A glass ceiling is the invisible barrier stopping people rising further. Break the glass ceiling.
The glass is the point, since the promotion can be seen and not reached. The phrase came into use in the 1980s about women in management and now covers any group.
1nounglass ceilingThe invisible barrier stopping people rising further.
“The glass ceiling in that firm was at exactly one level below the board.”
glass ceiling is a barrier.
Glass plus ceiling, with glass suggesting a barrier that is real and invisible.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰleh₁-
English, today
glass ceiling
From glass + ceiling, a metaphor using ceiling to suggest a barrier to upward mobility, and glass to allude to the often unacknowledged or “invisible” nature of this limitation. The term was coined by Marilyn Loden (1946–2022), who referred to the “invisible glass ceiling” during a panel discussion about women’s aspirations in 1978.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Work & Careers