Issue link: https://industrialmanagement.epubxp.com/i/656209
march/april 2016 23 In A Solid Investment: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital, the chair of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission defines the glass ceiling as an "unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements." The commission outlined a series of steps to help corporate America shatter the glass ceiling and make the most of its "most precious resource" – people. The report, published in 1995, made eight recommendations to business: 1. Demonstrate CEO commitment to diversity throughout the organization. 2. Include diversity in all strategic business plans and hold line managers accountable for progress. 3. Use affirmative action as a tool to ensure all employees have equal access and opportunities. 4. Select, promote and retain qualified individuals. 5. Prepare minorities and women for senior positions through expanded access to core areas of business and formal mentoring programs. 6. Educate the corporate ranks by providing formal training during company time to sensitize employees about issues, both strengths and challenges, related to gender differ- ences. 7. Initiate work/life and family-friendly policies, as such practices have an impact on the lifelong career of all employees. 8. Adopt high-performance workplace practices. Specifically, the commission pointed to the adoption of high- performance workplace practices in the areas of skills and information, employee participation, organization and partnership, compensation, job security and the overall workplace environment. In addition, the commission made four recommendations to government: Lead by example, strengthen enforcement of anti-discrimination Perhaps, according to Eagly and Carli, the challenges women face can best be characterized as a labyrinth. laws, improve data collection and increase disclosure of diversity data. Now more than 20 years later, how far have we come? Women by the numbers Since the publication of the report from the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, women have progressed in corporate America, but there is room for more improvement. In Fact Sheet: The Women's Leadership Gap, Judith Warner noted that women comprise 50.8 percent of the population and hold close to 52 percent of all professional-level jobs in the United States. They earn about 60 percent of all undergraduate degrees, 60 percent of all master's degrees and 44 percent of all master's degrees in business and management. However, in the U.S., only 16.9 percent of Fortune 500 board seats are held by women, only 14.6 percent of executive officers are women and a mere 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Warner reports that in the financial services sector, women comprise 54.2 percent of the labor force but hold only 12.4 percent of executive officer positions, 18.3 percent of board director positions and none of the CEO positions. In healthcare and social assistance, women comprise 78.4 percent of the labor force but hold only 14.6 percent of executive officer seats, 12.4 percent of board director seats and none of the CEO seats. In the legal field, women make up 45.4 percent of associate positions but account for only 25 percent of nonequity partner and 15 percent of equity partner positions. In the field of information technology, Warner reports that women account for merely 9 percent of all management positions. Similarly, an analysis by CNN Money found that women held only 14.2 percent of the top five leadership positions in the Standards & Poor's 500 and fewer than 5 percent of CEO positions. "Women CEOs of the S&P; 500," reported at Catalyst.org, lists the 22 (4.4 percent) women who hold CEO positions at S&P; 500 companies – a list so small that it can fit into a single paragraph. Clearly, these figures depict a pyramid. As women move up the ranks toward the executive suite, there appears to be a filtering effect with far fewer women rising to the higher ranks. The reasons are complex and multifaceted. This article identifies some of the main arguments about what holds women back from progressing to executive level positions and provides some sugges- tions for what can be done to help them climb the corporate ladder. Glass ceiling or leadership labyrinth? Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli in Harvard Business Review wrote that women face many obstacles along the path to the executive suite. Perhaps, according to Eagly and Carli, the challenges women face can best be characterized as a labyrinth. They describe five key elements of the leadership labyrinth women face: vestiges of prejudice, resistance to women's leadership, issues of leadership style, demands of family life and under- investment in social capital. 1. Prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice can take a number of forms, for example, such as sexual harassment, withholding promotions from women, giving women a different job title for an equivalent job, paying them less for performing an equivalent job, preventing women from participating in projects that might prepare them for the next promotion as well as preventing them from participating in training oppor- tunities that might prepare them for advancement. One of the ways in which this type of prejudice shows up is in disparate wages earned by men and women. A recent study of American women who work full time found that women are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to their equivalent male counterparts engaged in comparable work. Another study found that women are paid 72 cents for every dollar a man doing the same job makes.