Glass ceiling

What is the glass ceiling?

The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that stops women and other under-represented groups from reaching senior and leadership roles, even when they have the skills, experience and results to get there. It is called “glass” because it is not written into any policy: nobody sees it, but careers keep stalling at the same level.

The term became widely used in the United States in the 1980s to explain why so few women reached top management. Today the glass ceiling effect describes any unspoken limit on career progression linked to gender, ethnicity, age or background.

Glass ceiling, sticky floor and the gender pay gap

Examples of the glass ceiling at work

• Promotions decided through informal networks instead of written criteria.
• Women no longer considered for senior roles after returning from parental leave.
• Performance reviews that reward one leadership style over others.
• Leadership teams with no women even though half the workforce is female.
• Pay differences for the same role that nobody reviews.

What effect does the glass ceiling have on businesses?

• Loss of talent: people who see their careers blocked leave for employers that offer a path forward.
• Less diverse decisions: homogeneous leadership teams spot fewer risks and opportunities.
• Lower engagement: a sense of unfairness reduces employee engagement and productivity.
• Legal and reputational risk: discrimination in promotion or pay can lead to claims and damage the employer brand.

The glass ceiling and UK law

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination in recruitment, promotion, training and pay on the basis of sex and other protected characteristics, and gives men and women the right to equal pay for equal work. Employers with 250 or more employees must also publish their gender pay gap every year, including how men and women are distributed across pay quartiles, which makes a glass ceiling visible in the data.

How can HR professionals break the glass ceiling?

1. Write down promotion criteria and share them with everyone.
2. Audit pay by role and gender with a pay equity analysis.
3. Use diverse shortlists for senior roles, in hiring and internal promotion.
4. Set up mentoring and sponsorship for women with leadership potential.
5. Evaluate objectively and calibrate performance reviews across managers.
6. Measure and report progress: share of women by level, promotions and exits.

How PeopleForce helps

In HR Analytics, the gender pay gap report compares men's and women's pay by job profile and pay quartile and flags outliers worth reviewing. Perform applies the same review criteria to everyone, and Pulse anonymous surveys show whether employees see growth opportunities as fair.

FAQ

What does glass ceiling mean?

It means an unofficial barrier that keeps qualified women or minorities from rising into senior roles, even though no rule says they cannot.

What is the glass ceiling effect?

It is the pattern where representation of women or minorities drops sharply at each step up the career ladder, especially at the most senior levels.

How do you measure the glass ceiling?

Compare the share of women at each level of the organisation, promotion rates by gender and pay for the same role. A sharp drop at a particular level is a typical sign.