Panes of the Glass Ceiling: The Unspoken Beliefs Behind the Law's Failure to Assist Women Achieve Professional Parity

More than fifty years of civil rights legislation and movements have not ended employment discrimination. This book reframes the discourse about the “glass ceiling” that women face with respect to workplace inequality. It explores the unspoken, societally held beliefs that underlie and engender workplace behaviour and failures of the law, policy, and human nature that contribute “panes” and (“pains”) to the “glass ceiling.” Each chapter identifies an “unspoken belief” and connects it with failures of law, policy, and human nature. It then describes the resulting harm and shows how this belief is not imagined or operating in a vacuum, but is pervasive throughout popular culture and society. By giving voice to previously unvoiced – even taboo – beliefs, we can better address and confront them and the problems they cause.