Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone. Hey, guys. Thank you for joining in to the Stepping Stone podcast. Today, I am super excited to talk to you because I'm actually going to talk to you about glass ceilings and the history of the glass ceiling, which is something that I probably should have done all the way back at the beginning, but here we are. And I will tell you why now.

Erica: So I actually, for the very first time, read on LinkedIn about Marilyn Loden, who is the woman who first coined the term glass ceiling. And I thought, holy shit. I, number one, never knew that. And then number two, what else don't I know about the glass ceiling and the history of the glass ceiling? So don't get me wrong.

Erica: I talk a lot about sticky floors and how it is our responsibility to work through those sticky floors to bust through glass ceilings, but glass ceilings do exist. So today, we're gonna dive in. We're gonna talk about what it is, why women are affected, why women of color are affected more so, and also how we truly can smash the glass ceiling. So let's dive right in, and let's talk about what is the glass ceiling. Now the glass ceiling is a metaphor for the barriers that women and other minorities face in the workforce as they advance up the corporate ladder.

Erica: It is a fact that women have no problem entering the workforce at the lower levels. But as you advance into higher levels of leadership, those numbers for women plummet. Those numbers drop even further if you are a woman who is also a person of color. This invisible barrier not only affects our career trajectories, but it affects our finances and our overall success. It hinders promotions.

Erica: It hinders salary increases and opportunities for advancement. So I've already told you, Marilyn Loden was the person who coined the term, but I wanna tell you a little bit about her. So when she coined this term, she did it at a conference in 1978, and she was, at the time, working in human resources for AT and T. And she coined it at the conference for the women's exposition in New York. Now Marilyn Loden was a writer, a consultant, and an advocacy for diversity.

Erica: She fought for equality. She wrote three books on diversity and was a champion for gender equality. Now the reason I finally just saw this was because she sadly passed away in August, and I am sure that she was probably heartbroken to know that while progress has been made, we are still fighting for equality in the workplace. But I wanna talk about why women and why women of color. Now while the number of women who work has increased dramatically, we are still not represented in in leadership roles or c level roles like men are.

Erica: So I pulled some numbers from the lean in organization, and I have a beautiful pictograph, which if you go to my blog, you can check it out there. I will have that up as well. But it shows the representation in the corporate pipeline, so from entry level to the top of the ladder by gender and by race from 2021. Now white men make up 35% of entry level roles and 62% of c level roles. Whereas white women make up 30% of entry level roles and only 20% of c level roles.

Erica: Then let's get into the women of color. Women of color make up 17% of entry level roles and only 4% of c suite level roles. So it honestly looks like a funnel laying on its side where it starts really big at the bottom, right, because we have more people in entry level roles, and then it funnels down to a tiny point up at the c suite because fewer numbers in the c suite. But the chunk that represents white men gets larger and larger as we go from entry level to manager to senior manager, VP, SVP, and c suite. And it gets smaller and smaller and smaller for men of color, for white women, and for women of color.

Erica: Now these glass ceilings often exist because of unconscious bias. Those deep rooted beliefs, they're often unrealized to about ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and so on. While it is largely unintentional, it's a huge problem. And they also exist because of systemic issues such as company culture that leaders often ignore. The representation of women between entry level and C suites drops by more than 75%.

Erica: And as I said before, as a result of this, women of color account for only 4% of C level leaders. Now since 2016, we have seen consistent statistics as it relates to female promotions. Women are promoted to manager at far lower rates than men. And for women of color, the numbers are even lower. Now another reason that this glass ceiling exists is that women with college degrees often choose to work in fields that offer lower income, and women become underrepresented in the top paying jobs.

Erica: So about forty percent of women in America born in 1985 hold college degrees. And believe it or not, men are under 30%, but it doesn't yield a higher pay. And this is because women are choosing majors that don't lead to higher earning jobs, such as teaching and education, etcetera. Now these same high paying jobs are often not as flexible when it comes to the demand of child care, household duties, and other life commitments, which as we all know, it falls really heavy on women's shoulders. So in turn, women have a harder time jumping into those kind of roles because of the gender duties with child care being the most prominent.

Erica: COVID has also played a huge role in gender inequality. More women have ended up leaving the workforce during the pandemic than men did, and approximately three point five million moms with school age kids lost jobs or left the workforce in The US. And while many jobs have returned, there are still 1,100,000 fewer women in the workforce than there were in February 2020. So what can we do? How can we smash the glass ceiling?

Erica: So the first thing is you have to recognize that it does exist. So, yes, this podcast is all about getting out of your own sticky floors, but that doesn't mean that the glass ceiling isn't there and that it and that it does not pose a huge problem as it relates to elevating women. You may be working for an organization with some thick paned glass ceilings if there's little to no diversity at the executive level. Maybe you notice sexist, racist, or other prejudicial languages that are excused as, oh, it's just joking or it's banter. Maybe there's pay gaps between employees that just can't be explained.

Erica: And what about advancements and promotions that don't really follow a process, but are just justified away as, well, that's just how we do things here. You might be stuck. That's the case. You might wanna pop on out of that role, out of that culture. It might not be for you.

Erica: But, again, the first thing you can do is recognize it. The next thing you can do is take responsibility for your own development and your sticky floors. If you aren't being shown the opportunities that you feel you deserve in your role or at your company, you need to take ownership of that. You need to invest in yourself. You need to build your skills, grow your experience in any way possible.

Erica: Network. If you are truly stuck in a company with a culture where you are not going to advance because of this ceiling, it's time to start building your arsenal, padding that resume, and move on. Be smart about it. Plan your exit, but time to move on. You also wanna build a strong support network of other women.

Erica: So nothing, and I mean nothing beats having a tribe of women who understand what you are going through. They can offer you support and advice and keep their ears to the ground for new and often better opportunities. Now if your company has any female in the leadership role, partner with her. See how you can make a difference in the company. Maybe you have the idea to cultivate an employee resource group to support women in your industry.

Erica: Discuss opportunities to create a safe space for women and invite them in for training, invite men in for training on unconscious bias. And if simply offering support to your fellow sisters is all you can do, then please do that. Now if you are a woman in a leadership role, there's even more you can do, and I beg of you to use your role to further impact women in a positive manner. If you're a woman in a leadership role, work with your HR department, work with your leadership team to ensure that gender equality begins in the hiring process. Now this is one of the best ways to move forward.

Erica: So not only can you ensure that there are diverse candidates that are being pushed forward, but also that those pay inequities are addressed from the jump. Another thing is promoting female sponsorship, and this opens up the door for many female leaders to follow suit. So this is kind of a fun fact. I felt like I just had to throw this in there, but all about the glass ceiling. But what about the glass escalator?

Erica: Have you ever heard of that? I certainly had not. But the glass escalator refers to white men being promoted faster when working in fields typically dominated by women or minorities. Now let me tell you this. When I read this, I was like, oh my god.

Erica: This is for sure true because working in HR, that is a field predominantly female. Right? I worked for a company that had a huge HR team. We're talking, like, 50 people. Mostly all women, but the leadership roles were dominated literally by all men with the exception of one woman.

Erica: Now tell me how the hell did that happen? Have you ever been there? So my guess, probably yes. And if you haven't, you've seen it somewhere like me. But, again, sticky floors exist.

Erica: No doubt in my mind. That's my whole reason for having this podcast. Right? Yes. We need to be working internally on ourselves every day to address those limiting beliefs.

Erica: But the glass ceiling is that systemic issue that I talk about, and we've got to tackle it together. It is so important for female representation at all levels of the business, but especially at the top. Now did that when you have a diverse leadership team, literally everybody wins. Having women in management lead to a 19% higher return on equity and a 9% higher dividend payments. Companies see higher financial returns, including revenue, profitability, and lower volatility for stock if it is a publicly traded company.

Erica: The glass ceiling is not going to be smashed in a day, but we can put a crack in it. We can make these issues easier for the next generation and the next and the next for our daughters, for our nieces, for our sisters, and our friends. So I will leave you with these wise words from our fellow queen beyond. Power is not given to you. You have to take it.