I have a lot to say about this "glass ceiling" business. In fact, when I started outlining my thoughts on the topic, I knew exactly what it was I wanted to impart and felt that my sentiments echoed those of many of my female friends and colleagues; That the theory of the glass ceiling was nothing more than fabrication of popular misogynist culture to make women believe there were limits to how much we could achieve in the male business world. That if I -indeed if all women - worked 150% harder and smarter, worked by excellence and integrity, that there would be no reasonable barriers in our way of achieving the respect and equality that purportedly eluded us by virtue of simple gender.
             But the more I though over my notion and the more I shared it with others, the quicker I came to admit that perhaps I'd been operating off some sweet, if not utterly sophomoric, idealism all this time. After all, 20 years of practicing what I'd preached hadn't proven this theory even to my own career...
             So if the "glass ceiling" it's not an entirely discredited premise, but it's not always a valid obstacle (look at some of the women CEOs and executives starting to appear in Fortune-listed companies), just what is the glass ceiling to the 21st century and how do we break through it?
             My original position now down the sink, I began a rather emotional re-thinking of my whole topic when I recalled the words a former CEO shared late one night while burning the midnight oil at a high tech startup company. He explained (that's right - "He") that having women in the workforce provided dimension; Because by nature, women tended to work by community, while men often struggled to relinquish ego in order to communicate or solve problems on a more cognitive level. Combining the unique approaches of both genders, he posited, creates an environment where business can excel on an entirely new level. But the problem women continue to face in business is based on an inst...