Glass Ceiling

1. Abstract

This case study deals with the issues and impacts caused by gender discrimination. Women have always been seen by men as less ambitious and weak section of the society. The rules made by men in the early times were based on gender discrimination, which still is a big issue in the world today. The case consists of the various problems and their possible solutions.

Key words: women, discrimination, glass-ceiling, workforce, environment

2. Introduction

The main character of the case is a self-motivated, highly-educated woman named Lisa Weber, who not only takes her work seriously but leaves no stone unturned. She is dedicated towards her work and possesses great knowledge in her field. She had always been a helping hand to her peers; however, they never reciprocate that support back to her.

Although, Lisa is a well deserved candidate for being a partner in the firm, she was denied for the position by her boss.

3. Background

Lisa Weber- a doctorate in Economics joins a well-regarded firm as a market analyst. In just two years, she became one of the four senior portfolio managers reporting to the senior partner. She got highest commendations from her clients. She showed outstanding performance and brought huge number of new accounts to the firm.

Most of her peers and partners visit her often (in private) to discuss her opinion on market performance and financial projections. She is pleased to help them with their queries, however perplexed when they do not mention about it in the staff meetings. The CEO of the firm also looks down upon Lisa, and is under the impression that she knows less. Her peers and partners never support her in situations like these, which make her feel disheartened. However, she never complaints or protests.

One of her peer got promoted to partner, although Lisa was a far better candidate than him. She asks her boss about the decision of not considering her, to which he reluctantly replied to be a bad idea as women do not make partners. He further added that women are most likely to make mistakes and there had never been a women partner in the 103 years of the firm.

Lisa makes numerous efforts to put her case for partnership in front of the CEO, but finally lost hope. She decides to quit the job and make her own investment firm.

4. Key Problem

The obvious reason for the discrimination with Lisa Weber is "Glass Ceiling".

The term "glass ceiling" refers to situations where the advancement of a qualified woman within the hierarchy of an organization is stopped at a lower level because of some form of discrimination. The metaphor can be simply defined as "an invisible or transparent barrier