Women face several obstacles and barriers in order to attain high managerial positions as compared to men. They struggle to get fair representation in corporate boards and higher management levels. This is known as ‘glass ceiling’. The present study aims to explore the level of glass ceiling for women (GCW) in terms of its three major barriers, that is, personal barriers, organizational barriers and societal barriers among women managers working in the Indian service sector and identify the impact of GCW on their work engagement level as well as the moderating effect of marital status (single or married) on the relationship of GCW and work engagement. A total of 553 women managers working in the three major industries of the service sector, that is, banking, hospitality and information technology (IT), operating in the state of northern India (Punjab) were selected by using multistage sampling technique. The hypotheses were tested through one-sample t-test and moderated hierarchical regression analysis using ‘Statistical Package for Social Sciences’. It was apparent from the findings of the study that the women managers face glass ceiling in terms of organizational and societal barriers at an above-average level. The study also revealed that the organizational and societal barriers had a major impact of 39 per cent on work engagement. Additionally, marital status of the women managers acted as a moderator between the organizational and societal barriers of GCW and their work engagement level. On the basis of the results, the study provides recommendations to raze the GCW in terms of organizational barriers and societal barriers and to increase the work engagement level among the women managers.
AfzaS. R.NewazM. K. (2008). Factors determining the presence of glass ceiling and influence women career advancement in Bangladesh. BRAC University Journal, 1(1), 85–92.
2.
AmudhaR.MothaL. C. S.SelvabaskarS.AlameluR.SurulivelS. (2016). Glass ceiling and glass escalator—An ultimate gender divide in urban vicinity. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(27), 1–8.
3.
AzeezN. P. V.PriyadarshiniR. G. (2018). Glass ceiling factors affecting women career advancement in IT industry in India. OP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 390, 1–8.
4.
BabitaM.-H. (2006). Women and the glass ceiling in South African banks: An illusion or reality. Women in Management Review, 21(4), 311–326.
5.
BalasubramanianS. A.LathabhavanR. (2017). Women’s glass ceiling beliefs predict work engagement and burnout. Journal of Management Development, 36(9), 1125–1136.
6.
BanihaniM.SyedJ. (2016). A macro-national level analysis of Arab women’s work engagement. European Management Review, 14(2), 133–142.
7.
BanihaniM.LewisP.SyedJ. (2013). Is work engagement gendered?Gender in Management28(7), 400–423.
8.
BaroudiJ. J.IgbariaM. (1995). An examination of gender effects on career success of information systems employees. Journal of Management Information Systems, 11(3), 181–202.
9.
BaruchG. K.BarnettR. C. (1987). Role quality, multiple role involvement, and psychological well-being in midlife women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(3), 578–585.
10.
BhattV. A.FukeyL. N. (2014). Glass ceiling for women employees in hotel industry—A study conducted in Bangalore city. Adarsh Journal of Management Research, 7(2), 38–55.
11.
BimbaKaliyamoorthy. (2017). Barriers of glass ceiling on women employees in IT sector. Jnanavardhini—Online Multi Disciplinary Research Journal, 1(1), 58–64.
12.
BrettJ. M.StrohL. K. (1999). Women in management: How far have we come and what needs to be done as we approach 2000. Journal of Management Inquiry, 8(4), 392–398.
13.
BuddhapriyaS. (2009). Work-family challenges and their impact on career decisions: A study of Indian women professionals. Vikalpa, 34(1), 31–45.
14.
Business Standard Report. (2015). Only four percent women in senior management level in India. Retrieved from http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/only-four-percent-women-in-senior-management-level-in-india-115082000884_1.html
15.
Business Standard Report. (2018). Just around 25% of India’s workforce is female, says McKinsey Report. Retrieved from https://wap.business-standard.com/article-amp/economy-policy/just-around-25-of-india-s-workforce-is-female-says-mckinsey-report-118062000034_1.html
16.
CizelR. B.CizelB. (2014). Factors influence women teachers’ perception of glass ceiling syndrome. Mediterranean Journal of Humanities, 4(1), 63–69.
17.
CochranA.HauschildT.ElderW. B.NeumayerL. A.BraselK. J.CrandallM. L. (2013). Perceived gender-based barriers to careers in academic surgery. The American Journal of Surgery, 206(2), 263–268.
18.
DarshanR.DubeyL. K. (2014). Existence of glass ceiling in education sector and its impact on performance appraisal. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Social & Management Sciences, 2(2), 68–76.
19.
DavidsonM. J.BurkeJ. R. (2012). Women in management worldwide: Progress and prospects. Farnham: Gower Publishing.
20.
DimovskiV.SkerlavajM.ManM. M. K. (2010). Is there a glass ceiling for female managers in Singapore organizations. Management, 5(4), 307–329.
21.
EaglyA. H.CarliL. L. (2007). Through the Labyrinth: The truth about how women Become leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
22.
EdwardsJ. A.WebsterS.VanLaar D.EastonS. (2008). Psychometric analysis of the UK health and safety executive’s management standards work-related stress indicator tool. Work & Stress, 22(2), 96–107.
23.
EzzedeenS. R.RitcheyK. G. (2009). Career advancement and family balance strategies of executive women. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(6), 388–411.
24.
FiksenbaumL. M. (2014). Supportive work–family environments: Implications for work-family conflict and well-being. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(5), 653–672.
25.
FoxcroftC.RoodtG. (2005). An introduction to psychological assessment in the South African context (2nd ed.). Cape Town: Oxford University, Press Southern Africa.
26.
GaniyuR. A.OluwafemiA.AdemolaA. A.OlatunjiO. I. (2018). The glass ceiling conundrum: Illusory belief or barriers that impede women’s career advancement in the workplace. Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business, 3(1), 137–166.
27.
HairJ. F.BlackW. C.BabinB. J.AndersonR. E. (2009). Multivariate data analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
28.
Har-EvenE. (2004). Women and the glass ceiling in the American workplace: Describing the phenomenon and its internal and external causes. The Manchester Review, 11–19.
29.
HiauK. J. (2008). Glass ceiling or sticky floor: Exploring the Australian gender pay gap. The Economic Record, 82(59), 408–427.
30.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. (1997). Glass ceilings and sticky floors: Barriers to the careers of women in the Australian finance industry. ISSN-0-642-26677-8.
31.
HuntonJ.NeidermeyerP.WeirB. (1996). Hierarchical and gender differences in private accounting practice. Accounting Horizons, 10(2), 14–31.
32.
India Brand Equity Foundation. (2017). Punjab: Land of five rivers. Retrieved from, https://www.ibef.org/download/Punjab-July-20171.pdf
33.
JabbarA.ImranA. (2013). Perception of glass ceiling in the educational institution: An evidence from Pakistan. World Applied Sciences Journal, 23(5), 628–634.
34.
JacksonJ. C. (2001). Women middle managers’ perception of the glass ceiling. Women in Management Review, 16(1), 30–41.
35.
JainM.MukherjiS. (2010). The perception of glass ceiling in Indian organisations: An exploratory study. South Asian Journal of Management, 17(1), 23–42.
36.
JasielskaA. (2014). Women career success in a man work’s place: A cross national study. Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, 5(1), 23–35.
37.
JeavonsS.SevastosP. (2002). Glass ceiling effect or sticky floors? A matched cohort study of career progression. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 7(1), 245–284.
38.
JordanA. H.ZitekE. M. (2012). Marital status bias in perceptions of employees. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 34(5), 474–481.
39.
KaminskiJ. A. M.ReillyA. H. (2004). Career development of women in information technology. S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, 69(4), 20–30.
40.
KanterR.M. (1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York, NY: Basic Books.
41.
KaurN.JindalD. (2009). Female executives and the glass ceiling in service sector. PCMA Journal of Business, 1(2), 172–187.
42.
KiayeR. E.SinghA. M. (2013). The glass ceiling: A perspective of women working in Durban. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 28(1), 28–42.
43.
KimS. (2015). The effect of gender discrimination in organization. International Review of Public Administration, 20(1), 51–69.
44.
KoladeJ. O.KehindeO. (2013). Glass ceiling and women career advancement: Evidence from Nigerian construction industry. Iranian Journal of Management Studies, 6(1), 77–97.
45.
KumarS. (2016). Glass ceiling: An invisible barrier. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 2(7), 318–321.
46.
LeeY.KwonK.KimW.ChoD. (2016). Work engagement and career proposing: Research agendas through a review of literature. Human Resource Development Review, 15(1), 29–54.
47.
LentR. W.BrownS. D.HackettG. (2000). Contextual supports and barriers to career choice: a social cognitive analysis. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 47(1), 36–49.
48.
LyonetteC.CromptonR. (2008). The only way is up an examination of women’s under-achievement in the accountancy profession in the UK. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 23(7), 506–521.
49.
MaimunahI. (2003). Men and women engineers in large industrial organization: Interpretation of career progression based on subjective-career experience. Women in Management Review, 18(1/2), 60–67.
50.
MaimunahI.MarianiI. (2008). Barriers to career progression faced by women: Evidence from a Malaysian multinational oil company. Women in Management Review, 23(1), 51–66.
51.
MalhotraN.K. (2007). Marketing research: An applied orientation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
52.
MarryC.PochicS. (2017). The glass ceiling in France: Is the public sector more egalitarian than the private sector?Cadernos de Pesquisa, 47(163), 148–167.
53.
MessarraC. L. (2014). Religious diversity at work: The perceptual effects of religious discrimination on employee engagement and commitment. Contemporary Management Research, 10(1), 59–80.
54.
MohammadkhaniF.DariushG. (2016). The influence of leadership styles on the women’s glass ceiling beliefs. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 4(4), 276–282.
55.
MooneyS.RyanI. (2009). A woman’s place in hotel management: Upstairs or downstairs?Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(3), 195–210.
56.
MorganM. S. (2015). Glass ceilings and sticky floors: Drawing new ontologies (Working Paper No. 228). London, UK: London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
57.
MorrisonA. M. (1992). New solutions to the same old glass ceiling. Women in Management Review, 7(4), 15–19.
58.
MorrisonA.VonGlinow M. (1990). Women and minorities in management. American Psychologist, 45(2), 200–208.
59.
NandyS.BhaskarA.GhoshS. (2014). Corporate glass ceiling: An impact on Indian women employees. International Journal of Management and International Business Studies, 4(2), 135–140.
60.
NathD. (2000). Gently shattering the glass ceiling: Experiences of Indian women managers. Women in Management Review, 15(1), 44–55.
61.
NiluferA. P. V.PriyadarshiniR. G. (2018). Glass ceiling factors affecting women career advancement in IT industry in India. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/390/1/012021.
62.
OgeS.KarasoyA.KaraO. (2014). A research on glass ceiling syndrome career barriers of women academics. International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 8(9), 3011–3020.
63.
OrserB.RidingA.StanleyJ. (2012). Perceived career challenges and response strategies of women in the advanced technology sector. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 24(1–2), 73–93.
64.
PowellG. N.ButterfieldD. A. (2003). Gender, gender identity and aspirations to top management. Women in Management Review, 18(1/2), 88–96.
65.
RansonG.ReevesW. J. (1996). Gender, earnings, and proportions of women: Lessons from a high-tech occupation. Gender and Society, 10(2), 168–184.
66.
RasdiR. M.GaravanT. N.IsmailM. (2012). Networking and managers’ career success in the Malaysian public sector: The moderating effect of managerial level. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(2/3), 195–212.
67.
RigerS.GalliganP. (1980). Women in management: An exploration of competing paradigms. American Psychologist, 35(10), 902–910.
68.
RonaldJ. B.MustafaK.LisaF. (2010). Organisational practices supporting women’s career advancement and their satisfaction and well-being in Turkey. Women in Management Review, 21(8), 610–624.
69.
SachdevaG. (2014). Glass ceiling converted into glass transparency: A study on the factors making women executives successful in the Indian banking sector. Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research, 3(4), 46–51.
70.
SaleemS.RafiqA.YusafS. (2017). Investigating the glass ceiling phenomenon: An empirical study of glass ceiling’s effects on selection-promotion and female effectiveness. South Asian Journal of Business Studies, 6(3), 297–313.
71.
SampsonS. D.MooreL. L. (2008). Is there a glass ceiling for women in development?Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 18(3), 321–339.
72.
SaulE.UteS.SuncicaV. (2014). Do women earn less even as social entrepreneurs? (IZA Discussion Paper No. 8650, pp. 1–47). Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor.
73.
SchaufeliW. B.BakkerA. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement—A multi-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(3), 293–315.
74.
SeverH. (2016). The comparison of glass ceiling perception of employees working in public and private enterprises. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 6, 577–588.
75.
ShahtalebiS.YarmohammadianM. H. (2012). Barriers to women managers climb the peaks of success. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 3088–3092.
76.
ShakirK.SiddiquiS. J. (2014). Glass ceiling in Pakistan: A myth or reality. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(1), 47–54.
77.
SharmaS.SehrawatP. (2014). Glass ceiling for women: Does it exist in modern India. Journal of Organization & Human Behaviour, 3(2–3), 9–15.
78.
SharmaR. R.SharmaN. P. (2015). Opening the gender diversity black box: Causality of perceived gender equity and locus of control and mediation of work engagement in employee well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1–14.
79.
SharmaA.SharmaS.KaushikN. (2011). An exploratory study of glass ceiling in Indian education sector. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 1(8), 73–82.
80.
SiaS. K.SahooB. C.DuariP. (2015). Gender discrimination and work engagement: Moderating role of future time perspective. South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management, 2(1) 58–84.
81.
SinghV.TerjesenS. (2008). Female presence on corporate boards: A multi-country study of environment context. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(1), 55–63.
82.
SrinivasanV.MurtyL. S.NakraM. (2013). Career persistence of women software professionals in India. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 28(4), 210–227.
83.
SubramaniamI. D.ArumugamT.AkeelA. B. A. A. B. (2014). Demographic and family related barriers on women managers’ career development. Asian Social Science, 10(1), 86–94.
84.
SumnerM.NiedermanF. (2003). The impact of gender differences on job satisfaction, job turnover, and career experiences of information systems professionals. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 44(2), 29–39.
85.
TaiA.-J. R.SimsR. L. (2005). The perception of glass ceiling in high technology companies. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 12(1), 16–23.
86.
ThaparJ. P.SharmaS. (2017). Glass ceiling for women in Indian public sector bank: A study of government’s initiatives. International Journal of Management and Business Studies, 7(1), 27–30.
87.
The Hindu Business Line. (2014). Empowering women to leadership positions. Retrieved from, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/specials/new-manager/empowering-women-to-leadership-positions/article23028864.ece
88.
ThurasamyR.LoM.-C.AmriA. Y.NoorN. (2011). An analysis of career advancement among engineers in manufacturing organizations. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 21(2), 143–157.
89.
VanVianen A. E. M.FisherA. H. (2002). Illuminating the glass ceiling: The role of organisational culture preferences. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 75(3), 315–337.
90.
VealeC.GoldJ. (1998). Smashing into the glass ceiling for the women managers. Journal of Management Development, 17(1), 17–26.
91.
VenterJ.CoetzeeM.BassonJ. S. (2013). Psychological career resources and work engagement of early career consulting staff. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 23(3), 431–438.
92.
WesaratP.MethewJ. (2017). Theoretical framework of glass ceiling: A case of India’s women academic leaders. Paradigm, 21(1), 21–30.
93.
WrightS. L.Perrone-McGovernK. M.BooJ. N.WhiteA. V. (2014). Influential factors in academic and career self-efficacy: Attachment, supports, and career barriers. Journal of Counselling and Development, 92(1), 36–46.
94.
ZafarullahH. (2000). Through the brick wall, and the glass ceiling: Women in the civil service in Bangladesh. Gender, Work and Organization, 7(3), 197–209.
