The Glass Ceiling: A View from the Middle

The question of why there are so few female senior managers has been of interest to academics, organisational stakeholders and the media for over 30 years. Yet, despite all the available research on this question, there is no definitive answer to this problem. Building on this background this book provides the opportunity to explore the experiences of female managers, in mid-level managerial positions, in the Irish context. Their experiences assist us in understanding the key issues faced by this group of women, who are, essentially, the successors to the executive suite; a new model of the glass ceiling is also proposed. The insights in this book should be useful to those interested in investigating the gender imbalance in senior managerial positions. The voices of the female managers illustrate the difficulties they encounter and remind us that there is still much organisations can do to address the managerial imbalance.