*2025 Axiom Business Book Award winner and a Forbes Top 10 Business Book of 2024*
A compelling look at the challenges facing LGBTQ+ professionals as they navigate their careers – with advice from many senior figures who have smashed their own rainbow ceilings.
There are currently only four LGBTQ+ CEOs across all Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies who are out at work, and just 0.8% of Fortune 500 board positions are filled by LGBTQ+ people. This deficit, occurring across sectors and around the world, reveals a diversity gap playing out in today's workplace: LGBTQ+ people are less likely to reach the top jobs. But what is holding LGBTQ+ people back at work – and what can be done?
Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling explores the hidden differences that cause LGBTQ+ people to be underrepresented at the most senior levels of professional life. Combining data with personal insights from over 40 prominent LGBTQ+ trailblazers, from CEOs to Ambassadors, Layla McCay reveals the challenges that LGBTQ+ people commonly encounter as they find their way in work environments, and provides the practical strategies that can help empower LGBTQ+ people to reach their full professional potential.
The book explores how everyone – from boards, CEOs, managers, HR professionals and colleagues, through to LGBTQ+ people navigating their own career paths – can recognize and address the barriers, achieve their career goals, and build a more inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and succeed.

eBook - ePub
Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling
How LGBTQ+ people can thrive and succeed at work
- 226 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-Title
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword by Lord Michael Cashman
- A note
- The people interviewed
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Mapping the rainbow ceiling
- 3 Ten childhood factors that affect career success
- 4 The risks and rewards of coming out or transitioning at work
- 5 Being LGBTQ+ at work
- 6 How being LGBTQ+ affects hiring and firing
- 7 The impact of life outside the workplace
- 8 How employers can help break the rainbow ceiling
- 9 Lifting as we climb
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Index
- Copyright Page
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Yes, you can access Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling by Layla McCay in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Workplace Culture. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.