Introduction
The paper lays down the experiences of researcher and learning from the research done on glass ceiling faced by women. Though this is not a reflective essay, the findings are expressed in a narrative manner, and a conclusion has been given regarding career and glass ceiling faced by women.
Empowerment and presence in the corporate sector
Topic Studied
The topic that has been studied in research is ‘glass ceiling’ problem for women. During the study, the research has been focused on glass ceiling that shows them all the opportunities, but stops them in achieving them. The researcher understood that the presence of women in the corporate sector could not be an instance to break glass ceiling as they faced the situation that they had faced before they got the opportunity to work in the corporate sector.
While they had no opportunities to work, they saw them through glass ceiling, that is why now, they are viewing their advancement in their career through glass ceiling. Hence, the understanding of researcher is that the glass ceiling for women has not been broken even after they have started getting opportunities to work.
Presence in HR
As per the research done, the available literature states that the corporate sector prefers to use women in human resources department more than in other departments. It does not mean that there are no women in other departments, but their presence in HR is greater than compared to other departments. This situation can be termed as a discrimination as women are also capable of doing other works and getting more opportunities. This condition is due to the ignorance of the corporate sector about expertise of women in other departments.
Due to the different way of thought and zeal to be successful, women turned the opportunities offered to them to empower themselves throughout of box thinking. However, the entrance of women in HR departments has changed the way the personnel departments used to work and even the name from ‘personnel’ to ‘HR’.
Women have shown the difference in leadership style, but it cannot be termed as breaking of glass ceiling as they still face hindrances to try to reach the top using their soft skills and dominated the corporate sector in HR, marketing and production design activities.
Lack of network
Though it has been found that women fare well in departments other than HR, it is the lack of network like men which hinder the development of women. The researchers experience while working on the issue indicates that women have fewer networks compared to men. That does not mean that women do not have any network because there may be some female employees and executives who have enough network, but men use their networking capabilities to beat women when trying to climb the ladder of hierarchy in an organization.
Presence of Women in Top Positions
Though they face stiff resistance from men with networking capabilities, the presence of women in HR, marketing and production design has resulted in opportunities for women to get into top positions of corporate companies. This resulted in an increase of women CEOs from two to three percent in the US from 2005 to 2008.
It has been found that women learn more than men while working, but they are not able to compete with men as they can start their career only after their children attain school going age. The above situation indicates that they are able to start a career late than men and even if they start their career, they have to break due to personal reasons.
Conclusion
The women empowerment emanated from the needs of women to work as well as the necessity of the corporate companies to have women in their company. After a substantial duration of time, even now, there is a necessity for policies to empower women in all the divisions of society, and the glass ceiling is haunting them in another form.