Cracks in the Glass Ceiling?

During the 1990s, much was written about how a "glass ceiling"â€"the invisible barrier that prevented women from moving into the very top jobs in business firmsâ€"was starting to break down. Some changes actually did occur: in the automobile business, for example, Maureen Kempston-Darkes was appointed CEO of General Motors of Canada, Bobbie Gaunt became CEO of Ford Motor of Canada, and Cynthia Trudell became president of Saturn Corp., a subsidiary of GM. These were major changes in an industry that had been very male-dominated since its beginning early in the 20th century. As the years have passed, other high-profile appointments of women have continued to be evident. For example, in 2009, Carol Bartz was appointed CEO of Yahoo, and in 2008, Monique Leroux was appointed CEO of Desjardins Group, Quebec's largest financial institution. Leroux is the first woman to lead a Top 10 financial institution in Canada.

So, progress is evident, but it is also fairly slow. A 2008 Statistics Canada report showed that women age 25-29 who worked full-time earned only 85 percent of what men earned. That gap is the same size it was five years earlier. During the last few years, other studies have revealed some interesting facts about women's outcomes in the workplace:

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• during the period 2002-2006, the percentage of top paying positions held by women grew from 3.9 percent to 7.3 percent (that’s a significant percentage increase, but the absolute numbers continue to be very low)
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• women with advanced degrees earn 96 percent of what men earn; women with bachelor's degrees earn 89 percent; and at the trades certificate level, women earn just 65 percent of what men earn
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• the average single woman earns 99 percent of what the average man earns
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• in law firms, women comprise 50 percent of associates, but only 16 percent of partners; women also drop out of law practice at two or three time the rate of men
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• more than half of all senior management positions are occupied by women at Vancouver City Savings Credit Union and Coast Capital Savings Credit Union
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• no member state in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been able to erase the wage gap; in the OECD as a whole, the difference is about 15 percent
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• for men age 55-64, the proportion of potential years of work spent actually working is 92.3 percent, but for women 55-64, the ratio is only 64.2 percent
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• compared to men, the average woman has less labour market experience, is less likely to work full time, and is more likely to leave the labour force for long periods of time
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• a British study that analyzed the pay earned by males and females at equivalent levels of responsibility found that base pay rates were not much different, but that men received bonuses that often doubled their total pay while women received bonuses that only slightly increased their total pay
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• at Telus, 40 percent of the staff is female of 25 percent of the most senior executive positions area held by women
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• in the executive ranks at Canadian Pacific, 50 percent are women
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• a study by Catalyst found that companies with the highest representation of women in top management positions performed better financially than companies with low representation of women in top management positions

Various reasons have been proposed for pay inequity and the under-representation of women in the top ranks of management. They include: simple male bias against promoting women, the old-boys network, women dropping out of the workforce to have children, lack of organizational support and role models for women, stereotyping, husbands who don't help at home, and a work culture that’s not compatible with family life. Researchers have found that both men and women are ambitious, competent, and competitive, but that men often take things to an extreme. For men, winning is everything and they feel the need to decisively stomp their opponents (think sports). This line of thinking says that male hormones (notably testosterone) cause men to have an extremely strong drive for dominance, status, power, and control and that is the kind of behaviour that gets rewarded in organizations (think promotions). Most women don’t have such strong drives for dominance and control, so they are less likely to get promoted into top management positions.

One study found that women simply don't aspire to top management positions to the extent that men do. About one-third of the men surveyed said they wanted to be a Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operations Officer, but only about one-fifth of the women wanted such a job. Age was also a factor: 89 percent of women age 25-34 aspired to top management positions, but only 58 percent of women age 45-55 did. This latter finding suggests that the issue is generational, and that more and more women are going to be appointed to top jobs as time passes because younger women have different attitudes about the desirability of top management jobs.

Another way to address the gender issue is to determine how different countries divide their available resources between men and women. Each year the World Economic Forum (WEF) publishes a "gender gap" ranking that measures this. The ranking takes into account four factors: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival. In 2008, Norway, Finland, and Sweden ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively out of 130 countries (Canada ranked 31st). Saudi Arabia, Chad, and Yemen were at the bottom of the index.

The fact that the index ranked Canada lower than countries like Namibia, Cuba, Lesotho, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines is surprising, but the methodology used by the WEF makes it clear why this happened. The rankings are based on the relative difference between men and women in a country, rather than on the absolute level of resources that men and women have available. Thus, a country is not penalized for low education levels per se, but only if the distribution of education between men and women is uneven. The fact that Namibia, for example, ranks higher than Canada means that the differences in outcomes for men and women are smaller in Namibia than they are in Canada. It does not mean that the average Canadian woman would feel like she would be better off if she lived in Namibia.

It is also important to note as well that the differences between the ranks are often very small. For example, the Netherlands score (73.99) is not much different than the score for Losotho (73.20). These small differences mean that a country can dramatically rise or fall in the rankings from year to year. On the education criterion, for example, the U.S. made only small gains between 2007 and 2008, yet those small gains were enough to vault the U.S. from 76th place in 2007 to 1st place in 2008. It is doubtful whether such a change in rankings has any practical significance. The Caucasus Research Resource Center argues that the WEF rankings are based on a hodgepodge of incomplete data, and that such rankings do nothing to further the cause of gender equality.

In Canada, women’s groups as diverse as Equal Voice and REAL Women of Canada are also questioning the results of the survey. Equal Voice, for example, points out that women's involvement in politics is at the highest level in Canadian history, with 29 percent of the federal cabinet positions held by women.

Questions for Discussion

1. The statistics cited above regarding women’s success in organizations sometimes show very large inequities and other times very little or no inequities. Explain how this can be possible.
2. Consider the following statement: "It is true that women are generally not represented as well as men in top management jobs, but it has nothing to do with men discriminating against women. The real reason is that women work a smaller proportion of their potential years of work than men do. Because of that, they don't develop a consistent career track record, and they don’t get the promotions into top management jobs at the same rate men do." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain your reasons, citing theoretical and empirical evidence as appropriate.
3. Do you think that the gender gap will eventually disappear in organizations? Give reasons for the position you take.

Sources: Ann Gibbon, "Crashing Through the Glass Ceiling, Women Thrive in what were once Predominantly Male Jobs," National Post, February 25, 2009, p. FP13; "Survey Reveals Global Gender Gap," www.spiegel.de/internatonal/world/0,1518,589955,00.html, accessed February 3, 2009; Tavia Grant, "Wading Into the Talent Pool," The Globe and Mail, January 26, 2009, p. E5; Deirdre Kelly, "New Faces, New Customers," The Globe and Mail, January 26, 2009, p. E3; Sandra Rubin, "What Will it Take to Crack the Glass Ceiling?," The Globe and Mail, December 17, 2008, p. B8; "World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index," November 13, 2008, www.crrc-caucasus.blogspot.com/2008/11/world-economic-forum-gender-gap-index.html; Carly Weeks, "Canada Plunges by 13 Spots in Gender Gap Index," The Globe and Mail, November 13, 2008, p. L1; Wallace Immen, "One More Gap in Pay Between Men and Women," The Globe and Mail, August 15, 2008, p. C1; Meagan Fitzpatrick, "Women Still Earning Less than Men: Statistics Canada," Winnipeg Free Press, May 2, 2008, p. A5; Konrad Yakabuski, "Meet the New Leading Lady of Finance," The Globe and Mail, March 27, 2008, pp. B1-B2; "Women Less Likely to Aspire to Top Corporate Positions," Hudson Canada, www.hudson.com/node.asp?kwd=03-06-08-women-survey; Rudy Mezzetta, "Banks, Credit Unions Put Women in Top Spots," Investment Executive, February, 2008; Matthew McClearn, "Mind the Gap," Canadian Business, November 5, 2007, pp. 21-22; Margaret Wente, "It's Manly at the Top," The Globe and Mail, May 7, 2005, p. A21; Janet McFarland, "Women Still Find Slow Rise to Power Positions," The Globe and Mail, March 13, 2003, pp. B1, B7; Virginia Galt, "Top Women Still Finding Barriers," The Globe and Mail, September 25, 2002, p. B7; Marie Drolet, "The Male-Female Wage Gap," Perspectives on Labour and Income, the Online Edition, December , 2001, www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75-001-XIE/01201/hi-fs_200112_01_a.html; Elizabeth Church, "Women Still Shut Out of Many Top Posts," The Globe and Mail, February 10, 2000, p. B15; Belle Rose Ragins, "Gender Gap in the Executive Suite: CEO's and Female Executives Report on Breaking the Glass Ceiling," Academy of Management Executive, February, 1998, pp. 28-42; Greg Keenan, "Ford Canada Gets New CEO," The Globe and Mail, April 9, 1997, p. B1; Greg Keenan and Janet McFarland, "The Boys' Club," The Globe and Mail, September 27, 1997, pp. B1, B5; Greg Keenan, "Woman at the Wheel," The Globe and Mail, July 8, 1995, pp. B1, B6.