Diversity and Legal

Glass Ceilings & Glass Escalators Glass Ceilings and Glass Escalators The article by David J. Maume Jr. examines the effect of race and gender composition on promotions to managerial positions. The author has reviewed the existing research on the topic which strongly indicates that that race and gender plays a major part in the levels of pay and pace of promotions-- with the White male in the advantaged group and the Black male and female and the White female firmly placed in the disadvantaged group.

These studies have mostly examined the effect of race and gender on pay rather than promotions and rely on cross-sectional as opposed to longitudinal samples that limit their value as far as the drawing of conclusions about promotions is concerned. In order to remove the gaps in the existing research, the author has presented the results of his own research using data from the PSID in the article.

The findings confirm that White men get accelerated promotions in 'women occupations,' and Black men, as well as women in general get promoted to managerial positions at a significantly slower pace than White men. The research also discounts the theory of a declining significance of race in mobility chances and confirms the theory of glass escalators for White men and glass ceilings for Black men, Black women and White women.

One of the major points of Maume's research is its contradiction of the findings of an influential sociologist (William Wilson, 1980, 1989) that had suggested a decreasing significance of race in the career rewards for Blacks who entered the U.S. labor market after the passage of the Civil Rights.