Glass Ceiling Summary

Demolishing the Glass Ceiling “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders” (Sandberg 2559). Unfortunately, there is a lot of work to do before this goal is achieved. While the wage gap has lessened over the last 50 years, progress has stalled in the last decade. The remaining gap persists because women are still underrepresented in corporate leadership positions. To gain female representation in top executive positions several steps need to be taken: American views on gendered work and familial obligations need to shift, American companies need to provide a better work-life balance, including paid parental leave, and American ideologies about the roles and traits of women and men need to change. Since women

She explores the notion of “ideal workers . . . who can and are willing to serve the needs of the workplace without being disrupted by nonwork demands” (Cha 161). As discussed above, this model does not work for mothers whose familial responsibilities are equally demanding. Apart from balancing household labor, creating a more sensible work-life culture would help women succeed in typically male dominated fields. Cha refers to Americas current work structure as “overwork” and argues it’s adverse effects on women in male dominated fields. Successful mothers are viewed as colder than successful fathers, and women more often suffer guilt or psychological distress when their work interferes with family life

Employers biasedly view female dominated jobs as less valuable and therefore set lower wages. She attests that these views stem from American societies general devaluation of femininity (153). To support this claim England discusses how throughout the last century it has become acceptable for women to adopt male traits and practices, but not vice versa. “But even as women integrated employment and “male” professional and managerial jobs, the part of feminism challenging the devaluation of traditionally female activities and jobs made little headway” (162). Because of this devaluation and “female” occupation’s lower wages, men have little to no incentive to break into fields such as nursing and teaching. One reason she cites for the continued divide is that of gender essentialism, or the idea that “that men and women are innately and fundamentally different in interests and skills” (161). So long as occupational segregation exists, and so long as feminine qualities are considered inferior, the gap in pay between “male” and “female” occupations will exist. The best way to eliminate this segregation, and therefore the pay gap, is to eliminate the idea of gendered