Social Roles and “The Glass Ceiling” Phenomenon Essay

Since the beginning of time men and women had no parity in terms of their social roles in the world. Not only in business but in many spheres women had no possibility to occupy leader positions but only enjoyed the minor roles. And the thing is that women have not been estimated by their knowledge or professional characteristics they have been discriminated according to their sex. In other words, they are not allowed to take the ruling roles just because they are women. Correspondingly, as women are regarded as the softer sex there should be the opposite, the rougher sex, that is men.

It is generally accepted that men hamper women’s development in various spheres, such as business, technology and the like. This phenomenon has been called “the glass ceiling” phenomena, a nicely put metaphor that describes the situation that people can’t advance in their work, as a rule, because they are discriminated according to various prejudices. As far as women are concerned they are discriminated according to sexual character.

Formerly, women were not allowed even to get education not to mention even to be permitted to try to do something better than men. Since we still live in patriarchal society, the majority of leading posts in business are occupied by the representatives of the rougher sex. However, it cannot but make me glad that the tendency is changing nowadays. The number of women at the helm is increasing annually. Despite this fact it is sad the salaries of women are still lower compared to the salaries of men who hold the same posts.

Dealing with this issue, I’ve become interested in the development of this tendency. I came up with various questions. First, it is apparent that the influence on the today society of the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is fading away. In this respect, I wonder whether it is possible for women to get the same social status as men enjoy throughout the history of mankind. Of course, it seems doubtful that it is possible but, on the other hand, women have achieved great success compared to their position in former years as many reporters and observers claim. Moreover, is there a chance that the phenomenon of “glass ceiling” will cease to exist at all and won’t be applied to women? Will the level of wages that women get increase or even excel men’s wages over the next decades?

Ideally, from my perspective, men and women should have the same rights. I also understand that this is next to impossible as the social roles of both sexes were forming throughout the whole history and are very unlikely to change in such a little amount of time. In the light of recent research on women role in modern society and the increased complexity of their life, it can be assumed that women are ready to defend their rights and independence. Women are venturing to stand their ground and try their abilities in various spheres of human activity.

I am certain that all the factors preventing women from moving forward are connected with each other. As historically, women are perceived as the ones who should and must help men to earn for living for their families, nowadays, men cannot allow women to get better wage so that they could earn more then men, in particular their husbands if any, and, consequently, break the balance between them. Moreover, it is unacceptable when a woman overcomes men in some professional skills. It is regarded as a kind of insult to a man.

I am very concerned with this controversial issue. It raises a lot of debatable questions and leads to heated discussions. It is interesting that a lot of men take women’s side and defend their rights. I wonder what causes may underlie such behavior. I am also very interested in observing the process of the development of various tendencies concerning women’s new social statuses and how they will be able to cope with their new social obligations and their essential household duties.

Thus, I believe that women are able to strengthen and advance their social status, to get more leadership roles and increase the level of wages during the next decades.

I would like to support this claim basing my arguments on the literature I’ve found on this topic. As I have already mentioned, modern society witness the shift in the attitude towards the role of women. Compared to previous years, nowadays, more and more women occupy top managerial positions. And despite the fact the figure is still significantly low; it is higher that it was before. Besides, the number of women involved in certain business or governmental figure is also rises.

A lot of publications testify to this assumption, such as the article in Wall Street Journal “Progress Seen In Breaking Glass Ceilings’”, “The conundrum of the glass ceiling – Women in business” in the Economist. The observations of the reporters in these articles indicate that the “glass ceiling” phenomenon loses its power over human’s mind (R. Karr: 1992). It is a well-known fact that women are still getting wages smaller then men holding the same posts; however, it is possible to change this situation as well. (Economist: 2005).

“Gender and Competition” issued in “Labor Economics” dwells on this topic and serve as an evidence that the improvements in this sphere have become a great concern of many people (L. Booth: 2009). Despite little has been done in resolving this situation, the attempts that have been done point that this problem is very important in the modern society and is due to be solved in the next couple of decades.

On the other hand, some could contradict that the main social obligations of women is to do their household duties as it is their natural calling to raise children and keep a household. Some people are concerned that women won’t be able to cope with their household and professional obligations that can badly affect the quality of children’s upbringing or other things. I must say that these arguments are unjustified. First of all, a woman that feels that she belongs to her family and doesn’t want to work she has the right to devote her life to her family. Second, a woman that is educated and feels potential to contribute to society should not be stopped just because of her sexual character. Moreover, the observations of reporters show that women are strong enough to perform their duties in business and there are practically no cases when a woman failed to meet her commitments because she is a woman, not a man.

Further more, the number of female students in universities and higher education institutions sky-rocketed compared to their number some decades ago. Consequently, since the number of female students doubled, it can be assumed that the number of qualified skilled female would-be personnel is due to rise in the due course of time. I firmly believe that women can professionally deal with any subjects as well as men do displaying high levels of effectiveness. Moreover, recent surveys and observations of women’s performance in business sphere testify that women can withstand the competition with men. The same surveys show that the phenomena of “glass ceiling” have been affecting fewer women during the last years (R. Karr: 1992). Correspondingly, we may draw a conclusion that in a couple of decades this phenomenon may cease to exist at all. The least that I expect to see, taking into account the observations of the reporters of the Wall street Journal and the Economist, is the reduction of women that experienced this phenomenon.

Sources

Booth, A L 2009, ‘Gender and Competition’, Labour Economics, vol. 16 Issue 6, pp. 599-606.

Economist, The 2005, ‘Special Report: The conundrum of the glass ceiling – Women in business; Women in business’, The Economist, vol. 376 Issue 8436, pp. 67.

Karr, A R 1992, ‘Progress Seen In Breaking Glass Ceilings’, The Wall Street Journal, p. 8.