Much of the literature today with regard to research and analysis of the barriers that women face in reaching higher positions urges looking beyond discrimination as the sole problem to be resolved. Baker (2014) conducted a literature review of such studies, and points out that women do have the skill sets and the capacity to be high performing managers and leaders, but the disparity in the numbers of women in top corporate positions has to do with a lack of ambition to rise to those positions as well as stereotyping the desires and abilities of women (Baker, 2014). Baker urges companies to find the women to promote within their companies, as the women who could be strong leaders may not be self-selecting for those roles.
Eagly and Carli (2007) argue that in fact the glass ceiling metaphor is interfering with understanding other root causes of the failure of women to rise above a certain level in their career, proposing instead that the problem is more like a labyrinth of obstacles that range from prejudice, leadership style and authenticity, and to how family responsibilities interfere with networking. Leadership equity for women in the workplace requires breaking down each of the issues by unravelling the maze of issues that create barriers (Carli & Eagly, 2007).
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Women are underrepresented in corporate leadership, and according to Cook and Glass (2016) part of the problem is the profile of the positions which women do attain at higher levels. Cook and Glass claim, after studying high achieving women and their careers, that women in leadership play roles with a higher risk profile and less authority or support to implement strategies (Cook & Glass, 2016). The result is that women in high risk leadership positions have a higher failure rate and shorter tenures (Cook & Glass, 2016).
Smith, Crittenden and Caputi (2012) sought to develop a new measure called the Career Pathways Survey (CPS) so that they could compile and compare women’s beliefs about glass ceilings. This measure uses a four factor model of attitudes towards the promotion of women and glass ceilings which evaluates positive attitudes such as resilience and resistance and negative beliefs that lead women to not even try to climb the career ladder.
Seo and Huang (2017) focus on the advantage for business and economic growth if women are included in leadership positions as it would provide for greater competition of talents and provide a greater labor pool for leadership during a time where the leadership workforce is aging. They recommend a greater attention to research regarding the barriers and delays for the advancement of women at work, and how the phenomena is related to continued social perceptions of traditional gender roles (Seo & Huang, 2017).
