For years and years the “glass ceiling” was, and still is, the most famous concept to explain why women don’t reach top management positions. The glass ceiling gives a name to the phenomenon that bosses promote men more often than women, even though those women might have even higher qualifications.
Then happened what happens to each good theory: a counter-theory was born—“the sticky floor”. This concept argues that women don’t reach top management positions because their responsibility for the family keeps them from climbing the career ladder.
Two concepts, two explanations for the injustice in the business world. The downside is that these theories harbour the danger to be taken as facts, which leads us to the illusion that we cannot influence our professional success.
Big mistake! To a certain degree, our success lies in our own hands. We just need to find a way, how to drive it. Did you ever ask yourself, why bosses prefer to promote men?
Just the fact of being of different gender cannot be the full explanation. Let’s look at some other differences between men and women at the work place:
- – Did you ever see a man in the coffee break talking with his peers about the new hairdresser downtown, the latest Gucci collection or the best spa in town? Let me guess: your answer is no. They usually talk about their latest achievements and the amazing deals that they closed, talking so loudly that the boss one floor up will hopefully hear about it.
- – Did you ever see a man volunteering for taking notes during a meeting, making copies or bringing coffee? Your answer? No. Instead they are busy to contribute with more or fewer genius ideas to the solution of the problem.
- – And now, the ultimate question: Did you ever see a man dressing sexily at work? Why the heck do women think that sexy dressing at work could do them any good?
Studies show, that women who dress sexily at work get less often promoted and earn less money than women who don’t. I mean, I don’t blame us for this mistake. We are clearly missing the right role models. Wherever we look, most women that we see, in Television or magazines, they show us one thing: How to be sexy. Nobody teaches us, how to appear competent. But knowing it now, we can work on it.
These are just some possible reasons why bosses might prefer to promote a man instead of an equally qualified woman. And the examples show that the glass ceiling is not a fact. It is just a myth and it is possible for us to break it.
Now, what about the sticky floor? Do our family plans keep us from climbing the career ladder? If so, it is our own choice. Successful women all around the world have proven that it is possible to have both – if you want it. It might include some reshaping of your original idea on how a family works. It might also include a lot of organization, flexibility and compromises. And it definitely takes still some time until career-oriented women with family will be fully accepted in our society.
So prepare for that. The best indicators for the acceptance of new society models are the ads in television. When they start to reflect new realities you can take it as a sign, that these new realities become accepted in our society. We have seen it with homosexual couples and we have seen it with fathers baking cakes with their children.
And we will see it with women in leadership positions having a family. If you want to know when our society is ready for women power, watch out for the ads reflecting it!
