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INTRODUCTION
More women than ever are entering the labor force but the majority of top
management positions in almost all countries are primarily held by men. Female
authority than men. This suggests that sex differences in career patterns must be at
work to account for the huge difference in the number of men versus women in top
career success than men, there are a considerable amount of women who strive for
top management positions and are unable to attain them; there are some invisible
barrier (a glass ceiling) which prevents women from attaining top management
positions (Margaret,1998).
discrimination by sex in employment was outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
it was understood that women would not be seen in top jobs in substantial numbers
until many had achieved the necessary experience at intermediate levels. However,
the paucity of women in the highest positions decades later suggested that they faced
persisting barriers hence the perception of a "glass ceiling." Even in the absence of
women than for men at each of many levels produced a scarcity of women at and
invisible barrier continues to exist, even though there are no explicit obstacles
advertisements that specifically say “no minorities hired at this establishment”, nor
are there any formal orders that say “minorities are not qualified” (largely due to the
fact that Equal employment opportunity laws forbid this kind of discrimination, and
open admittance of it is career suicide) but they do lie beneath the surface. When a
company exercises said discrimination, they will usually attempt to use an indirect
barrier seems to exist in more of the developing countries, in whose businesses this
research revealed the existence of the glass ceiling in both the private and public
However, this glass ceiling tends to cripple working women the most. This
barrier prevents large numbers of women, ethnic minorities, and sexual minorities
from obtaining and securing the most powerful, prestigious, and highest-grossing
jobs in the workforce. This barrier makes many women feel as they are not worthy
enough to have these high-ranking positions, but also they feel as if their bosses do
not take them seriously or actually see them as potential candidates (Morrison, M,
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Types of Glass Ceiling Barriers
Lack of mentoring .Requiring long hours for advancement, sometimes called the
“hour-glass ceiling”.
enforcement and military service, some people use the term “brass
ceiling” to describe the difficulty women have when they try to rise up
revolves around the apparent difficulty for women who seek to gain a
3
that there are a decent number of partners at leading prestigious law
firms in the United States who did not attend top notch law schools.
leading law firm who did not attend a "Top 16 Law School"
• Expatriate Glass Ceiling -After breaking through the first level of the
• Glass Closet -The exclusion of openly gay men and women from
are promoted with ease they actually have to struggle not to advance
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where they currently are. This is based on traditional gender roles and
where men are less common, they receive differential treatment that
discriminated against and treated worse than women, the way women
the top of the corporate ladder. This term describes the theory that
women are not incapable of reaching the top; they just get "stuck" on
Glass Floor - Many men have college degrees and would like to advance
further in our culture, but due to a lack of opportunities and an increasingly woman-
friendly workplace, including men in positions of power who would rather hire
attractive young women and women in positions of power who would rather work
with women, remain stuck in low-pay jobs with little chance of advancement,
including blue-collar jobs that do not require higher education and "temp work,"
which requires the work hours and stress of regular office employment, but with less
This gap is the difference in both the wages and earnings between males and
females who have equivalent job titles, training experience, education, and
professions. In most circumstances, women are paid less than men when all of these
factors are comparable. A comparison frequently cited is that women make 75.3
percents on the dollar to men, (which is derived from statistics maintained by the
Males not only have superior statuses than women between jobs, but also
within the jobs themselves. Women are concentrated into the lower-ranked and
positions, they are more likely to be in personnel than in marketing professions; the
averages salaries of each are $48,048 and $56,940 per year, respectively. Another
example occurs within the medical field. Female doctors are much more likely to be
about $130,000 and $126,000 per year, respectively. However, men are more likely
This gender wage gap is present within all realms of the workforce, blue
collar, managerial, and professional occupations. Only 16% of the top executive
Additionally, the median weekly income of full-time working women is only 70.5%
of full-time working men. This statistic tends to hold true across all fields of work.
This gender imbalance in occupations occurs to some degree because women are
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more likely than men to be newcomers in many fields; therefore, they lack the
women were less likely to be promoted than males, and if they were promoted they
had stronger performance ratings than males (Lyness & Heilman ;2006) However,
performance ratings were more strongly connected to promotions for women than
men. This suggests that women had to be highly impressive to be considered eligible
for leadership roles, whereas this was not the case for men. In a number of
longitudinal studies (Cox & Harquail,1991; Corcoran, & Courant, 1993), that track
comparably qualified men and women, such as graduates of the same MBA program
or law school, it has been shown that over time there is degradation of the women's
Much of the empirical research on the male-female wage gap concludes that
the pay difference is largely attributable to the fact that women are less likely to be
found in higher paying jobs than men (Cain, 1986., Blau & Ferber, 1987). It has been
argued that there are glass ceilings within firms that prevent women from
advancement to higher job levels. Women having fewer opportunities for promotion
within the firm than men. Recent researches that look at the distribution of men and
women with regard to job levels conclude that women have to meet tougher
Another perspective on the gender wage gap (Judge & Livingston, 2008) the
relationship between gender, gender role orientation, and labor marker earnings.
Look, but focused more on the impact that the interaction between gender role
orientation (people’s beliefs about what occupations are considered suitable and
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appropriate for males and females) and gender has on earnings. The researchers
suggested that the gender wage gap cannot fully be explained through economic
factors, offering that underlying psychological components and attitudes account for
some of the difference. They found that while traditional gender roles were positively
connected to earnings, that gender significantly predicted the amount and direction of
this relationship. For instance, traditional gender role orientation was positively
related with earnings for males, providing them with strong earnings. Meanwhile,
traditional gender role orientation was slightly negatively associated with earnings
for females, providing them weaker earnings. This suggests that men who have
traditional male-female attitudes about working are rewarded in the workplace for
seeking to maintain the social order, while women were neither rewarded nor
punished. In general, the study indicated that even though gender role beliefs are
beginning to become less traditional for men and women, traditional gender role
whereby excessively long hours might emerge as part of the culture of the job but
might not actually be required for efficiency (Simpson, 1998). These can be used to
limit female access to these jobs. Furthermore covert cultural values can pervade a
particular organization, and may make women less inclined to apply for promotion.
arise because of differences in numbers and positions in the power structure. And it
arises because of social preferences for being surrounded by members of one's own
gender (Lipman & Blumen, 1976). That males in female dominated occupations
might be adversely affected has rarely been considered in the economics literature
(Riach & Rich; 2006). However the greater the sex-ratio in any group, the more
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likely is any minority newcomer to be perceived stereotypically (Booth & Leigh,
2008).
attitudes. Important differences were found, however, with women having less
authority, receiving fewer stock options, and having less international mobility than
men. Because physically and psychologically they are perceive lesser strong as
compare to men. It can also conclude that women are judged by their body image
and then task will assign to them. Women at the highest executive levels reported
more obstacles than lower level women. Because they suffer high stress level due to
One study was carried out on the Natural, Social Scientists and Engineers.
The phenomena were addressing that blacks and Asians have similar probabilities of
getting ahead or not. And minority females have same opportunities for management
The double penalty thesis underscores the additive adverse effects of being a
minority and a woman on one’s career. Minorities and women are under-represented
in well-paying professions (Kanter, 1977). And the women would be most vulnerable
when they are in small numbers. Based on her notion of tokenism, being a member
of two disadvantaged groups might have a devastating effect on the careers of black
and Asian women in science and engineering. There is ample evidence of both racial
and gender discrimination in the labor market, (Tomaskovic & Devey, 1993, Zinn &
Dill, 1994, Kulis & Miller, 1988). Minority women may have more difficulties to
form important professional ties or to find role models. Therefore, the status of black
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and Asian women would contribute to their blocked mobility in science and
engineering.
However, the existence of a glass ceiling has been identified in such diverse
(Bernstein, 1996; Hornig, 1997; & Walsh, 1995). A study by the American Bar
lawyers, bias against women remains entrenched in the legal profession and results
The media commonly depicts the ideal woman body image as supermodel
thin, and women appear to be highly aware that others judge them in terms of this
ideal image (Cogan, 1996, Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; & Stice, 1994). Being
Silberstein, & Moore, 1984). Although ideal body sizes and anti-fat attitudes vary
among different cultures and ethnic groups (Cogan, 1996; Crandall, &
experience widespread social rejection and are the targets of prejudice (Crandall,
preoccupation with one’s body image has increased dramatically through the last few
decades in work setting (Jackson, 2004). In turn, body image research has
specifically examined both the positive and negative effects that body image can
have on women. Although there have been significant advances in our understanding
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of body image and its effect on women, many paths remain unexplored. For
example, how is our day-to-day life, including our choice of a career, affected by our
body image? Exploring these questions is vitally important. As more women enter
into the workforce and in business settings with increasing career opportunities,
examining the role that body image plays in this area may provide some insight into
United States government statistics have shown that although women and
minorities have made impressive gains in employment during 1980s, they continue
senior management and executive positions. This trend has also been observed in the
Information Systems (IS) field (Wilson, 1990). It has been reported that women and
blacks encounter a glass ceiling that prevents them from reaching the top levels of
The causes of the glass ceiling are varied. One suggestion is that the glass
ceiling is self-imposed by some women. For example, women may choose to work
fewer hours due to some reasons (i. e., age, education, socio-economic status and
marital status) because they want to spend time with their families. Women also
measure their success in the workplace differently than men. Men tend to measure
success by high salaries and important job titles and promotions and with boss
And Women are more likely to choose jobs based on factors other than pay,
for instance, health care and scheduling that can be managed with the duties of
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primary care of children for which women are still overwhelmingly responsible, and
thus they may be less likely to take jobs that require travel or relocation or jobs that
are hazardous. On average, women take more time off and work fewer hours, often
due to the unequal distribution of childcare labor, domestic labor, medical needs
specific to women, and other family issues that tend to fall to a woman's
responsibility per the gender roles assigned by society. The ending result of women’s
extensive obligation to attend to responsibilities of the home and children is that their
they proceed throughout their life course. The earnings gap tends to widen
considerably when men and women are in their early to mid-thirties, the gap reaches
the widest point when men and women are in their fifties"(Davidson, J, Marilyn &
Although there is a glass ceiling, many women recently have surpassed that
hurdle. When at the top management, many women feel like outsiders. Most of the
time they are the only female at that level and are surrounded by males. Many
women have faced sexual harassment, wage inequality, blocked movement and
gender stereotyped roles. Women are said to have different styles of leadership and
management once they break the barrier. They are generalized to be more nurturing
and caring in nature than men. Men are stereotypically, more “tough” and shrewd in
the home, taking care of children, and keeping house. The stereotype of maternal
leadership stems from that. Some men in senior management that do not want to see
women climb the corporate ladder believe that they do not have the qualities to lead a
company. Many believe that making assumptions about the way women act in a
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leadership position perpetuates the stereotypes that cause the glass ceiling. There are
many reasons why women have been able to break the barrier. Some believe that
having women on an executive board is a positive thing .Women make 60% of all
purchases in the United States, it is common sense to want their opinion. The more
women that are accepted into management positions, the more will get promoted to
senior management and serve as role models for the younger .Younger men have also
changing with the younger generation. But with this the concept of beauty is
increasing day by day. There are many companies which preferred beautiful and
nursing, also, face a glass ceiling. Many, also, believe that these men are actually
treated worse than women are currently in male-dominated professions, but like
women were in those professions decades ago because open and obvious
Body Image
Research on body image has expanded in many areas, from redefining the
early over simplified ideas of body image, to incorporating additional factors that
help us to better understand body image. Early definitions of body image were very
basic and one dimensional, implying that body image was simply the picture that we
form of our body in our mind (Cash & Pruzinsky, 2004). This definition limited the
scope of research. However, current body image researchers now increasingly agree
that body image is a much more multi-dimensional concept For example, Cusack
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(2000) defined body image as a multidimensional self attitude toward one’s body,
well as the increase in the number of body image disturbances reported among
females, research on gender and body image has become extremely important (Cash,
This perception may or may not correlate with objective reality. Each person holds
an image of perfect person in mind and evaluates his or her appearance against this
ideal.
represents how individuals’ think feel, and behave with regard to their own physical
image. The first body image evaluates thoughts and beliefs about their physical
perform to manage or enhance the way they look (Cash & Szymanski, 1995).
individual’s perception and feeling about his/her body and physical appearance
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It has been noticed that a person who is pleased with his/her appearance and
body shape he or she will evaluate his /her body image positively while on the other
hand a person who is dissatisfied with his or her body or appearance hold negative
body image. Negative body image can involve a distorted perception of size or
shape, as well as more global feelings of shame, awkwardness, and anxiety about the
body. People with negative body image tend to feel that their size or shape is a sign
indicator of worth. Poor body image has been linked to diminished mental
poor body image effects in job selection, promotions, because women are some time
selected on the bases of their body image, or attraction. If they are more attractive
then they will get high chances of job, promotions and opportunities as compared to
those women who are less attractive or who are having over weight preoccupation,
deny its importance and its link to well being. Some Research results and data
indicate that body image dissatisfaction, often called body image disturbance, which
has become more prevalent since the 1980s and has been associated with incidences
of depression (Denniston, Roth, & Gilroy, 1992), heightened anxiety, and lowered
development of maladaptive eating behaviors and dieting (Cooley & Toray, 2001).
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Female have been found to experience dissatisfaction with physical
appearance at much higher rate than male (Striegel & Morre & Franko, 2002). It
appears that body image dissatisfaction is more closely linked to appear related than
physical reality. People with dysfunctional beliefs and cognition about physical
appearance regardless of their body mass are at high risk of developing body image
disturbances (Butter & Cash, 1987). and these disturbances lead them discrimination
because if one’s physically dissatisfied he/she will be less socially accepted that is
main reason that less attractive female face biasness in hiring and promotions.
Many women desire to be thin and feel more dissatisfied with their bodies
than do men and this is the main reason of facing biasness in work setting. (Turner,
1997; Altabe & Thompson, 1993; Brenner & Cunningham, 1992; Davis & Cowes,
1991.
Apprehension over weight and appearance related issues often surfaces early
and disordered eating patterns have been found to be an especially prevalent issue in
adolescent females. (Schwitzer, Bergholz, Dore & Salimi, 1998; Stice & Whitenton,
2002). Body image becomes a major issue as females go through puberty; girls in
mid adolescence frequently report being dissatisfied with weight, fearing further
weight gain, and being preoccupied with weight loss (Striegel, 2002). Frost and
Mckelive (2004) found that female students of all ages had low self esteem relating
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to body image in comparison to their class-mates found that over 40% of 14-year-
olds reported wanting to lose weight. In addition, studies have also found that most
girls who express a desire to be thinner are within the normal weight range for
females of their age (Striege-Moore & Franko, 2002). And these problems reduce
their chances in the selection of practical life. (E.g. job, promotion and
opportunities).
In recent years, women's body sizes have grown larger (Spitzer, Henderson,
& Zivian, 1999), while societal standards of body shape have become much thinner.
This Discrepancy has made it increasingly difficult for most women to achieve the
dangerous. Because today those women get more acceptances who are physically
beautiful and their beauty is their reason of selection for any post and for any job. At
other hand some women face discrimination because they perceive less beautiful.
And on some places low level jobs are associated with less attractive employees.
The basis of self-apperception (Sands & Wardle, 2003) is that women use to
construct their perceptions about their own physical appearance. And they prestige
the socially represented ideal body, the objective body, and the internalized ideal
the socially represented ideal body. And most important these socially represent able
women get more chances of jobs. And the do not face tough criteria of promotion
and selection as well. This reference point comes from what an individual believes is
their body. A person's satisfaction and dissatisfaction with aspects of their physical
17
appearance are some time criteria of their selection and promotion which are
opinion about their physical behavior. The internalized ideal body involves the level
at which an individual prestige the ideal image and aspires to achieve it. Some
women can be exposed to images of thin women and not internalize such standards
of appearance because they know that this image can give more benefits in
socially represented ideal, which makes them particularly vulnerable to the powerful
effects of the media (Sands & Wardle, 2003). In this case they get positive self
evaluation which gives them more opportunities in work setting and in jobs.
ideal body and their objective body, a person's confidence in and satisfaction with
their appearance is often negatively affected (Sands & Wardle, 2003). And it will
increase the gap between what a person feels their physical appearance is, and what it
should be. Researchers have found that women who have an internalized ideal body
that closely resembles the socially represented ideal body are at a particularly high
risk to develop body image disturbance and disordered eating patterns and on other
2003).
behavior that focuses on how cultural values influence individual values and
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that cultural values are important in understanding how individuals are perceived by
others and how they perceive themselves. For example, if the cultural, values
and others. If the culture admonishes against the importance of attractiveness, as the
above cultural maxims suggest, then individuals will likewise consider it unimportant
image.
and behavior toward others, which in turn influence the behavior of others, which in
turn influences the self- perceptions of others. This sequence of events, from the
interpersonal expectancy effects “for example, if the perceivers believes that the
target(of perception) is lazy, then this expectations may lead to assigning fewer tasks
to the target. The target, whose behavior has been constrained by the perceiver’s
expectations (i.e., the target is now performing fewer tasks), may, in time, internalize
a self-view as “lazy”. Thus the perceiver expectations become the target’s self-
perceptions. This outcome, from the target’s perspective, is commonly known as “the
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looking-glass self”, which refers to those aspects of the self-concept that are
who is not (i. e., beauty is not the idiosyncratic eye of the beholder) but
among cultures.
3. People behave differently toward attractive and unattractive others (i. e., an
expectancy-behavior link).
institutions (e.g., mass media, diet and beauty industries) communicate the value of
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some faces or body characteristics are considered attractive ad others are not. Even
use to make sense of their social world-this is , to understand and predicts the
consist of personal attributes ( e.g., personality traits) and inferential relations that
specify the degree to which attributes are related. For example, the attribute
number and the nature of which depend on the culture. Cultural information is
transmitted through direct observations of attractiveness ( e.g., via the media) ,. The
theory does not address why different cultures associate different attributes with
attractiveness.
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spread of relevance”), with or without prior association between these characteristics
and performance ( i. e., “ the burden of proof “ assumption) , and with or without
conscious awareness.
performance expectancies “without limit” – that is, without regard to the actual
generalization theory predicts that people hold more positive expectations for
attractive than unattractive others. All three theories predict that people behave more
favorably toward attractive than unattractive others, and that more favorable
The process of forming impressions of others is not only used for others, but
we also pay a lot of heed to how and what kind of an impression we would generate
on others. It must be an experience for every one of how they sometimes, quietly
ponder of what imprint they would and are leaving on people. With the passage of
time, as we mature, we spend a lot of effort and energy to sound good, look good,
behave well and be good. This implies to the notion that we generally want to
generate a good and positive impression on others, especially if the meeting is for the
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first time.
everyone wants to make a good first impression. First impression is the last
impression. Almost all of us have been hearing this phrase since times unknown. It is
usually believed that first impression is everlasting. Research tells us that this is true
to some extent. When we receive some information that goes against our initially
and reason it away (Corsini, 1999; Murphy, Hofacker, & Mizerski, 2006).
When we are forming impression of others, there are a lot of factors that are
playing their part in this process. These include many factors on part of the one being
perceived i.e., the target or stimulus and the one who is categorizing the information
into impression i.e., the self. Many characters are considered important during
impression formation, most of which are thought to be coming from the target. These
may include the style of speaking, language accents, dressing up, the content of
speech, tone and loudness of voice, body language, eye contact, physical
attractiveness, ethnic background etc. the list may go on and on and the factors may
have a differential values for different people and each one of us may place a high or
low premium on any of these or many others factors accordingly. And when one
person is judge he/she will be judge by all of above areas. Especially women get
Much research has been done to study the impacts of many such and others
related factors on impression formation. Research has shown that a very important
factor that plays a vital role in affecting our impression formation is the physical
23
elicit more favorable impressions than people low in physical attractiveness ( e.g.
Berschied & Walster, 1972; Hatfield & Sprecher; Patzer; Sorell & Nowack, as citied
in Miyake & Zuckerman, 1993).Especially in hiring when one beautiful face passes
suddenly interviewer make schema that he/she will be intelligent and must be
selected.
every aspect of interpersonal relationships, despites the common use of phrases that
beauty is only skin deep and that one should not judge the book by its cover (Singh,
2006). We know how much valued a ‘pretty’ face is. Physically attractive women are
admired more, paid a lot of money to be models, glamorized as movie actresses, and
blamed enough for being greatly responsible for widespread body dissatisfaction and
According to Dudhat and Denning (2003) many studies have supported the
idea that physical attractiveness of an individual influences the inferences other make
about them. The tendency reveals itself frequently, whether in jury judgments or in
website viewwzone.com (as cited in Dudhat & Denning, 2003) revealed that
attractive people are 2 to 5 times more likely to get hired, earn about 12 to 16 percent
more, and are 2 to 7 times more likely to date and make friends. Another online
survey on viewzone.com showed that attractive people are also more likely to attain
an elected office. A famous TV show ‘Dateline NBC’ has reported (as cited in
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Dudhat & Denning, 2003), that people show a preferences for pretty people when
seeking medical attention, change for the bus or even simple directions.
According to Duhdat and Denning (2003), within the context of the world of
work, physical attractiveness has been shown to have an influence over who gets
conducted a study in 2003 to examine this trend in two very different cultures,
namely the US and the India. The results of the data showed that Indian students
were more likely to have physical attractiveness stereotypes when making decisions
on what salary to offer the applicant, none the less, it did not affect ratings of
Although the bias toward hiring attractive people is persistent, there are
many reasons to resist the impulse. Many steps are taken in the West to curb this
issue, because there is always a risk that a very qualified person who is rejected
could file a grievance against the company. To put a control on this measure, many
community posing as job candidates. These testers present similar resumes yet are
very different in physical appearance. They are on the guard against the beauty bias
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So many factors have been explored to explain the prevalence of body image
dissatisfaction among women. These include the socio-cultural standard for thinness,
the discrepancy between one's real and ideal body, and appearance-related teasing
for women, a standard that is portrayed as not only desirable but attainable by all
women. Historically, women have attempted to modify their bodies to fit the
(Ehrenreich & English, 1978; Mazur, 1986). And this practice is still in use in spite
of the fact that for the past 20 to 30 years the prevailing role model for women has
been getting thinner (Silverstein, Peterson, & Perdue, 1986; Wiseman, Gray,
Walster, 1972) operates strongly for women, and not surprisingly, because beauty is
a thing which is more acceptable in organization setting. And some time body image
compare their own appearance with an ideal, either in the form of one's own ideal or
an ideal other. Greater discrepancy between the real and ideal leads to body image
discontent. (Cash & Szymanski, 1995). And some time whose women who are more
attractive they become a reason or barrier for those women who are less attractive.
26
That is why women desire to be thinner and attractive (Grilo, Wilfley, Brownell, &
Rodin, 1994).
It has been observed that for women, being beautiful is important for social
success. This may be especially true working women where people are rapidly
assessed for physical attractiveness (Phipher, 1994). Although the idealized standard
for feminine beauty demands that women be thin (Cash & Grenn, 1986 & Garner,
Garfinkle, Schwartz, & Thompson, 1980), men typically have been exempt from this
standard (Adame & Frank, 1990). However, cultural pressure for men to conform a
thin and a muscular ideal has intensified since the 1970s (Lien, Pope, & Gray, 2001),
and men are increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies (Cash, Winstead, &
Janda, 1986) and want to lose weight or increase muscle tone (Mcabe &
Ricciardelli, 2004).This represents that some time culture demands lead the
individual to follow some prestigious rules in the society .And not only women but
men also conscious about their body image due to rejection fear.
Historically there have been sex differences in body image. In two large
national surveys, women have reported greater body dissatisfaction than have men
(Cash & Henry, 1997; Garner, 1997). Across all ages, women have reported being
more concerned with body weight and appearance (Pliner, Chaiken, & Flett, 1990).
Moreover women report experiencing more negative feelings when they are attentive
to their bodies than do men (Franzoi, Kessenich, & Sugrue, 1989), they have a
greater discrepancy between their ideal and actual body figures (Fallon &
Rozin, 1985), and they tend to perceive themselves as large as or as heavier than they
actually are (Cash & Grenn,1986). And sometime their own positive body image
27
evaluation gives them chances to get high salaries, high prestige and high authority.
Adame and Frank (1990) found that among normal weight women (women who are
overweight. And this was the main reason of their rejection in social setting. In
contrast men, men regardless of their actual weight, usually report more positive
body image than do women (Demarest & Langer, 1996). Women tend to feel over
weight much more than men (Tiggemann, 1992), and men appear to be less obsessed
with weight and becoming fat; therefore, pathogenic values related to eating and
Frost and Mckelive (2004) found that female students of all ages had low self
esteem relating to body image in comparison to their class-mates. They do also found
that female students on average desired to lose weight and they tend to have more
concerns regarding being over-weight than male. Because they know their
One of the most important factors related to body image is Obesity which can
sometimes argued that the life dissatisfaction, socially abilities, and body image
distress produced by obesity are beneficial in that they motivate people to lose
weight. It is more likely that these form barriers to emotion regulation that, for both
biological and psychological reasons, lead to increased eating. It is also possible that
depression, form one link between obesity and chronic disease. And the most
important society relates stereotypes with obese individual. That is why women feel
28
threat from obesity, because later on obesity will make hurdle in their work
overweight are relentless. This reflects a strong anti-fat bias that is evident in the
media, institutions such as schools and business, and everyday discourse. This bias
results in stigma and discrimination (Puhl & Brownell, 2001). As one example, an
shows that the overweight characters are more often the object of jokes, less likely to
eating out of control (Greenberg, Eastin, Hofshire, Lachlan, & Brownell, 2003).
search for the cause of the stigma. If the stigmatized trait is thought to be under
justified. In the case of obesity, individuals have a highly stigmatized condition and
are thought to be responsible for it. Personality explanations then arise; obese people
are thought to be weak willed, lazy, sloppy, incompetent, emotionally unstable, and
even defective as people. That is why they face many serious issues on work setting.
For example higher authority does not give them high demanding task, supervisor
avoids giving them extra work or decisions. At the end hand they receive fewer
opportunities for promotion or get higher grades in their jobs because of their less
mobility.
29
The Body Image States Scale (BISS; Cash, 2002) was constructed to assess
the momentary evaluative and affective aspects of body image. The six-item BISS
attractiveness; (5) feelings about one’s looks compared to how one usually feels;
(6) appearance evaluation compared to how the average person looks. The initial
validation study on the BISS showed that individuals with greater trait body image
appearance investment also had less favorable body image states. Across contexts,
Appearance-RS are associated with excessive and disruptive body image concerns.
In particular, research has shown that American college students with relatively high
versus low Appearance-RS are more likely to negatively interpret and avoid social
situations that highlight their physical appearance (Park, 2007; Park & Pinkus, 2009).
More specifically, it has been shown that women have inaccurate perceptions
of what men find attractive in women. Specifically, women believe that men find
very thin women attractive, but men report finding less thin women most attractive
30
..
fence in women’ selection for and promotion to high ranks. Pakistan is a male
dominating society where women suffer many from of discrimination at mass level.
Irrespective of the current changes in the corporate sector due to the establishment of
high-ranked jobs. In this regard, the present study is a fact findings effort which aims
to discover the relation between body image and glass ceiling effects in the
restively a new phenomenon and there is not much work done in Pakistan on these
phenomena. So this study basically is directed to explore the orientation how body
towards females for employment and then for their higher posts. The basic
motivation behind this study is to explore underline and hidden phenomena that how
female employees working in different organizations perceived their body image and
how they relate to glass ceiling effect. And also to explore that women who are not
confident just because of their body image will be a direct victim of glass ceiling
31
structure, and nature of the job and gender of supervisor) on the most important
factors is body image. This study aims to explore that body image and glass ceiling
effect, and present study cover that how the body image of female employees is
affected by the organizational factor (i. e., organizational type, management level,
It has been observed that beauty values a lot in today’s world, globalization
decreased the distances and media merged the different cultures together. Beauty and
beauty standers made people more conscious about the appearance and towards their
of the beauty valued in the society. This may be especially true on organizational
selection criteria where women are rapidly assessed for physical attractiveness while
While in our country there is less focus on the body image issues may due the
reason that in collectivistic cultures people are assumed to have traits those culture
value, such as loyalty and integrity. However as with the growing trends in business
world, there are so many multinational organizations which have good establishment
in our country. And making good use of their resources. But they are also using
women in their organizations as a progressing tool. And they offer women mostly
job of secretary, receptionist, etc. Although foreign companies have shown large
investment in corporate sector but they also follow stereotypical behavior of our
society. And they also showed biased attitude towards women progress.
There are 48 banks in Pakistan which are working. But there is only one CEO
of First Women Bank is female (State Bank of Pakistan, 2010). This is a clear cut
example of our prejudice society. Here some personal factors also hit on the way of
32
women’s progress. Attractions, thin or slim physical posture of the female and the
body image also considered valuable and the women who positively met these
attribution criteria they gain much chances of progress but the women who are less
attractive and whose body image is not satisfactory they will face biased attitude of
society.
33
Chapter-II
METHOD
Objective
1. To examine the role of body image in the prediction of glass ceiling effect in
organizations.
glass-ceiling effect.
type, management level, organizational structure, and nature of the job and gender of
4. To examine the role of various demographic variables (i. e., age, education,
socio-economic status and marital status) in body image among female employees.
Hypotheses
34
1. Glass ceiling will negatively predict Appearance evaluation, appearance
MBSRQ-AS
body areas satisfaction scale, over weight preoccupation, and self-classified weight.
sub-scales appearance evaluation and body areas satisfaction scale, the score below
50th percentile indicate negative body image. The score above 50th percentile
below 50th percentile indicate positive body image. The score above 50th percentile
indicated negative body image. The score corresponding to 50th percentile was taken
as a cut-off score.
Glass Ceiling
two subscales including: (1) Gender Stereotype, (2) Gender Discrimination. High
35
scores on the scale represent high glass ceiling effect and low scores on the scale
Instruments
of the body image construct. The scale consists of 34 statements, which are sub-
divided in 5 sub-scales. The scales yields separate scores on the 5 sub-scales .it
pertaining to body image: Appearance evaluation (3, 5, 9, 12, 15, 18, 19),
Appearance Orientation (1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21) Body area
satisfaction scale (26, 31, 33, 34), over weight preoccupation (4,8,22,23), Self
classified weight(24,25)
The MBSRQ-AS is a 5-point Likert type scale. From item 1-22, statements
definitely agree’’. For item 23, the statement is scored on rating from ‘‘never’ to
‘‘very often’’. From item 24 to 25, statements are scored on rating scale ranging
statements are scored on rating scale ranging from “very dissatisfied” to “very
satisfied”.
It consists of 28 positive and 6 negative items. The scoring is reversed for the
36
physical attractiveness and satisfaction with one’s look. Where as a low scores
they look, and engage in widespread grooming behavior. Low scorers are apathetic
about their appearance; their look is not particularly important and they do not spend
their appearance. Low scorers are unhappy with the size or appearance of several
areas of their body. High score on Overweight preoccupation scale reflect high fat
anxiety, weight vigilance, dieting and eating restrains. High scorers on Self-classified
Glass Ceiling
The present study will measure Glass Ceiling, in terms of the scores of
consists of factorially derived two subscales including: (1) Gender Stereotype, (2)
five point Likert scale. The possible scores range of Glass Ceiling Scale is 30 to 150,
Gender Stereotype
bases of gender and are based upon the biased attitude towards women employees
and their potentials, hindering their upward mobility in the organization. Glass
Ceiling can create positive or negative identification of social groups” (Betz, 1993).
In the present study GC will be measured with the help of Gender Stereotype
37
subscale of Glass Ceiling. There are 22 items in this dimension. Scores range of this
sub scale is 22 to 110 with 61 as a cut off scores of GC subscale. High scores on GC
will show high sensitivity towards Gender Stereotype in Glass Ceiling and vise
verse.
Gender Discrimination
impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and freedoms in all
spheres of society under equal terms. Gender discrimination persists, and includes
not hiring women who are qualified for a position, pushing female workers along
different career paths than male workers, using different pay scales for men and
women, and advancing men and women on different rates (Reskin & Padavic, 1994).
There are 8 items in this dimension which are clustered in the final Glass Ceiling
Scale as items no: 6, 12, 13, 19, 31, 33, 35, and 40. Scores range of this subscale is 8
Sample
Sample of the present study will be consisted of 200 women (100 from media
and cellular companies where women’s attractiveness and physical appearance are
considered key determinant factors for selection and promotions of women and 100
women employees from public sector organizations including teaching and ministries
will be 14 years or above. Other demographics will include socio economic status of
38
Procedure
Questionnaire Appearance Scale for Glass Ceiling Effect were distributed among
them. Before handling over the booklets, the female employees were briefed
regarding the nature and objectives of the study and the confidentiality of their
responses were ensured. The respondents were asked to go through the booklet and
fill in the scales according to the instructions written at the top of each scale. While
receiving the filled in booklets, it was ensured that all the items were responded in an
appropriate way. The respondents for apprized for their cooperation and support in
the study.
39
Appendix -A
This study is purely for research purpose and all the given information will be
kept confidential.
40
Read the following statements carefully and check the option that is more
appropriate according to your opinion.
Here is one example if you strongly disagree with the statement, put click on 1.
It’s not the responsibility of men to do the office job.
Sr. #. Statements SD D N A SA
1. Women with equivalent education are given
more job opportunities as compared to men.
2. Men are not dominant in top management
positions as compared to women.
3. Women with equivalent education are given
more salary as compared to men.
4. Most of the organizations prefer hiring those
women employees who have lesser family
responsibilities (e. g., child rearing).
5. Women employees receive more benefits in
their jobs compared to men employee.
6. Many women employee are stuck in low-
management jobs with little or no opportunity
for career advancement.
7. Many women employees are not promoted due
to gender bias.
8. Within an organization, women with equivalent
experience are given more chances of promotion
as compared to men.
9. It is very easier for women to reach the top
management in the organization as compared to
men.
10. Women are more committed to their career as
compared to men.
Sr.#. Statements SD D N A SA
11. Women with equivalent education are given
more chances of promotion as compared to men
12. Women employees give priority to their
41
household and family responsibilities compared
to men.
13. Most of the women employees do not need jobs
for economic reasons.
14. Most of the women are hired just to fulfill the
quota of the organization.
15. Compared to men, women employees have more
training opportunities within an organization.
16. Work and family conflict is easier to manage for
women employees compared to the men
employees.
17. Most of the women do not acquire top
management position due to the require job
skills and knowledge.
18. More women are promoted in high position in
public sector than private sector.
19. Generally women receive lesser salary packages
compared to the men for doing comparable
work.
20. Women are not suitable for technical
professions.
21. Women get easily in private sector as compared
to public sector.
22. Gender discrimination prevents women in their
career advancement.
23. Men employees generally receive lesser training
opportunities leading to their job enlargement.
24. High achieving men in an organization have
lesser family responsibilities barriers I their job.
42
Sr.#. Statements SD D N A SA
25. Women should be permitted to work in flexible
job locations (e.g., home office).
26. Women acquire more prestigious jobs than the
men.
27. Most of the women are promoted only to fulfill
the policies of an organization.
28. In work setting, women appear more motivated
than men.
29. Women with equivalent experience in an
organization are given more pay compared to
men.
30. Job promotions are more for women employees
compared to men employees.
43
Appendix -B
THE MBSRQ-AS
The following pages contain a series of statements about how people might
think, feel, or behave about their body image. You are asked to indicate the extent to
which each statement pertains to you personally.
EXAMPLE:
---------------- I am usually in a good mood.
In the blank space, enter an if you definitely disagree with the statement:
Enter a 2 if you mostly disagree
Enter a 3 if you neither agree nor disagree
Enter a 4 if you mostly agree
Enter a 5 if you definitely agree with the statement.
There are no wrong answers. Just give the answer that is most accurate for
you. Remember, your responses are confidential, so please be completely honest and
answer all items.
1 2 3 4 5
Definitely Neither Agree
Mostly Disagree Mostly Agree Definitely Agree
Disagree Nor Disagree
For the remainder of the items use the response scale given with the item, and
enter your answer in the space beside the item.
______ 23. I have tried to lose weight by fasting or going on crash diets.
1. Never
2. Rarely
3. Sometimes
4. Often
5. Very Often
1. Very Underweight
2. Somewhat Underweight
3. Normal Weight
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4. Somewhat Overweight
5. Very Overweight
______ 25. From looking at me, most other people would think I am:
1. Very Underweight
2. Somewhat Underweight
3. Normal Weight
4. Somewhat Overweight
5. Very Overweight
26-34. Use this 1 to 5 scale to indicate how dissatisfied or satisfied you are with each
of the following areas or aspects of your body:
1 2 3 4 5
Mostly Neither Satisfied
Very Dissatisfied Mostly Satisfied Very Satisfied
Dissatisfied Nor Dissatisfied
REFERENCES
46
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overweight women: the role of stigmatizing experiences.1, 155-167.
doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2003.12.001.
Bergstrom. R. L., Neighbors. C., & Lewis. M. A. (2004). Do men find “bony”
women attractive? Consequences of misperceiving opposite sex perceptions
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