Although the term ‘glass ceiling’ implies an invisible barrier, a small portion of people have managed to break through the glass ceiling and achieve great success. These people are perceived as outstanding personalities and present great value for society by acting as role models. To put it simply, only the best of the best can break the glass ceiling, and these people possess vital knowledge that could help other people. This essay will explore the term ‘glass ceiling’ and its current meaning and analyze one of the cases of breaking the glass ceiling, the case of Ursula Burns.
The term ‘glass ceiling’ in general means an invisible barrier that limits an individual’s opportunities. The metaphor implies that although the glass might look fragile and allows an individual to see the things above, it never fails to restrain his ambitions. The term is mainly used to define limited career opportunities for women and minorities. To address the transparency aspect in the term, Gupta (2018) emphasizes that career limitations are usually not apparent immediately and exist predominantly in the form of unwritten rules and unofficial policies. Therefore, people can experience the glass ceiling but cannot break it because of its transparency.
However, due to enormous ambitions, unbreakable willpower, strong character, or just coincidence, some people manage to break the glass ceiling and become successful and widely known in their field. Ursula Burns is famous for being the first black woman CEO of Fortune 500 company – Xerox, where she started as a mechanical-engineering intern. The analysis of Burns’ case shows that many different factors influenced her success in the business field, from her own character to the ethic of the company where she started her career path.
In the process of earning her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Burns applied to an engineering program for minorities in Xerox for an internship and later joined the company in the field of product development. Burns notes that she was lucky that the Xerox company had an enlightened founder Joseph Wilson, so in the early part of her career in Xerox, she was treated the same way as other employees (Ignatius, 2021). Burns pointed that as she succeeded in the career advancement in the company, the race and gender issues became more apparent, but they also were used in positive ways sometimes (Ignatius, 2021). It is evident that the company’s ethics influenced Burns’ further views on gender and racial inequality issues.
In her interview with Harvard Business Review, Burns reflects on the racism issues and how they affected her. Burns noted that she had experienced racism on a daily basis in her early life to the point of becoming numb to it (Ignatius, 2021). According to the interview, in order to terminate racism, society should get rid of its’ elite structure (Ignatius, 2021). Burns emphasizes the importance of equalization and sets herself as an example, as she states that other people tend to think that her success emerged as an outcome of her being different from other people. However, Burns points that she is the same as other people and even states that she is just as good as any other individual (Ignatius, 2021). One could say that thinking that she is not different from any other person helped her break the glass ceiling.
Currently, Ursula Burns performs the functions of director of the boards in three companies, Exxon Mobil, Uber, and Nestlé. The case of Ursula Burns presents a collection of various factors like experience, education, and personal characteristics, but the primary asset that let her succeed is her insight. Burns holds herself and other people to the same standards and reminds other people that in achieving equality, one should start by treating others as equal.
References
Gupta, S. (2018). Glass ceiling in 21st Century: Women in management. International Journal of Management Studies, 3(5), 83-93. doi:10.18843/ijms/v5i3(5)/13
Ignatius, A. (2021). ‘I’m here because I’m as good as you’: The HBR interview with Ursula Burns by Adi Ignatius. Harvard Business Review.