Marilyn Loden named the barrier in 1978. Nearly fifty years later it still has the same name.
In 1978, Marilyn Loden, a management consultant at New York Telephone, used the phrase "glass ceiling" during a panel discussion at the Women’s Exposition in New York. She described an invisible barrier that prevented women from advancing beyond a certain level in corporate hierarchies, regardless of qualifications or performance.1
The metaphor was precise. A glass ceiling is invisible to anyone not pressing against it. It is structural, not individual. It cannot be overcome by working harder, because the barrier exists above the level where individual effort is the determining factor.2
The phrase entered wide public circulation in 1986, when Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt published a Wall Street Journal article describing the phenomenon in corporate America. That article introduced the term to a national audience.3
In 1991, the U.S. Congress established the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission under the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to study barriers to advancement for women and minorities in the workforce. The commission reported in 1995 that white men held 97 percent of senior management positions at Fortune 1000 companies.4
The phrase generated variations. "Bamboo ceiling" described barriers facing Asian Americans. "Stained-glass ceiling" described barriers in religious institutions. "Concrete ceiling" described barriers facing women of color, for whom the obstacle was neither transparent nor fragile.5
As of 2024, women held 10.4 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies, up from zero in 1995. The number first exceeded 10 percent in 2023.6