"glass ceiling" means: An unrecognized or unwritten barrier to further progression or promotion, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographi.... This is a fairly neutral word with no inherent risk attached. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than something dangerous. If your child uses it, context will usually make the meaning clear. A brief, curious question about where they heard it is generally enough to know whether to follow up.
glass ceiling
An unrecognized or unwritten barrier to further progression or promotion, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group (originally women).
ɡlɑːs ˈsiːlɪŋDocumented since 2010s2010sGen AlphaCurrent155 viewsLast reviewed Jun 29, 2026＋ Add a definition
Etymology timeline
Born ~2019 · 1 year of recorded useDefinitions
US
#1·Apr 27, 2026US
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).
For parents
"glass ceiling" means: An unrecognized or unwritten barrier to further progression or promotion, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographi.... This is a fairly neutral word with no inherent risk attached. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than something dangerous. If your child uses it, context will usually make the meaning clear. A brief, curious question about where they heard it is generally enough to know whether to follow up.
For ESL learners
"glass ceiling" means: An unrecognized or unwritten barrier to further progression or promotion, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographi.... Register: neutral, standard English, usable in most everyday contexts. A common non-native mistake is to use the word in the wrong register, or to assume one fixed meaning when it is actually polysemous; always check the surrounding register and the audience before producing it yourself. In formal writing, prefer a neutral synonym or a short descriptive phrase, and use this word only when you have heard or read it being used naturally in a comparable context.
Cluster: work
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US
#2·Apr 27, 2026US
(figurative) A barrier to progression that is not obvious.
Heard in the wild
“White race nation patriarchy keeping the glass ceiling intact via POTUS 47 administration serving MAGA.”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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For specific readers
Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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(East Asia, idiomatic) A social barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for women.
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The invisible rules that everyone in a group, relationship, or community follows without ever explicitly agreeing to them. Unspoken guardrails are the understood limits — don't bring up that topic, don't push that person on that thing, don't post that kind of content here. Nobody wrote them down. Nobody announced them. But break one and you'll know instantly from the reaction. They can protect group harmony or quietly enforce toxic norms, depending entirely on who set them and why.