'The Glass Ceiling' was a term coined by an American newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, a couple of decades ago to describe the barriers that prevent women from reaching the top echelon in both economic and political fields.

Some of the reasons why so many women still haven't broken through the 'glass ceiling' are:

• exclusion from informal male networks which has led to more and more women forming their own networks
• male bias within a company against promoting women
• lack of role models - there are too few women in top jobs to show how it can be done
• family and other commitments which lead women to work part-time making it even more difficult for them to break through the 'glass ceiling'
• inflexible working hours
• the International Labour Organisation says that globally women constitute between 60 and 90 percent of part-time workers

Yet, many companies and governments are trying to help women climb higher up the ladder by introducing 'diversity programmes'.

Some countries such as Norway have introduced legislation saying that all companies must have at least two women on their company boards and in Britain a group of businesswomen has set up an organisation called 'Women Directors on Boards'.

EXERCISE: Group Work

Discuss the position of women in politics in your country.

Some points for you to consider:

• what sort of constraints are there on women who want to be more active in politics in your country
• women voters, do they think that their vote makes a difference/realise how important their vote is/what stops them from voting (selling votes)
• any programmes - government or NGO - that are designed to educate women politically/how they work/how successful they are etc