Glass ceiling showing cracks but will it ever be smashed?

Monster survey

Women are still hitting the glass ceiling at work, facing barriers to promotion and career development, according to a recent survey by Monster.co.uk. Despite the efforts of the last decades to redress women's role in the workplace, it seems the debate is still raging with 70% of respondents believing that the glass ceiling is still a reality.

A total of 955 workers were asked the question, Do you feel a glass ceiling still exists for women in the workplace? which revealed:
47% (448 votes) said: Yes - but there are signs of greater equality.
23% (223 votes) said: Yes - it'll never go away.
20% (186 votes) said: No - the glass ceiling is a thing of the past.
10% (98 votes) said: I don't know.

This survey reveals the opinion that although women may have expanding employment opportunities, there continues to be discrimination against women in the workplace. It is widely assumed that sexual equality in the workplace has been achieved but women continue to find themselves excluded from the top positions and top pay-brackets.

For many, it is felt that the age-old debate as to whether the glass ceiling is still an obstacle for women in the workplace is done and dusted. What our latest research reveals is that people believe sexual equality is moving in the right direction, but full equality is not yet a reality, commented Joe Slavin, managing director, Monster.co.uk. What we can deduce from these figures is that an overwhelming majority of public opinion agree that women continue to face challenges when it comes to career advancement and are often expected to go that extra mile for pay rises, promotions and positions of authority.

Monster's survey coincides with a report entitled, Time for Equality at Work released on 14th May by the International Labor Organisation (ILO). The ILO report corroborates Monster's findings with evidence that women are prevented from career advancement by the glass ceiling. Their research found that women are more likely than men to be found in lower-paid and least-secure jobs, with significant pay gaps, even if their educational level was equal to that of men. In today's unequal workplace, the ILO uncovered that women's average earnings are only 65% of men's and that across all sectors, without exception, women earn on average less than men.

In the UK, a number of high-flyers have successfully proven that women can claim some of the City's biggest jobs. Larissa Joy, 34, was named as one of Britain's most powerful women under 35 by Management Today magazine. A media and entertainment lawyer by training and former vice-chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, Joy is now chief operating officer for UK and Ireland at PR agency Weber Shandwick Worldwide. Larissa was also selected by the World Economic Forum in March this year as a Global Leader for Tomorrow. Larissa commented, The good news is that attitudes towards diversity in the workplace have improved markedly in many sectors in the last decade. However, there is still more we can do. The companies that are making the glass ceiling invisible to their employees are those who are working hard to encourage and foster diversity throughout the workforce. Those companies recognise that a healthy mix, not only of gender, but also of age, ethnicity and background, has a positive impact on a company's bottom line results and its ability to compete.

However, official government figures show that fewer than 8% of FTSE companies have female directors and only 24% of managers in the UK are women. Coupled with high profile cases of sex discrimination over bonuses and pay at large investment banks, there is sufficient evidence to suggest the majority of Britain's female executives still have a long way to go in smashing through the glass ceiling.

The results of the current Monster Meter are based on votes cast by Monster.co.uk visitors from 28th April 2003 to 12th May 2003. Only one vote per user is counted toward the final tabulation. The Monster Meter, a product of Monster, the leading global online careers site and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide Inc. (formerly TMP Worldwide Inc.), is a series of online polls that gauge users' opinions on a variety of topics relating to careers, the economy and the workplace. Anyone interested in voting in Monster's current online poll may do so by logging onto