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This situation is referred to as a "ceiling" as there is a limitation blocking upward advancement, and "glass" (transparent) because the limitation is not immediately apparent and is normally an unwritten and unofficial policy. The "glass ceiling" is distinguished from formal barriers to advancement, such as education or experience requirements.

The term is often credited as having been originally coined by Matthew Livesley and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24 1986 edition of the Wall Street Journal . However, the term was used prior to that; for instance, it was utilized in a March 1984 ''Adweek'' article by Gay Bryant.


VARIATIONS

  • Bamboo Ceiling - The exclusion of Asian-Americans from executive and managerial roles on the basis of subjective factors such as "lack of leadership potential" or "inferior communication ability" where the Asian-American candidate has superior objective credentials.

  • Glass elevator (or '''glass escalator''') - The rapid promotion of men over women, especially into management, in female-dominated fields such as Nursing .

  • Glass Cliff - A situation wherein someone has been promoted into a risky, difficult job where the chances of failure are higher.

  • Celluloid Ceiling , referring to the small number of women in top positions in Hollywood, as documented by Lauzen (2002) and others.



OTHER USES OF TERM

Canadian indie rock band Metric wrote a song called "Glass Ceiling" on their 2005 album Live It Out , which is a reference to this type of situation.

This "Glass Ceiling Effect" has also inspired a musical, bearing the same name. "Glass Ceiling" ( 2006 ), written by Bret VandenBos and Alex Krall, examined and parodied the idiosyncrasies of both males and females in the corporate workplace.