| Women in the U.S. account for almost half of today's workforce. In light of a much more diverse workforce, understanding the barriers that hinder women's advancement in the workplace has become paramount to an organization's success. Recent research indicates that Fortune 500 companies with the best financial performance had more women on their top management teams than lower-performing companies. This study explored women's perception of the glass ceiling and success in today's organizations. The study found that there were approximately an equal percentage of women who perceived their organizations to have a glass ceiling (43.8%) as compared to those who perceived there to be no glass ceiling in their organization (41.6%). There were also several themes emerging from the women's comments on the glass ceiling. The continued barriers in the workplace were identified as pay inequity, stereotyping, lack of advancement opportunities, balancing work-family responsibilities, tokenism, good old boys network and social identity. Despite the barriers encountered by women in the workplace, an overwhelming number of women, approximately 80%, still considered themselves successful. |
