Breaking through the glass ceiling:
Women in management - Summary

Women have achieved higher levels of education than ever before and today represent over 40 per cent of the global workforce. Yet their share of management positions remains unacceptably low, with just a tiny proportion succeeding in breaking through the glass ceiling.

The lack of adequate education, training and experience in the past, to some extent, explained the difficulties women experienced in obtaining management jobs. Today, a large and increasing proportion of women in many countries as well qualified. This has resulted in a better gender distribution of jobs, but occupational segregation, both horizontally and vertically, remains a major problem. More women now hold management jobs, but they tend to be clustered at lower levels and in less vital areas. Women have often fared better in professional and financial services, as well as the public service, compared to other sectors. In all cases, however, their access to top managerial jobs remains severely restricted.

Factors contributing to the slow pace of change point to the maintenance of traditional views on men and women's social and economic roles, even though in practice there have been far-reaching changes in women's participation in the labour market. Such views stem largely from women's primary responsibility for family care and welfare. They affect the choices made by men and women in terms of study courses and the type of jobs they seek. At the same time, educational systems, the mass media and recruitment and promotion procedures have often institutionalized certain gender biases and unwittingly continue to perpetuate discriminatory practices with regard to women.

Governments, enterprises and organizations have, over the years, explored ways of eradicating discrimination and ensuring gender equality. They have committed themselves to policies and programmes to advance women workers. While these have met with varying degrees of success, they have undoubtedly had a positive impact, especially on younger generations of men and women. In many instances, developing detailed career plans for women within enterprises has been proven to be instrumental in ensuring equal opportunities in career progression. Special support through networks, coaching, mentoring and training has also been found to be effective in encouraging women and making them more visible. One of the greatest challenges, however, is still how to make the structures and dynamics within an organization more conducive and sensitive to gender equality concepts and practice. Without such a watershed change from within, women will, in the years to come, continue to experience "glass ceilings" and "glass walls" as invisible barriers to positions of management.

In the long term, however, it can be expected that demographic and social trends will induce changes in societies and, therefore, in organizations. With falling fertility rates and the growing influx of women, the composition of the labour market will continue to be affected, pushing up the demand for skilled female labour. In an increasing number of companies, the growth in the proportion of qualified women should make them more visible, providing a base for the upward mobility of more women.

The ILO's longstanding commitment to ensuring more and better jobs for women today requires an energetic effort to promote gender equality in an increasingly competitive global economy and complex institutional frameworks. Its constituents are often called on to respond to many, often shifting, priorities and needs. But unless there is a recognition that equality is an essential pillar in the building of societies that are both socially and economically advanced, any progress will be, at best, slow and uneven. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that a greater proportion of women participate in decision-making functions in all those entities relevant to economic development.

Workers' and employers' organizations have a particularly important role to play in stimulating workplace change in attitudes and practices to further gender equality generally and to identify and promote specific strategies to enable women to reach higher levels of management and break through the glass ceiling.