Glass Ceiling Assignment

Assignment Due Thursday, May 31

Your Textbook describes the "Glass Ceiling" as "an invisible barrier that limits the advancement of women and minorities in some organizations."

Your assignment is to write a brief report about the "Glass Ceiling" (about two pages, typed double-spaced) based on your own research, using Internet sources, including the LIM College library on line ProQuest and Lexis-Nexis. You can put the keyword on Google to find more information. Several excellent news sources are The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week.

Discuss some of the following relevant issues:

1. What are the implications of the "Glass Ceiling" for women seeking to advance and prosper in organizations traditionally dominated by white males?

2. Discuss situations of misunderstandings and/or lack of sensitivity. Refer to any personal experiences that you may have had at work.

3. Review some of the key issues including sexual harassment, pay discrimination and possibly job discrimination by managers who feel women might not stick with a job and leave when they get pregnant.

4. Find an example of a successful career woman who has become the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company. One example is Carly Fiorina, who was the controversial CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Another interesting example is a woman from India, who became CEO of Pepsico, Inc.
Write briefly about their career, and what made them successful. Do you look at them as role models?

Note: These should be women in non-traditional careers. For many years, women have been CEO's in service industries such as advertising, public relations, media, Hollywood, non-profit organizations, health care, universities, etc.