The Glass Ceiling (Idiom)

THE GLASS CEILING (Idiom)

A "glass ceiling" is a metaphor for a form of discrimination in which a group--usually women, but also people of color--is subjected to unstated, "invisible" barriers: limitations to their advancement in a company, educational program, etc. People of East Asian descent are sometimes said to face a "bamboo ceiling."

One scholar says that a true glass ceiling must have four characteristics:

1. the limitation can not explained by other insufficiencies of the employee
2. the limitation is greater at higher levels of possible advancement 
3. the limitation applies to chances for advancement, not just actual advancements
4. the limitation increases over the course of a career

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)