EXISTENCE OF GLASS CEILING AND FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN IN REACHING TOP POSITIONS.

Received: 25 October 2016 Final Accepted: 23 November 2016 Published: December 2016 In today’s technological period nations are on path of progress but progress of nations is also not supporting career advancement of women to top positions as studies revealed that gender based glass ceiling is found almost everywhere in the world it was found that almost all studies show existence of glass ceiling in abroad, two studies showed that in today’s time glass ceiling is shattering and only one study revealed non-existence of glass ceiling abroad. In india also all studies show existence of glass ceiling, through review of literature critical factors were evaluated which leads to low representation of women in top positions and the sequence of factor effecting the most was organizational factor, personal factor, stereotyping factor, socio – cultural factor, political factor and sexual harassment.

In today's technological period nations are on path of progress but progress of nations is also not supporting career advancement of women to top positions as studies revealed that gender based glass ceiling is found almost everywhere in the world it was found that almost all studies show existence of glass ceiling in abroad, two studies showed that in today's time glass ceiling is shattering and only one study revealed non-existence of glass ceiling abroad. In india also all studies show existence of glass ceiling, through review of literature critical factors were evaluated which leads to low representation of women in top positions and the sequence of factor effecting the most was organizational factor, personal factor, stereotyping factor, sociocultural factor, political factor and sexual harassment.

Introduction:-
Chapter one gives a summary of glass ceiling origin how this term was coined up, why the need aroused to study status of women and minorities at their workplaces. What is the concept of glass ceiling? Findings of latest reports in magazines and periodicals are stated to have a glance at prevalence of glass ceiling in Indian. Includes glass ceiling index presented by economists to measure level of glass ceiling on basis of different parameters such as higher education, labor force participation, wage pay, child care cost, maternity rights, representation in senior jobs which are followed across countries to assess status of women at workplace among different nations. Also discussed on the key factors which promote glass ceiling by stopping women to rise to top level representations at workplaces such as social and cultural barrier, organizational barrier, governmental barrier, stereotype barrier and individual barrier. Framing of research questions, objectives, limitations and finally the significance of the study so as to make reader clear about how the study is structured and organized.
Origin of the term:-The term was coined up in 1980s when several writers used this term, in the sense of barrier to advancement for women:-In 1980 Katherine Lawrence originally introduced the concept of the glass ceiling in a Conference of the Women's Institute for Freedom press at Hewlett-Packard in U.S.
In 1984 Gay Bryant used the term in her book, "The Working Woman Report". And in the same year used by Adweek in his book "Women have reached a certain point -I call it the glass ceiling".
According to business standard report 2015, only 4% women are at senior positions in Indian corporate sector in comparison to 11% in Asia. According to 2016, Fortune 500 list just 21 companies CEO's are women which is only 4% that clearly shows evidences of Glass ceiling because where the contribution of women should be 50% is limited to 4% only.
Woman accounts for half of the worlds human resources which is equally important and should be given equal chances to prove themselves. According to finding of McKinsey global Institute (2015), $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by advancing women equality. Countries with low involvement of women welfare are wasting their biggest resource.
This report also shows that percentage of incremental global GDP over business for India it is 16% which is higher than percentage increase of whole world (sample of 95 countries was taken) i.e. 11% so gender parity in India could add 0.7 trillion to its GDP this reveal importance and need of women empowerment in Indian economy.
Seven reports presented by women in global science and technology and the organization for women in Science for developing world conducted by experts in international gender, lowest rank was assigned to India for female participation in labor work force, knowledge economy participation, access to resources and health status in Science and Technology it was shown in study that in India even less than one third of Administrative and managerial position are held by women.

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Indra nooyi a famous business tycoon was elected the chairman of PepsiCo in 2007. She agreed in her one of the interviews that she has to work extra hard, more hours, more sacrifices and trade-offs, because being a woman and especially a person of color, were the two strikes against her. Organizational Barriers:-This is a barrier caused due to biased recruitment practices, unsupportive corporate climate and culture for women, lack of opportunities of training and education for women to advance into management positions, biased performance appraisal methods etc.
Governmental Barriers:-No strong provisions made by government regarding reporting systems that address the glass ceiling in organizations, delay in justice by courts, poor maintenance and follow-up of plans and policies which are enforced regarding glass ceiling, lack of prevention programs and consistent monitoring required to stop glass ceiling.
Stereotypes Barrier:-This barrier is caused due to differences created between human groups and their potential limit interaction. Such as on basis of race, gender, religion or language. Due to this problem women limit their potentials due to other society member's conscious or unconscious prejudices.
Stereotype refers to the attitude that people holds about an individual or group. According to William and best study from 1992 males are characterized as powerful, domineering, adventurous and independent on the other hand female are characterized as submissive, sentimental and superstitious across 30 different countries.
Individual Barrier:-Sometimes Women herself becomes barrier for her career advancement such as inability to give proper time, lack of initiatives for challenging jobs, fear of taking leadership responsibilities, more concerns to family and children etc. are the individual factors that impedes the career advancement of women.
Why study glass ceiling:-1. To identify the existence of glass ceiling. 2. To identify the thickness of glass ceiling. 3. To identify the barriers that prevents women from being promoted to higher positions. 4. To offer recommendations that help to enhance women's career advancement.
The research Questions derived from these areas are as follows: 1. Does the glass ceiling exist? 2. What is the thickness of glass ceiling? 3. What are the barriers that prevent women from being promoted to higher positions?

Statement of the Problem:-The Problem selected for investigation in the present study has been titled as "EXISTENCE OF GLASS CEILING AND FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN IN REACHING TOP POSITIONS"
Objectives of the study:-The study had following objectives: 1. To study status of glass ceiling in India and abroad 2. To identify the factors affecting women in reaching top positions

Limitations of the study:-
Since the study is secondary based, data provided by others was considered as reliable and no specific technique was used to check reliability of other sources data. 1452

Significance of the study;-
This study focus is to reveal the existence of glass ceiling in India and abroad. It focuses on finding factors affecting glass ceiling and its thickness on basis of gender through review of literature of researches done in India and abroad to reveal the invisible barriers hindering the career advancement of women. The government and non government organizations which are helping women may use the knowledge in removing hurdles which are responsible for career advancement of women to reach top positions. Chapter 2:-Literature review:-Introduction:-In this chapter, an attempt has been made to present a review of studies on glass ceiling practices with working woman. Published work on glass ceiling practices with working women has provided guidance for the present study. In the following paragraphs a brief survey of some of those important researches is given to provides an insight into gender inequalities; It aims to seek the reasons for the existence of the glass ceiling, low representation of women on top positions, longitudinal analysis of glass ceiling, thickness over times and barriers which impedes the career advancement of women in organizations. focused on both race/ethnicity and gender by using random effect model to study income dynamics from panel study in Columbia to examine race and gender inequalities at the 25 th , 50 th and 75 th percentile of white male earnings found evidences for glass ceiling for women but denied the existence of it among different races and so revealed glass ceilings as a gender phenomenon. Wage gaps also supported by Robert study on how thick is glass ceiling in Australia across all occupations found a man is 4.6 times more likely to get promotions and Earns $24 more than women per annum and study of Lee supported that this income gap is widening. This gender disparity is a sign of masculinized organizational practices that frame policies and promotion in business schools. In addition worked on conceptual frameworks, namely expectations state theory, homophile and hegemonic masculinities, shifting standards theory and social role theory to provide theoretical insights into how unintentionally gender biasness can enter into the promotion process of business schools. On the other hand findings of Ryan A Smith (2013) imply on both women as well as on minorities that they face lower odds for achieving higher level at workplace in comparison to man and it was also found that black women are victims of direct discrimination. Sharma, A. (2011) also investigated glass ceiling in education Sector through responses of 240 faculty members from 42 colleges and found significant differences on basis of gender. One of the major reasons found was that women is not assigned any administrative tasks, also observed that women employees lack tremendously in getting mentors, supporting the same point study of Nieva and Gutek (1981) revealed that in some cases, women leader may take help from their mentors but are not so successful as male leaders due to gender issues.

Stereotyping barrier
Lawanson, Olukemi I. (2007) in his study introduced 6 barriers to study glass ceiling in Nigeria 1) Religion/cultural/social 2) institutional/organizational/structural 3) legislation/ political barrier 4) Educational barrier 5) gender based barrier 6) political/leadership barrier and surveyed 100 male and female engaged in labour found that Nigerian women are considered inferior to men, sex role and stereotyping impede the progress of women and also found women are believed to be less intelligent than men.
Schwarts (1989) also articulated stereotyping as the major reason for existence of glass ceiling. Supported by study of Thi Thu Thao Tran (2014) who conducted data analysis through quantitative and qualitative methods revealed that glass ceiling is existing in Vietnamese banking sector and reasons for glass ceiling includes social stereotype, family-work conflict, women themselves and corporate practices.   A study of the barriers to career progress of women in an organization Presented the difficulties that women face in order to progress not only in management but also in other occupations. Results have shown that most females and male believe that the glass ceiling is existing in the workplace. 9 Deepika Nath (2000 Gently shattering the glass ceiling: experiences of Indian women managers Found that due to family and organizational support Indian women managers are reaching to highest levels of executive suite 10 Koshal & Gupta (1998) women managers in India : Challenges and opportunities.
Found degree of existence of glass ceiling in the largest democracy of the world. It analyzed cultural barriers as the most dominating barrier preventing women from advancing to corporate leadership.

Conclusion:-
To conclude through the findings glass ceiling is existing in India and abroad only weak evidence are found for its shattering. In today's technological period nations are on path of progress but progress of nations is also not supporting career advancement of women as studies reveal gender based glass ceiling is found across world, organizational factor is found to be the most critical factor which impedes career advancement of women in top positions.