Purcell - “Gender and the Glass Ceiling at Work.”

Question 1

What is the current state of the gendered glass ceiling?

Answer 1

Some progress has been made: from 1983 to 2000, the percentage of managerial jobs
held by women increased from 32 to 45

Question 2

What is the ‘sticky floor’ ?

Answer 2

Like glass celing, but for jobs with lower-status jobs that offer little opportunity for promotion Versus the white-collar jobs that are typically examined in glass ceiling research

Question 3

How is the glass ceiling for WOC?

Answer 3

glass ceiling effects are amplified for women of color

Question 4

How is the glass ceiling created and maintained?

Answer 4

1. Opting Out: many women
   never even encounter the glass ceiling because they are prevented from entering the doorway to paid employment.
   (women often don’t enter paid work)
2. Cultural capital and homophily:
   - cultural capital can be used both as a ‘fence’ to exclude and as a ‘bridge’ to include others in particular networks.
   - Managers seek to find valued traits by hiring employees who are similar to them socially and culturally (men hire men)
3. Networking: Networks confer certain benefits and advantages to members, such as information, resources, and support (can help ppl move up)
4. Gendering and gender stereotypes: the values, qualifications, and criteria important for succeeding in organizations have derived from existing gender hierarchies and favor the ideal male worker.
5. Discrimination and segregation: women’s (particularly black women’s) earnings suffer in gender-segregated occupations
6. Characteristics of organizations:
   ex. methods of recruitment: Informal recruitment, such as network referrals, tends to reproduce higher proportions of male workers

Question 5

What is “double bind”?

Answer 5

Women who try balance being ideal workers and ideal mothers (supermoms)

Bound by both aspects