Glass ceiling

One of the most significant problems in the world, that have been progressed since the beginning of the patriarchal era is an inequality between two genders. In general, glass ceiling is one of the gender inequality embranchements’ and is explained as the inability of women to achieve higher results in their career because of the superiors’ prejudice about capabilities of that gender.  

As far as I’m concerned, even though this tendency has 
more westerly interests it has a global effect as well and that is why it concerned 
even Asian part of the world. Since I am living in the nuclear family I aware about difficulties of being woman as well as man. I made some inferences about have reasons for such way of behaviour been proved. In addition, I saw many of situations where females were accepted at the lower level than males do. And in summary with this, with the knowledge of reasons and factors of this phenomenon lately, in the future, I would be able to prevent it in my working place between colleagues or employees.

The second reason that can be the leading one are my beliefs. I truly believe that all people and all nations no matter what race and gender should equally be accepted everywhere. There are some expectations from people being absolutely objectiveness to everyone because the time of patriarchism  has away back changed to equally relationships and level even in the case of a legislation. It means that people who adhere the gender inequality, especially glass ceiling are the one who locked in overpast millennium with no will of accepting another point of view. For instance, there are an enormous amount of occasions where the lead reason of lower position in the ordinary life or in the business was gender inequality. The occurrences can be completely different. Coupled with this, this project personally should help to gain more knowledge of reasons for this behavior with consecutive attempts to prevent it.

But somehow plenty of different perspectives, divisions and gender may make the person biased about the given guestion. For instance, as a female there can be some vested interests as supporting women without right considering both of the sides of this problem. But equally important this research paper would be wrote and based only supporting by the facts, proved information and statistics which would help to prevent any possible lapses.   

Therefore, I have plenty reasons to choose exactly this issue about gender inequality in order to collect more information and become more aware person in order to help society to prevent and be aware of this acute problem.

Aims of the project work

The purpose of my research project is to identify the effect and spheres of the effect providing by the glass ceiling in a modern world. This research implying an attitude of people connected to a business sphere or who have a job. Therefore in this project work the main research questions are:

• What are the benefits of breaking the glass ceiling for the bussines sphere?
• What  are the benefits of breaking the glass ceiling for females/males?
• Does this phenomenon have any costs for the country's well-being and beneficial of breaking them?

The inference of this project was about to give me more information of the glass ceiling with an increasing of my understanding in the sphere of gender inequality. Additionally, by the end of my project work I would be able not only to answer all the research questions concerning my theme, but also be able to support or contradict an opinion about this topic.     

Methods

There are several methods that were used in my project work: secondary and primary. Both of the methods were used to gather an authentic and validity qualitative and quantitative types of information. Possible lapses, errors or inaccuracy in one method was mended by another, which assumes proper research that would have practical use.

The first step of the project work was to get knowledge from secondary sources, which were presented as the printed versions of journals, magazines, movies and so on. Electronic sources were also included as an essential source to acquire knowledge about the particular subject in a wide range.

Secondary sources were used to get the needed information from the sources in order to form own point of view. Additionally, this method gives an awareness of the social perspectives about the particular subject.

As the problem of glass ceiling has a global gravity there were plenty relevant sources, especially at the Internet. To make the least amount of biases and inaccuracies, the research paper was verified by several methods one of which was the RAVEN. The RAVEN scale assessment was about to improve the credibility level as this method verifies such aspects as reputation of the source,  an ability to see, vested interests, neutrality and expert level of the sources authors. And after the meticulous checking of the sources , websites with a high level of reliability were used in the research paper. Coupled with this, domains of the websites were also checked because there are several types of domains that shouldn’t be involved in the project work. For instance, such type of websites as commercial one is excluded from my secondary research owing to the reason that such websites is customized to sell the data, counting out any scientific purposes.

The second step of the project work was about to gather information from the primary research, which is obviously important for a good base of the project work. In this research paper there are two primary research in order to get more accurate data.

First of all, I conducted survey in order to inquire the public opinion about the particular problem. Needed sample size was calculated by the Sample Size Calculator, which was equal to 385 people. The survey was conducted by the help of the Google Forms at the Internet, which was beneficial owing to the reason that it was more faster and more people could answer to the given questions. The survey included only multiple choice questions, due to the reason that most of the people, among which the survey was conducted, were adults who had a job. Consequently it was supposed that most of them wouldn’t have a needed time to answer the open-ended questions and subsequently would skip them without any answer. The first part of the survey was designed to get general information from respondents such as gender and age, while the second one was about to know the level of awareness of the given topic and their opinions about the influence of the given topic.  

In order to get more specific information from the people who are aware of this problem another primary research was held. The interview consisted of 5 open-ended questions, except the general questions about the age and gender of the interviewer. The process of the interview was face-to-face conversation, which was also recorded but with the aspect that the personality of the interviewers wouldn’t be shown. The outcomes of the interview  are presented in the part of the Appendix.

Context

Gender inequality is a significant problem with which can face each individual in our society. With the headway of evolution, when there are more needs than just family defense from the enemies or procreation, subsequently there should recover equally relationships between genders as the imperatives become coordinate. Unfortunately, it’s not as it should be. In the 
sphere of a business the phenomenon in which gender inequality comes as a basis 
and is explained as a wide gap between male and female gender is usually known as the “glass ceiling”. This fact leads to some problems such as discrimination, 
gender oppression or even unemployment, especially for females. Earlier it appeared that female gender was discriminated publicly and it was normal way of behavior for society, especially for men, to ill-treat or exalt themselves over females. In modern society many people believe that this phenomenon as gender inequality have been already left in the distant past, but nevertheless it is not yet. While in many countries in the last century women have received many rights, gender inequality remains a problem even in the most developed of them. On the planet there is no state, where women and men are in similar positions and receive the same salary. For instance, there are countries as Pakistan or Yemen who adhere different kind of politics which allows more rights for one gender compared to another (World Economic Forum, 2014). It refers not only on impossibility of the success in business’ staircase, but also on some rights as acquiring knowledge, liberty in deciding questions about marriage or even driving a car and so on.

Globally, such phenomenon as the glass ceiling causes problems to the most of the countries such as low economical growth. According to the Professor of Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management, Ilinyh (n.d.), especially for developing countries, the fact of discrimination against women is detrimental to the economy due to the underutilization of women's leadership abilities. It has an impact on to the economic losses as well as to the levels of the country development. It leads to an underestimation of the female investments in GDP , subsequently an underestimation of economic ratings.

Under these circumstances, according to the report of the World Economic Forum (2014) Kazakhstan is in the best position among the CIS countries, locating at 31st place. It made a big push throughout the one year and moved up to 18 positions owing to the increased number of the female gender in the government and by reducing the gap between the salaries’ of both genders (Sakevich, 2013)

Another sphere where this phenomenon can be an influential factor it’s the politics’ scale. In this instance, this phenomenon can be one of the causes of the impossibility in development of new and alternative management style, which can be far more efficient than the traditional one. This fact also increases the chance of corruption of public officials and criminal business in the country. Research has shown that in traditional politics’ style the rate of corruptions is higher than in the alternative one, where the number of females were higher.(Kalabihina, p. 146-147).

In case of the Kazakhstan Republic, so it actively ensues to the equality in order to achieve higher results, because the politics of the Kazakhstan’s future aims suggest it. Today, it takes the 43th place in the ranking of the country’s opposition level against the gender inequality according to the World Economic Forum. Coupled with this, Kazakhstan’s politics aimed to continue improving its well-being in this sphere and according to the Kazakhstan’s state secretary, Gulshara Abdykalikova (2015), “It is important to raise the significance of females’ role in the case of the implementation of the five institutional reforms nominated by the President of Kazakhstan in order to comprehensively modernize the country.”

As it was said before, glass ceiling is significantly effect on to many spheres of the government well-being. So, there is perspective about a future possibility, consequences to break the glass ceiling and what type of effect it would have on to both females and males.

In the case of the benefits’ to the company, so women can bring completely new ways of  solving different types of the questions, because of the different approaches and perceptions of the problems. Coupled with this, it can be said that this is definitely one of the most important kind of workers’ parametres that gives the company ability to grow (Whelan and Wood, 2012).

In occasion of  the females, according to the The University of Melbourne Business School there are plenty of benefits in breaking the phenomenon such as the glass ceiling. First of all, according to Solncev and Roshin (2006), female gender would become more independent in many ways obviously including the financial state, because there would be no more needs to ask money from the husband, father and so on.

In case of the male gender, so in Kazakhstan privately, this country strive to maintain the competition approach in its economics in order to prevent any kind of  monopoly, due to the possibility of stagnation. Subsequently, approaching the female gender at the same level as men would provide an opportunity of developing skills of the both genders, due to the reason that the raised number of competitors with the same opportunities will consequently increase the number of the attached efforts, which is the big advantage for superiors and companies.

All in all, the phenomenon of the glass ceiling is not reasonable because it has plenty of benefits for country as well as for business sphere privately.  

nternational politics is impossible to imagine without the " Iron Chancellor " Angela Merkel , the former first lady and the current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton , the eccentric prime minister of Iceland, Johanna Sigurdardottir , and Liberian President Ellen Johnson -Sirleaf , who last year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the defense human rights and merciless fight against corruption . 
 

Results (500)

The interview journal :

All the interviewers wanted to keep the anonymity, so their names and personality wouldn't be shown in the interview journal. Only the gender of the interviewers can be presented with their permission as it doesn't make a real risk to their anonymity.

"Have you ever faced with this tendency in real life?"- as my topic relates to the gender inequality it is needed to know does interviewers ever faced with this tendency.

Answers:

Female: Yes, as I work in the big company where the number of competitors is high I faced with this phenomenon many times.

Male: No, personally I didn't face with that tendency, but I heard about it from my co-operators, especially from the women in my company.

 

"Do you think this tendency has any benefits?"- as my topic and one of the research questions involve

 

 

" Do you think that an underestimation in the case of females outweigh the inequality between males?" -

 

 

1. How crucial the effect of this phenomenon?
2. On what spheres do the glass ceiling mostly effect?

Conclusion

To sum up, the project work was generally successful and the answers to all questions were found. The purpose of identifying the effect of the glass ceiling that this phenomenon has and what are the benefits of its influence in modern society is successfully achieved.

In response to each of the research questions it is evidently to make the following outcome:

• What are the benefits of breaking the glass ceiling for males/females?

The main benefit for males in breaking such phenomenon  as the glass ceiling is that with an increasing of the attached force in the job, due to the reason that there are more competitors, so they would consequently improve their skills with developing themselves. In the case of the female gender, so they would become more independent in different directions    

• What  are the benefits of breaking the glass ceiling for the business sphere?

There are plenty of advantages that would companies have with breaking the glass ceiling. First of all, it is a new approach with which the female gender accept the occurred situation. With this new approach it appears that companies become more competitive at the market, which is obviously beneficial for the business development.

• Does this phenomenon have any costs for the country's well-being and is it beneficial of breaking them?

As it was proved before, breaking this phenomenon beneficially effects on to the country’s well-being. First of all, in the politics scale the glass ceiling can lead to the impossibility of  the country’s various developing. Additionally, due to the underutilization of women's leadership abilities it contributes the low level of the economics development.

To conclude, the research paper increased my understanding of the gender inequality, especially of such phenomenon as the glass ceiling. by answering to the research questions, there is no doubt that the glass ceiling is a negative phenomenon which affects to the country’s development of politics as well as economics, declining the level of their improvements. Additionally, by taking into account the abilities of the female gender it appears that it would have a conducive effect on to the business development owing to the differ approach of the female gender.  

Evaluation (336)

Following the purpose to find the needed information two primary methods were conducted.  

The information acquired from the secondary research was helpful as the data was gathered from the printed versions of books, journals and magazines as well as from the Internet. The forceful side of this kind of research was the wide range of  suggested resources that provided the needed information. However, some offered information included difficult to distinguish biases such as the vested interests or the level of reputation of the author. Additionally, during the secondary research at the Internet some websites did not have authors of the articles or the author had the low level of neutrality and reputation which is obviously needed aspect for the validity of the website and in order to avoid any misunderstandings. In this case the way to improve this kind of research there should be an assessment of the sources verification by the scale of assessment called RAVEN. 
The primary research included survey and interview.  

The beneficial side of the conducted survey was in the number people that are answered to the questions, which means that the answers are not affected by the person’s vested interests. While the weakness of this method is that many of the respondents were not familiar with this topic as their job didn’t include the elevation in the business (e.g.individual entrepreneurs) or  they rejected to answer because for them the topic of the glass ceiling is unpleasant to talk about. In case of improving the method instructions of what is the survey about, how to answer the questions and guarantee that the survey answers are completely anonymous were included in the description of the survey.

Another method included in the research paper was the interview. The advantage of the interview was that the interview gave the answers that I did not find during the secondary research and conducting the interview, while the weakness of this method was in the hard search of the reliable people who would be able to answer the questions.

Further research (300)

During the research and work on my research paper I have learned many things not only about the glass ceiling but also about a gender inequality. Coupled with this at the moment I able not only to answer the research questions, furthermore I aware of the gender inequality and the type of the effect it has. Now it is also possible to answer of how do countries oppose this problem. But with understanding of the problem I received many corresponding further research questions:  

• Can this phenomenon be just a myth?

During the secondary research I read many of the articles and several of them were with such title, so it would crucial to know is it possible or not.

• What kind of strategies are needed to break the glass ceiling?

In order to achieve the main aim of breaking the glass ceiling the special strategies are needed. So with this awareness it would be possible to break it.  

• Is it possible to completely break the glass ceiling?

This questions is crucial for me, because the answer would give me a whole picture in understanding the level of how far the glass ceiling have been developed.   

• Whom opposition is more effective in ruining the glass ceiling?

It would be necessary to know which help, governmental or from ordinary people, would be more effective in this case, due to the reason of what direction the further research should be.

• Are there any different types of the glass ceiling?

During the primary research I knew about some other types connecting with the glass ceiling such as “sticky floor” or “glass escalator” and it may be needed to give whole presentation of the problem.

Also there were some minor questions as:

• How it is relating to the people who are unemployed?
• What type of effect it has on the unemployed people?
• What type of jobs are mostly affected by this phenomenon?

In order to increase the level of confidence in the further research I would try to mix and combine  more different types of sources in order to make my research paper more reliable. Additionally, the primary research would be slightly differ. For instance the survey would be conducted in two or more countries by the help of the Internet, while in case of the interview so there would be more interviewers.

The research has slightly changed my opinion about this problem. For instance,previously I was completely sure that this phenomenon doesn’t have any crucial influences but during the work on the research paper I understood that the level of its impact is high. I also got the awareness that the countries should oppose such fact as the glass ceiling and attempt to break as fast as it possible.This project work helped me to understand and gave plenty food for thoughts. Now, I can clearly predict and answer to the questions that I was earlier interested in.