The phenomenon of the glass ceiling is examined through the lenses of macro-organizational and sociological theory. Presented are several theoretical bases for viewing the glass ceiling and its perpetuation as the consequences of U.S. history, the distribution of capital among its people, the actions of the powerful that help them retain power, and the reality that the majority of the powerful in America have White maleness in common.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berscheid, E.
, & Walster, E. H. (1978). Interpersonal attraction (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
2.
Bourdieu, P.
(1985). The genesis of the concepts of "habitus" and "field" (C. Newman, Trans.). Sociocriticism, 2, 11-24.
3.
Bourdieu, P.
(1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood Press.
4.
Bourdieu, P.
(1988). Flaubert's point of view (P. P. Ferguson, Trans.). Critical Inquiry, 14, 539-562.
5.
Bourdieu, P.
(1991). The peculiar history of scientific reason. Sociological Forum, 6(1), 3-26.
6.
Bourdieu, P.
, & Wacquant, J.D.L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
Burt, R. S.
(1992). Structural holes: The social structure of competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
Catalyst
. (1998). 1998 Catalyst census of female board of directors of Fortune 500. New York: Author.
9.
Collins, S. M.
(1997). Black corporate executives: The making and breaking of a Black middle class. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
10.
Cook, K. S.
, Emerson, R. M., Gillmore, M. R., & Yamagishi, T. (1983). Power distribution in exchange networks. American Journal of Sociology, 89(2), 275-305.
11.
Cose, E.
(1993). The rage of a privileged class. New York: HarperCollins.
12.
Cox, T.
(1993). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
13.
Emerson, R.
(1962). Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review, 27(1), 31-40.
14.
Feldman, D. C.
(1976, Autumn). A practical program for employee socialization. Organizational Dynamics, 64-80.
15.
Femandez, J. P.
(1975). Black managers in White corporations. New York: John Wiley.
16.
Femandez, J. P.
(1981). Racism and sexism in corporate life: Changing values in American business. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
17.
Femandez, J. P.
, & Barr, M. (1993). The diversity advantage: How American business can out-perform Japanese and European companies in the global marketplace. New York: Lexington Books.
18.
Granovetter, M.
(1992). Problems of explanation in economic sociology. In N. Nohira & R. G. Eccles (Eds.), Networks and organizations: Structure, form, and action (pp. 25-56). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
19.
Granovetter, M. S.
(1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380.
20.
Harragan, B. H.
(1977). Games mother never taught you: Corporate gamesmanship for women. New York: Rawson Associates.
21.
Herrnstein, R. J.
, & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Free Press.
22.
Ibarra, H.
(1993). Personal networks of women and minorities in management: A conceptual framework. Academy of Management Review, 18(1), 56-87.
23.
Jones, E. E.
(1990). Interpersonal perception. New York: W. H. Freeman.
24.
Jones, E. W.
(1986). Black managers: The dream deferred. Harvard Business Review, 64, 84-93.
25.
Kanter, R. M.
(1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
26.
Kanter, R. M.
(1979). Differential access to opportunity and power. In R. Alvarez (Ed.), Discrimination in organizations (pp. 52-68). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
27.
Kondra, A. Z.
, & Hinings, C. R. (1998). Organizational diversity and change in institutional theory. Organizational Studies, 19, 743-767.
28.
Labich, K.
(1999). No more crude at Texaco. Fortune, 140(5), 205-212.
29.
LaVecchia, G.
(1998). America's changing face. Restaurant Hospitality, 82(10), 51-60.
30.
Lukes, S.
(1974). Power: A radical view. London: Macmillan. Marsden, P. V. (1988). Homogeneity in confiding relations. Social Networks, 10, 57-76.
31.
Massey, D. S.
, & Denton, N. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
32.
Meyer, J. W.
, & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 341-363.
33.
Miller, C. L.
, & Cummins, A. G. (1992). An examination of women's perspectives on power. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 415-428.
34.
Morrison, A. M.
(1992). The new leaders: Guidelines on leadership diversity in America. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
35.
Morrison, A. M.
, & Von Glinow, M. A. (1990). Women and minorities in management. American Psychologist, 45(2), 200-208.
36.
Nkomo, S. M.
(1992). The emperor has no clothes: Rewriting "/race in organizations."Academy of Management Review, 17(3), 487-513.
37.
Oakes, L. S.
, Townley, B., & Cooper, D. J. (1998). Business planning as pedagogy: Language and control in a changing institutional field. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, 257-292.
38.
Omi, M.
, & Winant, H. (1986). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
39.
Padgett, J. F.
, & Ansell, C. K. (1993). Robust action and the rise of the Medici, 1400-1434. American Journal of Sociology, 98(6), 1259-1319.
40.
Ragins, B. R.
(1995). Diversity, power, and mentorship in organizations: A cultural, structural, and behavioral perspective. In M. M. Chemers, S. Oskamp, & M. A. Costanzo (Eds.), Diversity in organizations: New perspectives for a changing workplace (pp. 91-132). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
41.
Ragins, B. R.
, & Sundstrom, E. D. (1989). Sex and power in organizations: A longitudinal perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 51-88.
42.
Reich, M.
(1981). Racial inequality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
43.
Ross, R. B.
(1994). The ladder of inference. In P. M. Senge (Ed.), The fifth discipline field book: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization (pp. 242-246). New York: Currency, Doubleday.
44.
Rowe, M. P.
(1990). Barriers to equality: The power of subtle discrimination to maintain unequal opportunity. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 3(2), 153-163.
45.
Schmidt, M.
(1997). Habitus revisited. American Behavioral Scientist, 40, 444-453.
46.
Tang, J.
, & Smith, E. (1996). Introduction. In J. Tang & E. Smith (Eds.), Women and minorities in American professions (pp. 1-18). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
47.
Thomas, D. A.
, & Ely, R. J. (1996). Making differences matter: A new paradigm for managing diversity. Harvard Business Review, 74(5), 79-90.
48.
Von Glinow, M. A.
(1988). Women in corporate America: A caste of thousands. New Management, 6(1), 36-42.
49.
Wanous, J. P.
, Poland, T. D., Premack, S. L., & Davis, K. S. (1992). The effects of met expectations on newcomer attitudes and behaviors: A review and meta analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(3), 288-297.
50.
White, H. C.
(1992). Agency as control in formal networks. In N. Nohira & R. G. Eccles (Eds.), Networks and organizations: Structure, form, and action (pp. 92-117). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
51.
Wilson, W. J.
(1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York: Vintage Books.
