Over the past decades, women have succeeded in conquering several rather daunting barriers in the workplace. But one of the most commonly asked questions about the glass ceiling is: why does it still exist? One of the most basic answers to this question is: because we haven't seen it clearly for what it is. Describing it more accurately becomes, potentially, a very useful activity. Talking about the glass ceiling in terms of global, societal, or philosophical issues is no substitute for defining the problem in functional terms. The more we describe the glass ceiling in terms of discrimination, the clearer it will be to see how it has prevented employment to corporations.

In 1979, women earned just 62.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. In the 1970's, women finally realized money is power and no one gives up power voluntarily. Also, more college-educated women joined the workforce. In fact, between 1975 and 1991, women's enrollment in higher education increased from 45.5% to 55%. But was this enrollment sufficient to satisfy women's needs and desire to someday be head manager of a corporation? Or to finally break the "glass ceiling" that

In 1993, women were earning 77.1 cents for every dollar earned by a man. In 1994 and 1995, women's earnings as a percentage of men have declined. By 1996, women were earning only 75 cents for every dollar earned by men, and this year, the figure looks like it will slip even lower. A careful analysis indicates that women perhaps have reached a new plateau where the remaining barriers might be even more resistant to change than the hurdles that preceded them. In decades past, in many instances, women were not hired at all, and were not promoted to higher positions. Some abuses were so blatant they could hardly be brushed aside and through the intervention of the courts, many have been remedied. Women are hired today but they aren't necessarily paid as much. In fact, as women move up the corporate ladder, their relative salaries are actually driven lower. Women in executive, managerial and administrative jobs earn only 69.2 cents earned by their male counterparts, which is significantly lower than the 75cents for women generally. So there is both a wage gap and a gender gap in the upper echelons of man-agement. In fact, women may make it to upper level management but rarely to the top level, which is still an almost all male club.

There are many more intricacies involved with "glass ceiling" and sex discrimination cases than what I just finished discussing. But the main solution to this problem is to have a strategy. The strategy must be women networking together and mentoring each other. The reason for this is simple: most men will not mentor women unless they are their daughters or a friend's daughter. Women will. Any woman who is at or near the top has inevitably worked closely with male colleagues because that is who is at the top. Of course, one can learn from one's male colleagues, but that is not the same as a mentoring relationship. Although a male executive occasionally will mentor a female employee, the statistics overwhelmingly support the notion that it is largely women who are willing to enter into a safe, nurturing work relationship of showing another woman employee the ropes and how things "really work". None the less, I hope it is those same women who will take the time to mentor "blind" seeking women like myself to break through the "glass ceiling" that so many women do not manage to see. It is the older and wiser women that hold the future for new and eager women like myself.

Women will fight for everyone but themselves. Women need to learn to demand more, negotiate better and tougher and walk away when the money's not right. Men will. Women can and must. Negotiate for equal child rearing duties at home, childcare help from your company. Don't keep trying to do your job better and better. Go for the power. Get in the executive suite and then supervise someone else doing your (old) job better and better. And when you get there, remember: hire a women, giver her a chance, and pay her as you would have liked to have been paid: 100 cents on the dollar for a man doing the same work.

In July, 1990, then-Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole announced some conclusions about the glass ceiling. Her department was about to begin regular "glass ceiling reviews" as part of OFCCP's ongoing activities. What they had found was startling but clear: neither companies nor the OFCCP had ever considered that compliance applied to management. Dole's announcement generated the greatest number of telephone calls to the department in its history - that vast majority of them highly critical of her stand. Four years later

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Approximate Word count = 2408
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)