Also:
Breaking the glass ceiling,
Hit the glass ceiling,
Get through the glass ceiling
Meaning of Idiom ‘Glass Ceiling’
The glass ceiling is the invisible and undisclosed barrier that prevents women and minorities from advancing to the highest levels in companies and other organizations.
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Examples Of Use
“More women are considering starting their own business to avoid the glass ceiling.”
“Joe Biden’s running mate will be only the third woman to run for vice president but she’s the only one with a good chance of winning. Will she break the glass ceiling?”
“Kamala Harris, by becoming not only the first female vice president but the first black female vice president, has broken two glass ceilings.”
“Mary hoped to get another promotion but thought she might have already hit the glass ceiling in her office.”
Origin
The term glass ceiling has been used since the 1980s. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it was first used in Adweek in 1984:
“Women have reached a certain point – I call it the glass ceiling. They’re in the top of middle management and they’re stopping and getting stuck.”
It was also used in other works of the time, including the 1984 book “The Working Woman Report” by Gay Bryant.
Why is the ceiling a glass ceiling? This is a metaphor for the invisible nature of this barrier to advancement for women and minorities.
However, the quote from Adweek was first spoken in 1978 by Marilyn Loden, a mid-level manager at New York Telephone Company. Loden was speaking on a panel about the reasons for the lack of upward advancement for women in the workplace.
After showing up in publications like Adweek in 1984 and then Wall Street Journal in 1986, Merriam-Webster included the term in their Collegiate dictionary in 1993.
This ceiling is not obvious. It is difficult to see. Often, women or minorities do not really know it exists until they reach this limit and crash into it. It is a hidden barrier that is not spoken of explicitly but exists nonetheless, hence the allusion to glass, a transparent material.
More Idioms Starting with G
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- If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
- All Hell Breaks Loose
- Break the Fourth Wall
- Give Someone a Break
- Give Me a Break
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