Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Ernst & Young's Talent Strategy
This paper examines workplace gender bias and the glass ceiling, with a focus on how Ernst & Young (E&Y) has developed strategies to address these barriers. Drawing on research showing that women remain concentrated in lower-wage roles across industries, the paper evaluates E&Y's approaches to breaking the glass ceiling, including flexible scheduling, mentorship programs, and 360-degree career management processes. The paper also proposes two additional steps E&Y could take: partnering with schools in underserved communities to build a diverse talent pipeline, and expanding global operations through telecommuting to access specialized expertise without geographic constraints.
- The Glass Ceiling and Gender Bias in the Workplace: Overview of workplace gender bias and representation barriers
- Why Breaking the Glass Ceiling Matters to Ernst & Young: E&Y's strategic rationale for inclusive talent practices
- Innovative Role Definition and Talent Retention Strategies: E&Y's flexible, mentorship-driven approach to talent retention
- Career Management as a Lifelong Process: E&Y's 360-degree career development and tracking program
- Additional Recommendations for E&Y's Talent Program: Proposed community outreach and telecommuting expansion strategies
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- Uses a real-world corporate case study (Ernst & Young) to ground abstract concepts like the glass ceiling and gender bias in practical, organizational context.
- Moves logically from problem identification to company response to original recommendations, giving the paper a clear analytical arc.
- Balances descriptive summary of E&Y's existing programs with evaluative commentary and constructive new proposals, demonstrating critical engagement beyond simple reporting.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a case study analytical framework: it identifies a broad structural problem (gender bias and the glass ceiling), situates a specific organization within that problem, evaluates the organization's response against scholarly evidence, and then extends the analysis by proposing additional solutions. This structure is especially effective for applied business and management topics where theory must connect to real organizational practice.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a literature-grounded overview of workplace gender bias, citing quantitative research on the 30% threshold for meaningful representation change. It then addresses three numbered points covering E&Y's strategic rationale, specific talent practices, and career management philosophy. The conclusion proposes two original recommendations — community outreach and global telecommuting expansion — that build logically on the company's existing flexibility-focused approach.
The Glass Ceiling and Gender Bias in the Workplace
There are many different types of bias within the working environment. At times, one had to be a white male to be a manager in many organizations. The glass ceiling clearly remains a powerful force within the workplace. The wage-gender gap — the discrepancy in earnings between equally qualified men and women — has diminished in many career paths, but still persists. Qualified women are blocked from upper-level managerial positions, and their absence at the very top skews the distribution when they are clustered in the middle. Research suggests that it takes approximately 30 percent penetration of women managers to begin moving the distribution more rapidly, indicating that women remain concentrated in lower-wage workplace settings in almost every industry (Cohen and Huffman, 2007, p. 699).
Ernst & Young, a major accounting firm, recognizes that it is in their best interest to find new and innovative ways to break the glass ceiling, to provide more gender-neutral opportunities, and to allow for flexible scheduling that meets the needs of working parents, as well as the evolving needs of a new generation of clients.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.