The Glass Ceiling
Looming on the horizon: The glass ceiling is alive and well
Looming on the horizon: The glass ceiling is alive and well
The concept of the “glass ceiling” was first recognized as an American social issue in 1986. The Wall Street Journal had published an article describing the impossible barriers that women had to confront as they tried to reach the top of the corporate ladder (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). This invisible barrier reflects inequality and discrimination of a group of individuals. In the case of the glass ceiling that discrimination is specifically targeted toward women and minorities. Since this revelation in 1986 when America took a long and hard look at the glass ceiling, people …show more content…
tend to think that the confines of the glass ceiling are being chipped away in today 's society. Though I fear that is not the case, as the glass ceiling is still ever present in the workforce, and is also giving way to a new type of discrimination which is being called the “glass cliff”. This paper explores the glass ceiling and its effect on society. More specifically, I explain the links between the glass ceiling and muted group theory, and the effects of the glass ceiling on women in today 's workforce. Then I provide a literary review of muted group theory and the applications that accompany its construct. Finally, I propose a research question pertinent to the elimination of the glass ceiling and muted groups.
Oh how it sparkles and shines
So what exactly is the glass ceiling? Studies show us that no matter how much education or experience a woman might possess, there is a high chance that she will never achieve her professional goals. “The glass ceiling contradicts the nation’s ethic of individual worth and accountability, the belief that education, training, dedication and hard work will lead to a better life,” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995, p 17). Oftentimes cultural norms suggest that women are not supposed to be in top level positions of power. The Glass Ceiling Act, under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, authorizes that the Commission must:
(1) Examine the preparedness of women and minorities to advance to management and positions in business;
(2) Examine the opportunities for women and minorities to advance to management and decision making positions in business;
(3) Conduct basic research into the practices, policies, and manner in which management and decision making positions in business are filled;
(4) Conduct comparative research of businesses and industries in which women and minorities are promoted to management and decision making positions, and business and industries in which women and minorities are not promoted to management and decision making positions;
(5) Compile a synthesis of available research on programs and practices that have successfully led to the advancement of women and minorities to management and decision making positions in business including training programs, rotational assignments, developmental programs, reward programs, employee benefit structures, and family leave policies;
(6) Examine any other issues and information relating to the advancement of women and minorities to management and decision making positions in business (Glass Ceiling Act
2001).
The resilience of the glass ceiling can be accounted for in many ways, and it may fall into different levels of the idea itself. Whether the concept is highlighted as a “semi-hard glass ceiling” (Agrawal and Knoeber 2001) or looked at as the “ultimate glass ceiling” (Arfken et al. 2004), women are given the impression that the further they climb into the higher levels of management in a corporate setting, the more likely they are to be excluded from the tight knit male society the rules supreme at the top of the ladder. At the executive level at least, one can see that the glass ceiling apparently persists. To be without a voice
Has there ever been a time in life when you have woken up and realized that you have lost your voice in the middle of the night? You might look around your room completely oblivious to the fact that thus far you cannot speak. Yet, as soon as you are presented with a situation that will require you to voice your option you realize the great disadvantage that you are now in. Often time this is the same feeling that women across the generations have been presented with, except their discrimination has been on a much larger scale. They are essentially muted in their daily lives, having no power to speak out against the travesties that might occur against them. In the U.S. women are often muted through the use of male-controlled outlets, such as the media, the political realm, and the use of women’s bodies and how they are portrayed in the media (Burnett, et al., 2009). A study conducted by Edelsky, looked at a group of men and women who were going to a PTA meeting, and asked them to review certain phrases and then give the gender of the person who would most likely to use them. These answers showed researchers that language can easily reinforce a socially dominant group. It was found that a woman who used the phrase “oh, dear” was indicating to the audience “dependence, passivity, neatness and many other facets of female stereotype” (Edelsky, 1976). So even when attempting to have a voice, women must use the male made system which is already in place; even though this reduces what they are trying to say and lessens the overall reception of the content.
What society is losing on the other side
There is another side of society, it sits silently on the outskirts of our perceived reality. It is a place where many people do not take the time to go, a place where ideas are left unwanted and ignored because of their creators. This is a place where ideas from women go to die. In a book titled “A room of one’s own”, by Virginia Woolf readers are given a look into what society might have missed out on throughout the years because of gender discrimination and the self-serving attitudes of men. In this story, speaking of women in the time of Shakespeare, Woolf states:
For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty. No girl could have walked to London and stood at a stage door and forced her way into the presence of actor-managers without doing herself a violence and suffering an anguish which may have been irrational - for chastity may be a fetish invented by certain societies for unknown reasons - but were none the less inevitable.
She shows that the idea of a woman having the same, if not better, talents of a man would have been met with ridicule and often time torture as a witch. The thought of the great losses that our world has been living with because of the muting of a certain group is disgusting. How much have we lost through the years in science, literature, mathematics, and art because men didn’t want to compete with a mere woman?
Review of Literature
The term “muted groups” is referring to any minority groups that it can be said are dominated by a group who hold power over them. Muted groups are not given the chance to contribute in the making of a culture’s language in the way that the dominant groups does. This is not to say that muted groups don’t contribute to culture, it only means that their contributions may be on the outside of the socially accepted expectations for the culture. In theory the term muted group can and does apply to any type of minority groups within a culture. For this paper however I will be examining women as a muted group, and the reason that this term can be applied to them. Women are looked at as muted group in a patriarchal society, and the society expects that women must accept the male-crafted version of the English language for their daily use. According to Kramarae (2005), when people focus on gender communication, muted group theory suggests the following:
In many situations, women are more constrained than are men in what they can say, when and with what results. Accepted language practices have been constructed primarily by men in order to express their experiences. This means that women are constrained
(muted). (p. 55). The male-domination within the English language is often categorized by Feminist theorists as patriarchal, masculist, androcentric, and sexist (Spender, 1980).
Muted group theorists believe that equality as a concept should be altered. “It is necessary that there be modifications in male language behavior as well as female” (Spender, 1980). Although there may be an agreement that a gender inequality exists, people think the best way to solve this issue it by giving women what men have. Though to solve the gender gap in this way would only result in another power transfer. We would see power shifting from males to women in a muted group, thus solving nothing as we have only created a new power paradox. If we could eliminate any dominant group there would be no reason left to struggle. “Tyranny emerges only when one sex (or group) has sole access to the legitimation of experience” (Kramarae, 1989). Ardener has argued that “under the scope of muted group theory, any conflict in language meaning was always resolved in favor of the dominant group” (Spender, 1980). The cycle of imbalance solidifies a dominant group’s position in society. Since this study seems to point to the existence of muted groups in literature, this cycle may also need to be altered in order to resolve dominant groups in society. “In the hundreds of mixed-sex conversations that I have taped there are virtually no instances in which the females- at least to begin with- do not accept the male prerogative to …show more content…
legislate on language, and thereby to control and block women’s meanings and enforce their muted nature” (Spender, 1980). Though today muted group theory is still heavily researched, it is not really considered as revolutionary as when it was revealed in the 1970s. Some scholars propose that the theory’s success has caused today’s populations to be accepting of the existence of muted groups (Kramarae, 1984). Whether this is true or not, muted group theory has heavily influenced interpersonal theory surrounding gender communication. Whether researchers study context through a biological-only approach to gender studies, or look heavily into a psychological and social approach to gender studies, muted group theory can be utilized to examine discourse in a culture. The Ardener’s concept of “muted groups” can also be employed in a variety of communication contexts. The study of this term and muted group theory may influence the direction of discourse creation in the future and possibly even the pecking order of a society.
RQ: How can the glass ceiling be broken when women are denied even the ability to collaborate on the formation of the English language? Conclusion
This paper examined the connections between the glass ceiling, muted group theory, and male dominated language. More specifically, I provided an introduction as to the importance of this analysis. I provided links between the glass ceiling and muted groups in corporate America today. After which I overviewed past scholarly research into muted group theory. Finally, I provided a research question that can be used in the future study of muted group theory. It is vital that people in America realize that the glass ceiling, and the muting of certain groups are still very alive today. People must strive to make sure that they are taking actions to help alleviate these issues from society.
References
Ardener 's "muted groups": The genesis of an idea and its praxis.
Women & Language, 28(2), 50-54.
Arfken, D.E, S.L Bellar and M.M Helms. 2004. “The Ultimate Glass Ceiling Revisited: The
Presence of Women on Corporate Boards”. Journal of Business Ethics. 50, 177-186.
Agrawal, A. and Knoeber, C. (2001). Do some outside directors play a political role?
Journal of Law and Economics. 44, 13
Ballard-Reisch, D. (2010). Muted groups in health communication policy and practice: The case of older adults in rural and frontier areas. Women & Language, 33(2), 87-93.
Burnett, A., Mattern, J. L., Herakova, L. L., Kahl, D. H., Tobola, C., & Bornsen, S. E. (2009).
Communicating/Muting date rape: A co-cultural theoretical analysis of communication factors related to rape culture on a college campus. Journal of Applied Communication
Research, 37(4), 465-485.
Edelsky C. (1976). Subjective reactions to sex-linked language. Journal of Social Psychology, 99(1):97.
Federal Glass Ceiling Commission. (1995). Good for business: Making full use of the nation’s human capital. U.S Department of Labor
Foss, S., Griffin, C. (1992) A feminist perspective on rhetorical theory: Toward a clarification of boundaries. Western Journal of Communication, 56,
330-49
Glass Ceiling Act of 1991. U.S. Code 42 § § 201 et. seq.
Griffin, E.M. (2006) A First Look at Communication Theory. (4th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Howell, J., Giuliano, T.A. (2011). The effect of expletive use and team gender perceptions of coaching effectiveness. Journal of Sport Behavior, 34, 69-79.
Kramarae, C. (2011). Muted group theory and communication: Asking dangerous
Questions. Women and Language, 28, 55-61.
Kramarae, C. (2005). Muted group theory and communication: Asking dangerous questions.
Women and Language, 28(2), 55-61.
Kramarae, C. (1989). The language of multicultural feminism. Women and Language,
12, 15.
Kramarae, C. (1981). Women as a Muted Group: Women and Men Speaking: Frameworks for Analysis. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers.
Kramarae, C., Schulz, M., O’Barr, W. (1984). Language and Power.
Beverly Hills, Ca: Sage Publications, Inc.
Litosselit, L., Sunderland, J. (2002). Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis.
Philadelphia, Pa: John Benjamin’s Publishing Company
Otnes, C., Kyungseung, K., & Young Chan, K. (1994). Yes, Virginia, there is a gender difference: Analyzing children 's requests to Santa Claus. Journal of Popular Culture,
28(1), 17-29.
Ryan, M. K., Haslam, S. A. (2005), The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women are Over-Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions. British Journal of Management, 16, 81–90.
Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D, & Hamilton, H. (2003). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing. Print.
Schwab, M. & Syme, S.L. (1997). On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health. American Journal of Public Health, 87(12), 2049-2051.
Spender, D. (1980). Man Made Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Print.
Suzuki, S. (2006). Gender-linked differences in informal argument: Analyzing arguments in an online newspaper. Women’s Studies in Communication, 29, 193.
Woolf, V. (1929). A room of one 's own. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Looming on the horizon: The glass ceiling is alive and well
The concept of the “glass ceiling” was first recognized as an American social issue in 1986. The Wall Street Journal had published an article describing the impossible barriers that women had to confront as they tried to reach the top of the corporate ladder (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). This invisible barrier reflects inequality and discrimination of a group of individuals. In the case of the glass ceiling that discrimination is specifically targeted toward women and minorities. Since this revelation in 1986 when America took a long and hard look at the glass ceiling, people …show more content…
tend to think that the confines of the glass ceiling are being chipped away in today 's society. Though I fear that is not the case, as the glass ceiling is still ever present in the workforce, and is also giving way to a new type of discrimination which is being called the “glass cliff”. This paper explores the glass ceiling and its effect on society. More specifically, I explain the links between the glass ceiling and muted group theory, and the effects of the glass ceiling on women in today 's workforce. Then I provide a literary review of muted group theory and the applications that accompany its construct. Finally, I propose a research question pertinent to the elimination of the glass ceiling and muted groups.
Oh how it sparkles and shines
So what exactly is the glass ceiling? Studies show us that no matter how much education or experience a woman might possess, there is a high chance that she will never achieve her professional goals. “The glass ceiling contradicts the nation’s ethic of individual worth and accountability, the belief that education, training, dedication and hard work will lead to a better life,” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995, p 17). Oftentimes cultural norms suggest that women are not supposed to be in top level positions of power. The Glass Ceiling Act, under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, authorizes that the Commission must:
(1) Examine the preparedness of women and minorities to advance to management and positions in business;
(2) Examine the opportunities for women and minorities to advance to management and decision making positions in business;
(3) Conduct basic research into the practices, policies, and manner in which management and decision making positions in business are filled;
(4) Conduct comparative research of businesses and industries in which women and minorities are promoted to management and decision making positions, and business and industries in which women and minorities are not promoted to management and decision making positions;
(5) Compile a synthesis of available research on programs and practices that have successfully led to the advancement of women and minorities to management and decision making positions in business including training programs, rotational assignments, developmental programs, reward programs, employee benefit structures, and family leave policies;
(6) Examine any other issues and information relating to the advancement of women and minorities to management and decision making positions in business (Glass Ceiling Act
2001).
The resilience of the glass ceiling can be accounted for in many ways, and it may fall into different levels of the idea itself. Whether the concept is highlighted as a “semi-hard glass ceiling” (Agrawal and Knoeber 2001) or looked at as the “ultimate glass ceiling” (Arfken et al. 2004), women are given the impression that the further they climb into the higher levels of management in a corporate setting, the more likely they are to be excluded from the tight knit male society the rules supreme at the top of the ladder. At the executive level at least, one can see that the glass ceiling apparently persists. To be without a voice
Has there ever been a time in life when you have woken up and realized that you have lost your voice in the middle of the night? You might look around your room completely oblivious to the fact that thus far you cannot speak. Yet, as soon as you are presented with a situation that will require you to voice your option you realize the great disadvantage that you are now in. Often time this is the same feeling that women across the generations have been presented with, except their discrimination has been on a much larger scale. They are essentially muted in their daily lives, having no power to speak out against the travesties that might occur against them. In the U.S. women are often muted through the use of male-controlled outlets, such as the media, the political realm, and the use of women’s bodies and how they are portrayed in the media (Burnett, et al., 2009). A study conducted by Edelsky, looked at a group of men and women who were going to a PTA meeting, and asked them to review certain phrases and then give the gender of the person who would most likely to use them. These answers showed researchers that language can easily reinforce a socially dominant group. It was found that a woman who used the phrase “oh, dear” was indicating to the audience “dependence, passivity, neatness and many other facets of female stereotype” (Edelsky, 1976). So even when attempting to have a voice, women must use the male made system which is already in place; even though this reduces what they are trying to say and lessens the overall reception of the content.
What society is losing on the other side
There is another side of society, it sits silently on the outskirts of our perceived reality. It is a place where many people do not take the time to go, a place where ideas are left unwanted and ignored because of their creators. This is a place where ideas from women go to die. In a book titled “A room of one’s own”, by Virginia Woolf readers are given a look into what society might have missed out on throughout the years because of gender discrimination and the self-serving attitudes of men. In this story, speaking of women in the time of Shakespeare, Woolf states:
For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty. No girl could have walked to London and stood at a stage door and forced her way into the presence of actor-managers without doing herself a violence and suffering an anguish which may have been irrational - for chastity may be a fetish invented by certain societies for unknown reasons - but were none the less inevitable.
She shows that the idea of a woman having the same, if not better, talents of a man would have been met with ridicule and often time torture as a witch. The thought of the great losses that our world has been living with because of the muting of a certain group is disgusting. How much have we lost through the years in science, literature, mathematics, and art because men didn’t want to compete with a mere woman?
Review of Literature
The term “muted groups” is referring to any minority groups that it can be said are dominated by a group who hold power over them. Muted groups are not given the chance to contribute in the making of a culture’s language in the way that the dominant groups does. This is not to say that muted groups don’t contribute to culture, it only means that their contributions may be on the outside of the socially accepted expectations for the culture. In theory the term muted group can and does apply to any type of minority groups within a culture. For this paper however I will be examining women as a muted group, and the reason that this term can be applied to them. Women are looked at as muted group in a patriarchal society, and the society expects that women must accept the male-crafted version of the English language for their daily use. According to Kramarae (2005), when people focus on gender communication, muted group theory suggests the following:
In many situations, women are more constrained than are men in what they can say, when and with what results. Accepted language practices have been constructed primarily by men in order to express their experiences. This means that women are constrained
(muted). (p. 55). The male-domination within the English language is often categorized by Feminist theorists as patriarchal, masculist, androcentric, and sexist (Spender, 1980).
Muted group theorists believe that equality as a concept should be altered. “It is necessary that there be modifications in male language behavior as well as female” (Spender, 1980). Although there may be an agreement that a gender inequality exists, people think the best way to solve this issue it by giving women what men have. Though to solve the gender gap in this way would only result in another power transfer. We would see power shifting from males to women in a muted group, thus solving nothing as we have only created a new power paradox. If we could eliminate any dominant group there would be no reason left to struggle. “Tyranny emerges only when one sex (or group) has sole access to the legitimation of experience” (Kramarae, 1989). Ardener has argued that “under the scope of muted group theory, any conflict in language meaning was always resolved in favor of the dominant group” (Spender, 1980). The cycle of imbalance solidifies a dominant group’s position in society. Since this study seems to point to the existence of muted groups in literature, this cycle may also need to be altered in order to resolve dominant groups in society. “In the hundreds of mixed-sex conversations that I have taped there are virtually no instances in which the females- at least to begin with- do not accept the male prerogative to …show more content…
legislate on language, and thereby to control and block women’s meanings and enforce their muted nature” (Spender, 1980). Though today muted group theory is still heavily researched, it is not really considered as revolutionary as when it was revealed in the 1970s. Some scholars propose that the theory’s success has caused today’s populations to be accepting of the existence of muted groups (Kramarae, 1984). Whether this is true or not, muted group theory has heavily influenced interpersonal theory surrounding gender communication. Whether researchers study context through a biological-only approach to gender studies, or look heavily into a psychological and social approach to gender studies, muted group theory can be utilized to examine discourse in a culture. The Ardener’s concept of “muted groups” can also be employed in a variety of communication contexts. The study of this term and muted group theory may influence the direction of discourse creation in the future and possibly even the pecking order of a society.
RQ: How can the glass ceiling be broken when women are denied even the ability to collaborate on the formation of the English language? Conclusion
This paper examined the connections between the glass ceiling, muted group theory, and male dominated language. More specifically, I provided an introduction as to the importance of this analysis. I provided links between the glass ceiling and muted groups in corporate America today. After which I overviewed past scholarly research into muted group theory. Finally, I provided a research question that can be used in the future study of muted group theory. It is vital that people in America realize that the glass ceiling, and the muting of certain groups are still very alive today. People must strive to make sure that they are taking actions to help alleviate these issues from society.
References
Ardener 's "muted groups": The genesis of an idea and its praxis.
Women & Language, 28(2), 50-54.
Arfken, D.E, S.L Bellar and M.M Helms. 2004. “The Ultimate Glass Ceiling Revisited: The
Presence of Women on Corporate Boards”. Journal of Business Ethics. 50, 177-186.
Agrawal, A. and Knoeber, C. (2001). Do some outside directors play a political role?
Journal of Law and Economics. 44, 13
Ballard-Reisch, D. (2010). Muted groups in health communication policy and practice: The case of older adults in rural and frontier areas. Women & Language, 33(2), 87-93.
Burnett, A., Mattern, J. L., Herakova, L. L., Kahl, D. H., Tobola, C., & Bornsen, S. E. (2009).
Communicating/Muting date rape: A co-cultural theoretical analysis of communication factors related to rape culture on a college campus. Journal of Applied Communication
Research, 37(4), 465-485.
Edelsky C. (1976). Subjective reactions to sex-linked language. Journal of Social Psychology, 99(1):97.
Federal Glass Ceiling Commission. (1995). Good for business: Making full use of the nation’s human capital. U.S Department of Labor
Foss, S., Griffin, C. (1992) A feminist perspective on rhetorical theory: Toward a clarification of boundaries. Western Journal of Communication, 56,
330-49
Glass Ceiling Act of 1991. U.S. Code 42 § § 201 et. seq.
Griffin, E.M. (2006) A First Look at Communication Theory. (4th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Howell, J., Giuliano, T.A. (2011). The effect of expletive use and team gender perceptions of coaching effectiveness. Journal of Sport Behavior, 34, 69-79.
Kramarae, C. (2011). Muted group theory and communication: Asking dangerous
Questions. Women and Language, 28, 55-61.
Kramarae, C. (2005). Muted group theory and communication: Asking dangerous questions.
Women and Language, 28(2), 55-61.
Kramarae, C. (1989). The language of multicultural feminism. Women and Language,
12, 15.
Kramarae, C. (1981). Women as a Muted Group: Women and Men Speaking: Frameworks for Analysis. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers.
Kramarae, C., Schulz, M., O’Barr, W. (1984). Language and Power.
Beverly Hills, Ca: Sage Publications, Inc.
Litosselit, L., Sunderland, J. (2002). Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis.
Philadelphia, Pa: John Benjamin’s Publishing Company
Otnes, C., Kyungseung, K., & Young Chan, K. (1994). Yes, Virginia, there is a gender difference: Analyzing children 's requests to Santa Claus. Journal of Popular Culture,
28(1), 17-29.
Ryan, M. K., Haslam, S. A. (2005), The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women are Over-Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions. British Journal of Management, 16, 81–90.
Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D, & Hamilton, H. (2003). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishing. Print.
Schwab, M. & Syme, S.L. (1997). On paradigms, community participation, and the future of public health. American Journal of Public Health, 87(12), 2049-2051.
Spender, D. (1980). Man Made Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Print.
Suzuki, S. (2006). Gender-linked differences in informal argument: Analyzing arguments in an online newspaper. Women’s Studies in Communication, 29, 193.
Woolf, V. (1929). A room of one 's own. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co.