WOMEN WORKFORCE LOOKING THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING

Abstract

Women have begun to take part in business life intensively in the last century. However, despite the rapid rise in the number of women in business world, the proportion of women among senior managers and leaders has been very low. Research on the subject demonstrates that women face difficulties called ‘Glass Ceiling’, which cannot be seen apparently and at the same time which is hard to overcome in order to reach the senior executive positions. ceiling refers to the difficulties that take place between women and the top management which do not allow them to move along their career regardless of their success and skills. There have been many theories about why women are underrepresented in senior management positions. If gathered under three headings, these are: Bias-centred, person-centred, and structural-centred theories. Bias-centred theories consider that the fundamental causes of inequalities are discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice by the greater part of the society or dominant group. Person-centred theories accept that differences in men's and women's personal characteristics and behaviour cause women to be unsuccessful at management positions. Structural-centred theories suppose that the main causes of inequality are the structural policies and customs of a social system, thus social structure dominated by men raise the discrimination against women. In this paper ‘Glass Ceiling Syndrome’ has been researched, the related literature on the subject has been investigated and the results were tried to be tested by a field survey. Within the scope of the study, a questionnaire was developed to determine the perception and attitudes of women who are working in a research hospital in Izmir on Glass Ceiling Syndrome”. The glass ceiling was analysed at nine dimensions in the questionnaire; these are: barriers stemming from top management, negative prejudices against women, family life, sex discrimination, women’s rise in their career, organizational culture and politics, informal communication networks, mentoring and occupational discrimination. Research has shown that women are uncomfortable with prejudices about themselves and now they are ready for senior management positions. Women have been also more conscious day by day and they have been trying to break the glass ceiling which is like a barrier on their career. Eventually it can be said that the increase in educational and cultural level of the society will be the main factor on breaking the glass ceiling.