Glass Ceiling

The glass ceiling is a metaphor, most often applied to women, for an invisible barrier that stops members of a particular demographic group from rising above a certain level in an organizational hierarchy no matter their qualifications. The American businesswoman Marilyn Loden coined the phrase in a 1978 speech to describe the obstacles she saw facing accomplished women trying to advance in their careers, and the metaphor later broadened in the United States to describe racial as well as gender barriers to advancement. Researchers have since extended the same imagery to describe compounded, intersecting barriers facing women of color in majority-white countries, and related terms have emerged for other groups, including the bamboo ceiling used for East Asian Americans and the canvas ceiling used for refugees and asylum seekers, though the barrier the glass ceiling most classically names remains the one blocking qualified women from reaching executive-level positions in corporate hierarchies.