Women and Glass Ceiling in Albania

Abstract

Concerns about gender equality are disciplined in Constitution, and more and more national and international acts, laws and directives. Anyway, if we have a look at statistics, the literature review, a lot of studies and researches in different countries, women’s career progression has not kept pace with that of men’s. Even though women represent 44 % of the labor force in Albania they continue to lag behind male counterparts in reaching upper level positions. Women’s career progression into executive-level positions continues to lag behind that of their male counterparts in both the private and public sectors (D’Agostino & Levine, 2009). If we have a quick look at high level of state government such as president, prime minister, ministers, etc. it is very hard to find a woman on top o these and other institutions. The same thing happens in private sector, for example the banking or in telecommunicating sectors, which are through the most important sectors of the economy of Albania, it is very hard to see a woman on their top (only 2 CEOs women in banking sector and no CEO woman in telecommunicating sector). Why does this happen? When women try to reach high levels of management and leadership positions, they face with the phenomenon of “Glass ceiling” which impedes them in reaching those positions. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p720