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Have you been the victim of artificial
barriers in your employment which have prevented you from receiving
the promotions and salary to which you are entitled? Have you felt
that, as a woman, you have been allowed to advance only so far in
your company, despite your proven abilities? Have you stood by,
helplessly, and watched as male and other non-minority co-workers
have been promoted past you? If your responses to these questions
were affirmative, you are not alone.
What is a Glass Ceiling
"Glass ceiling" is a term that describes the artificial
plateau, beyond which women and other minorities are denied the
opportunity to advance to upper levels of executive management in
corporate America. It has become a routine practice to deny thousands
of qualified women the top level jobs, merited by their performance.
Department of Labor studies have found that women hold only a small
percentage of senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies.
The "glass ceiling" barriers toward women are nothing
but an insidious form of sex discrimination, in violation of law.
The purpose of this article is to raise the consciousness of both
women and corporate America to the prevalence of this practice,
and to summarize the steps that should be taken by victims of this
practice.
The Workers
Next let's suppose that this corporation has one
thousand workers who are comprised of fifty percent female, ten percent
African American, twenty percent Latino, etc. In looking at the numbers,
the corporation can claim that they don't discriminate against any
protected group. The Glass Ceiling
Now let's see where these workers are located
in the pyramid. Let's assume we draw a horizontal line in the
pyramid at the Manager's level, approximately two-thirds up the pyramid.
Above that line are the Managers and executives of the corporation.
When we look at that imaginary line, we find that 100 percent of the
people from managerial positions to chairman of the Board are white,
Angle-Saxon males. The imaginary line is the
glass ceiling, below which is found
the group of females, the African Americans, the Latinos, etc. and
above which the females, African Americans, Latinos, etc., can't rise.
That imaginary line may apply to all or any one of a protected group.
Glass Ceiling Discrimination Potential
Class Action
Glass ceiling cases are primarily proven
by statistics. If all women cannot rise above the position of supervisor,
then all women are being discriminated against in promotion and
hiring. Therefore, any glass ceiling case is a potential class action
case.
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