The glass ceiling hypothesis - A comparative study of the United States, Sweden, and Australia

The general-care glass ceiling hypothesis states that not only is it more d ifficult for women than for men to be promoted up levels of authority hiera rchies within workplaces but also that the obstacles women face relative to men become greater as they move rtp the hierarchy. Gender-based discrimina tion in promotions is not simply present across levels of hierarchy but is more intense at higher levels. Empirically, this implies that the relative rates of women being promoted to higher levels compared to men should decli ne with the level of the hierarchy. This article explores this hypothesis w ith data from three countries: the United States, Australia, and Sweden. Th e basic conclusion is that while there is strong evidence for a general gen der gap in authority-the odds of women having authority are less than those of men-there is no evidence for systematic glass ceiling effects in the Un ited States and only weak evidence for such effects in the other two countr ies.