are held by women. On Fortune Service 500 companies, 5.6% of corporate directors are women. The rate of increase is so slow that parity with men on corporate boards will not be achieved until the
             In 1980, only one woman held the rank of CEO of a Fortune 500 company. This woman came into the top management by inheriting the company from her father or husband. In 1985, this executive was joined by a second woman who reached the top - by founding the company she headed. Even though the newspapers are reporting that women have come a long way and are successful in the corporate world, women are banging into a "glass ceiling" that is "so subtle that it is transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women from moving up the corporate hierarchy". Women can see the high- level corporate positions but are kept from reaching the top. According to Morrison and her colleagues, the glass ceiling is not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person/s inability to handle a higher-level job. Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women. Just as the overall labour market remains sharply segregated by!
             sex, women executives are concentrated into certain types of jobs - mostly staff and support jobs - and these offer little opportunity for getting to the top. The highest ranking women in most industries are in non-operating areas such as personnel, public relations or, sometimes finance specialties that rarely lead to the most powerful top-management positions. It seems that women are shut out of jobs in the route that is taken by CEO=s and presidents. In other words when a decision has to be made concerning who should be promoted to management, male corporate leaders are inclined to select people as much like themselves as possible - so there is no astonishment that women are often not even considered at promotion time. The guys at the top look at their form...