ABSTRACT
Women remain underrepresented at the top levels of business organizations, despite a slow increase over time in their presence there (Creswell 2006; Padavic and Reskin 2002, 97–107). Recent research has examined the claim that women encounter increasing obstacles relative to men as they move up the organizational ladder. This proposition, which we label the increasing-disadvantage model, is a core element of the popular “glass ceiling” metaphor (Baxter and Wright 2000; 891 Federal Glass Ceiling Commission 1995a, 1995b). Despite continued widespread public acceptance of the glass ceiling idea and some findings that are consistent with it (Cohen, Broschak, and Haveman 1998; Paulin and Mellor 1996), most research to date has failed to support the increasing-disadvantage model (see Bruderl, Preisendorfer, and Ziegler 1993; Dencker 2008; Petersen and Saporta 2004; Spilerman and Petersen 1999; Lewis 1986; Powell and Butterfield 1994; DiPrete and Soule 1988; Baxter and Wright 2000). Instead, women’s scarcity in top organizational ranks may simply be the result of the cumulative effect of a constant—or even decreasing—disadvantage at successive hierarchical levels (Baxter and Wright 2000).
