glass ceiling

ɡlɑːs ˈsiːlɪŋ

2 definitions

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#1·14h ago

An unrecognized or unwritten barrier to further progression or promotion, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group (originally women).

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 them…

Origin: [[File:Seattle Women's March 2019 (39842076293).jpg|thumb|A participant at the Seattle Women’s March in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., on 19 January 2019 holding a placard reading “My heels are taller than your glass ceiling”.]] From , 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 (1946–2022), who referred to the “invisible glass ceiling” during a panel discussion about women’s aspirations in 1978. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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#2·14h ago

(figurative) A barrier to progression that is not obvious.

A recent [[w:The Wall Street Journal

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