Who coined the term 'glass ceiling'?

It was popularized in a 1986 Wall Street Journal article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt, though earlier uses appeared in HR literature in the late 1970s.

What is the difference between a glass ceiling and a glass cliff?

A glass ceiling blocks upward advancement, while a glass cliff describes the disproportionate appointment of women and minorities to leadership roles during crises, increasing their risk of failure.

How is glass ceiling progress measured internationally?

Common indicators include the share of women in national parliaments (tracked by the IPU), corporate board seats, ministerial positions, and composite indices like the WEF Global Gender Gap Report.

Glass Ceiling | Model Diplomat

The term glass ceiling was popularized by a 1986 Wall Street Journal article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt describing the invisible barriers women encountered in corporate management. It has since expanded to describe analogous barriers faced by racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ professionals, and people with disabilities in business, government, academia, and international organizations.

In the United States, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 established the bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, chaired by Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Its 1995 report, Good for Business: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital, found that 95–97% of senior managers at Fortune 1000 industrial and Fortune 500 service companies were men, and the overwhelming majority were white. The Commission identified barriers including recruitment practices, lack of mentoring, and stereotyping.

Related concepts often appear in research literature:

Glass cliff — coined by Michelle Ryan and Alexander Haslam (2005) — the tendency to appoint women and minorities to leadership roles during periods of crisis, raising failure risk.
Sticky floor — structural factors keeping women in low-wage, low-mobility positions.
Concrete ceiling — used to describe the comparatively harder barriers facing women of color.
Bamboo ceiling — coined by Jane Hyun (2005) for barriers facing Asian Americans.

In multilateral contexts, the UN has tracked gender parity in senior leadership: Secretary-General António Guterres announced in 2017 a system-wide strategy on gender parity, and parity among full-time Resident Coordinators and among senior management was reported achieved during his tenure. However, no woman has yet served as UN Secretary-General as of 2024.

For MUN delegates and IR researchers, the glass ceiling is frequently referenced in committees dealing with CSW (Commission on the Status of Women), ILO labor standards, and SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 8 (decent work). Empirical measures include the share of women in legislatures, corporate boards, and C-suite roles, tracked by the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report and the OECD.

Glass Ceiling

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