Panes of the Glass Ceiling

The Unspoken Beliefs Behind the Law's Failure to Help Women Achieve Professional Parity

Kerri Lynn Stone

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781108427593
• eBook ISBN: 9781108693028
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Attribution
• Introduction
• 1 “We See You Differently Than We See Men” (But)
• 2 “We Expect You to Take Your (Verbal) Punches Like a Man” (And)
• 3 “Accept ‘Locker Room’ and Sexist Talk” (But)
• 4 “You Don’t Operate with Full Agency” (But)
• 5 “Women Are the Downfall of Men” (So)
• 6 “Just Be Grateful That You’re There” (And)
• 7 “Don’t Burden Us with Your (Impending) Motherhood” (Because)
• 8 “He Has a Family to Support” (And Besides …)
• 9 “Bad People Don’t Do Good Things, but Good People Frequently Say Bad Things” (and Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs Can’t Be Fully Trusted)
• Conclusion
• Index