glass ceiling
/ɡlæs ˈsilɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.10 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An unrecognized or unwritten barrier to further progression or promotion, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group (originally women).
noun
A barrier to progression that is not obvious.
Example Sentences
- "Women have reached a certain point—I call it the glass ceiling. They're in the top of middle management and they're stopping and getting stuck. There isn't enough room for all those women at the top. Some are going into business for themselves. Others are going out and raising families."
- "A recent Wall Street Journal report describes the invisible barrier at the top as "the glass ceiling" and speculates that it is caused by corporate tradition and prejudice—the same factors that had to be dealt with years ago in order for women to make it beyond the steno pool. […] In the spate of recent articles about glass ceilings faced by women, it's been said that men at the top feel uncomfortable with women of equal or nearly equal power. One high-level vice president quoted her boss as saying, "It was his problem, but he couldn't make serious decisions if a woman was in the room.""
- "There are fears of hitting a "glass ceiling" beyond which known or suspected gay men and lesbians cannot rise. According to Fortune: / In a 1987 survey by the Wall Street Journal, 66% of major-company CEO's said they would be reluctant to put a homosexual on management committees; while attitudes may have changed since, there's no evidence of a revolution."
- "The glass ceiling is still holding back 6,000 women from the top 33,000 jobs in Britain, according to new research from the Equal Opportunities Commission. Thirty years after the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act, women are "woefully under-represented" in the country's boardrooms, politics and courts, it says."
- "[I]t was the genteel chauvinism of the enlightened elites at Kleiner Perkins that carried with it the sting of betrayal. They promised her [Ellen Pao] a meritocracy and gave her a glass ceiling instead: "It just wasn't fair.""
- ""Has the glass ceiling shattered?" said Bakari Sellers, a political ally of [Kamala] Harris. "No, but it does have another crack.""
Etymology
From glass + ceiling, a metaphor using ceiling to suggest a barrier to upward mobility, and glass to allude to the often unacknowledged or “invisible” nature of this limitation. The term was coined by the American diversity advocate, management consultant, and writer Marilyn Loden (1946–2022), who referred to the “invisible glass ceiling” during a panel discussion about women’s aspirations in 1978.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ǵʰleh₁-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡlæs ˈsilɪŋ/
- British English: /ɡlɑːs ˈsiːlɪŋ/