glass ceiling

English

Etymology

glass (indicating transparency, to allude to the often unacknowledged nature of the limitation) + ceiling (suggesting a barrier to upward advancement)

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

glass ceiling (plural glass ceilings)

1. (idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group.
   • 2007 Jan. 5, "Six thousand women missing from boardrooms, politics and courts," The Guardian (UK), p. 1:

     Women are “woefully” under-represented in parliament, the courts and the boardroom, with new research showing that the glass ceiling is still holding back 6,000 women from the top 33,000 jobs in Britain.

Related terms

• bamboo ceiling
• cotton ceiling

Translations

unwritten, uncodified barrier

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 玻璃天花板 (bōli tiānhuābǎn)

• Dutch: glazen plafond n
• Finnish: lasikatto (fi)
• French: plafond de verre (fr) m
• German: Gläserne Decke f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: ガラスの天井 (garasu no tenjō)
• Portuguese: telhado de vidro m
• Russian: стекля́нный потоло́к m (stekljánnyj potolók)
• Spanish: techo de cristal (es) m
• Swedish: glastak (sv) n

References

• “glass ceiling”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.