Hamm-Greenawalt (2000) reports that of 49 new chief technology officers "not one was a woman" (p. 70). Among 129 new CEOs in Internet companies, only one is a woman. In the top 50 Net companies, only two have female chief executives. Jones (2001) also points out that companies are failing "to position women in the pipeline to become CEOs in the near future, as measured by the decline in the number of female corporate officers with line, or profit-and-loss, responsibilities" (p. 15). Clearly, there is a glass ceiling, cracking or not, which has significantly slowed down women's progress in business.
What is the Glass Ceiling?
Women define the glass ceiling as conditions at work where their contributions are not recognized or valued; nobody takes them seriously; they feel isolated as either the only woman or just one of a few; and they feel like a minority. Women complain that they are excluded from informal networks and socializing, such as going to lunch and playing golf -- and this is important because "The golf course is where strategic alliances can be formed -- relationships with co-workers, supervisors, and executives who can further your cause" (Jenkins, 2004, p. 86). Sometimes women are even excluded from training opportunities. They are left out of locker room conversations and the Old Boy Network.
Furthermore, many women have complained that they are facing inhospitable corporate cultures. Sometimes, the hostility of a corporate culture is subtle and unintentional, but women are still faced with overcoming the stereotypes that are holding them back (Solomon, 2000). Lack of mentors, role models, and networking opportunities are also barriers to women's success.
Women who do become leaders continue to face obstacles even when they reach the top. They often point out the difficulty of securing capital. Venture-One, a company that provides information on venture-backed companies and investors, reports that in 1999 venture-capital firms funded only 57 women CEOs (or 6%) out of 961 Internet companies. Venture-capital firms tend to be run by men who prefer to fund men. Not everyone believes they intentionally discriminate against women-owned companies, of course. It has been suggested that "Old Boy's Networks" are formed primarily back in business college where there were not enough women students. However, the U.S. Department of Education reports 58,000 men and 35,000 women earned master's degrees in business and marketing in 1996, so the argument doesn't really hold. No doubt today those numbers have increased. Others have suggested that "Old Boy Networks" favor men simply because the networks are composed of men who have worked together for a long time (Hamm-Greenawalt, 2000). Whatever the reason, Jones (2001) states: "Until 1999, only 2% of all venture capital raised went to women-owned companies. In 2000, during the Internet boom, the figure doubled...
Yet women with similar or comparable education and experience or achievement still earn less than men in work organizations. A missing link or the absent ingredient, between performance and a just payoff, was identified as women's own ability to comfortably and consistently draw the attention they deserve to the contributions they made or gave. Findings of a study conducted on 322 male and female executives showed that women were
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Discrimination in the Modern Workplace With the 21st century workplace ahead of us and a country full of diversity surrounding us, the changing ethnic, racial, age, and gender composition of the workforce will become more evident in the years to come. This modern workplace will bring in a group of diverse employees to accompany tighter labor markets and changing worker demographics. These changes in the modern workplace will have important implications
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