Can Women Achieve Success in the Workplace?
Can Women Achieve Success in the Workplace?
Rabiah Reyome
University of Phoenix
In today’s society, are men and women truly viewed equal or does societal influences play an even greater role in how well a person is able to achieve success? In 2007, “women occupied 46% of the U.S. labor workforce.” (U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Earnings, 2007). Studies have shown that the number of women holding top management positions is nominal. From the United States to Japan, gender barriers have kept well qualified women from breaking through the glass-ceiling. According to CNN Money (2006), there were only 10 women running Fortune 500 companies and only 20 in the top Fortune 1000. Even with women earning higher degrees than their male counterparts, can women achieve individual success in the workplace? This question and many like it have been a source of considerable research and debate for many decades. My hope is that through this research and continued investigation, this information will lead to yielding a more progressive stance in providing tangible solutions for women to achieve individual levels of success in corporate America. The term “glass ceiling” was introduced in a 1984, Adweek article. The expression was used to describe the barriers that prevent qualified women from achieving top executive level positions. Lampe (2001), stated that “An invisible, yet quite impenetrable, barrier serves to prevent all but a few women from reaching the highest ranks of the corporate hierarchy, regardless of their achievement and merits.” This observation is believed to be based on individual bias attitudes as well as corporate cultures. Continued practice of these types of stereotypes have nothing to do with intellect and more to do with the
Rabiah Reyome
University of Phoenix
In today’s society, are men and women truly viewed equal or does societal influences play an even greater role in how well a person is able to achieve success? In 2007, “women occupied 46% of the U.S. labor workforce.” (U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Earnings, 2007). Studies have shown that the number of women holding top management positions is nominal. From the United States to Japan, gender barriers have kept well qualified women from breaking through the glass-ceiling. According to CNN Money (2006), there were only 10 women running Fortune 500 companies and only 20 in the top Fortune 1000. Even with women earning higher degrees than their male counterparts, can women achieve individual success in the workplace? This question and many like it have been a source of considerable research and debate for many decades. My hope is that through this research and continued investigation, this information will lead to yielding a more progressive stance in providing tangible solutions for women to achieve individual levels of success in corporate America. The term “glass ceiling” was introduced in a 1984, Adweek article. The expression was used to describe the barriers that prevent qualified women from achieving top executive level positions. Lampe (2001), stated that “An invisible, yet quite impenetrable, barrier serves to prevent all but a few women from reaching the highest ranks of the corporate hierarchy, regardless of their achievement and merits.” This observation is believed to be based on individual bias attitudes as well as corporate cultures. Continued practice of these types of stereotypes have nothing to do with intellect and more to do with the