"You've Come a Short Way, Baby!"
Professor Diana Bilimoria hit it on the nail when she proclaimed, "Even when women do all the right things, and have all the right stuff, they continue to be blocked from the innermost circles of power" (Daily). The increasing number of working women with an education and experience in the business world continue to encounter this blockade mentioned by Professor Bilimoria. Suzanne M. Crampton and Jitendra M. Mishra find that the promotions to managerial positions achieved by women have, unfortunately, not kept up with the increase of women in the work force. This barrier that keeps women from promotions is called the glass ceiling. "Glass ceiling is a term coined in the 1970's to describe the invisible artificial barriers, created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which bar women from top executive jobs" ("Glass Ceiling Separates Women for Top"). Robert B. Reich, Secretary of Labor, informs his readers that the expression "glass ceiling" first appeared about ten years ago in a column entitled "Corporate Women" in the Wall Street Journal" (iii). Since the mid to late eighties, the term has been applied to identify situations where women have bumped their heads in efforts to reach high-level positions. One source reports that the results of a Labor Department study prove that the "glass ceiling" prevents women from achieving promotions in management and leadership positions (Crampton). Women's "highest levels tend to be in staff positions, such as human resources, or research or administration, rather than line positions, such as marketing, or sales, or production" (Reich iii). Crampton finds that out of all management positions of modern organizations women hold only six ...