling, we explore various ways in which women draw on their individual resourcefulness, traditional values, and support of female and male allies to navigate the ways and means of breaking the proverbial glass ceiling.”
Women experience a myriad of challenges in different spheres of life that may prevent them from achieving their full potential. According to Professor Dolapo Adeniji, of Adelphi University in the United States, most women work very hard to equip themselves academically and make sound contributions to their practice and broader community. Some of their contributions are even cited and implemented in various fields and disciplines to make a difference globally.
“Yet, despite their sound and valuable academic contributions, very few women ascend the academic ladder to reach managerial leadership at the apex of institutions of higher learning,” she said. “Those who manage to lead and be appointed to the middle and top-level management roles also face pressure from their counterparts and other structures in society. They also struggle to achieve their full potential in other sectors including society, tribal groups, politics and economy.”
“Thus, it is necessary to examine how women are perceived globally and how patriarchy has bedevilled the society. Will the world ever have a paradigm shift in recognising women? Are women pushing hard enough to break the glass ceiling that exists globally?”
The current body of work is an attempt to address these questions and to leverage on the experiences of women, especially those in higher education, to create a scholarship of possibility and a reality for women to break the glass ceiling and ascend the ladder of success in any discipline and lead.
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