Gender gap in the executive suite: CEOs and female executives report on breaking the glass ceiling

Abstract

While business organizations are struggling to hold on to their best and brightest women, the persistence of the glass ceiling makes this difficult. Dismantling the glass ceiling requires an accurate understanding of the overt and subtle barriers to advancement faced by women, and the strategies used to overcome these barriers. A large-scale, national survey of Fortune 1000 CEOs and the highest-ranking, most successful women in their companies identified key career strategies used by the women in their rise to the top, and the barriers to advancement they faced in their firms. A startling finding of the study was the disparity in the perceptions of chief executive officers and the high-ranking women in their firms. The Fortune 1000 CEOs had vastly different perceptions of the organizational and environmental barriers faced by their female employees, and in their companies' progress towards equality in the workplace.