Sticky Floors vs. Glass Ceilings:
What's Really Holding Women Back
corporate ladder from an entry-level role all the way to Chief People Officer in under ten years.
And I still felt stuck, anxious, and never quite enough. It took me far too long to realize the truth: the thing holding me back wasn't only the ceiling above me. It was the sticky floor beneath my feet. This is the difference between the two, why it matters, and what you can actually do about it.
What is the difference between a glass ceiling and a sticky floor?
A glass ceiling is the very real, external, systemic barrier that keeps women and minorities from rising into leadership, no matter how qualified they are. A sticky floor is internal: the limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors, like impostor syndrome, perfectionism, fear, and burnout, that keep a woman stuck.
The ceiling is imposed on you.
The floor lives inside you.
And you have the power to clean it up.
What is a Glass Ceiling?
The term "glass ceiling" was coined by writer and diversity advocate Marilyn Loden in 1978, at the Women's Exposition in New York. It's the unseen, unspoken barrier that keeps women and minorities from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications, experience, or achievements.
And the data backs it up. Women make up 57 percent of the workforce, but our representation shrinks the higher you climb: 48 percent at entry level, 40 percent at manager, down to just 26 percent at the C-level. The higher we go, the fewer of us there are. My own career mirrored that exactly. The only female leaders I ever had were when I was entry-level. As I advanced, I only ever reported to men.
People ask me why it's called a glass ceiling. It's because we can see right through it. We see the people at the table making the decisions that affect us. But no matter how hard or how loudly we beat on the glass, we can't seem to break through to the other side.
Here's what I believe, though, that most definitions leave out: glass ceilings don't only exist in the corporate world. We build them in our personal lives too. The ceiling might be the business you won't start because you're afraid of what your family will think. It might be the boundary you won't set. Glass ceilings are the barriers, in every part of our lives, that keep us from peace and possibility.
What is this Sticky Floor?
At the most basic level, sticky floors are limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors that keep you stuck. And everyone has them.
They show up as:
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Impostor syndrome
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Perfectionism
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Fear
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Burnout
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Worrying what other people will think of you
They can even show up as pretty privilege, or the belief that you have to look a certain way to be taken seriously.
Here's what makes them so hard to spot: sticky floors are automatic thoughts, usually formed in the unconscious mind. They're a kind of self-protection. Your brain builds them to shield you from judgment, shame, embarrassment, or failure. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, that instinct kept us alive. We're not running from a wooly mammoth anymore, but our brains still treat a new role, a new boss, or the discomfort of not fitting in as a threat. In reality, the sticky floors are the real threat.
How are glass ceilings and sticky floors connected?
Here's the shift that changed my career, and increased my paycheck by $100,000. Stop looking up at the glass ceiling, and start looking down at the sticky floor that's holding you in place.
Because they feed each other. When you're filled with doubt and you don't negotiate your salary or ask for the promotion, the man does. Your sticky floor just widened the pay gap. The internal barrier reinforces the external one.
We are not going to solve systemic bias in our lifetime. The World Economic Forum estimates it will take 132 years to reach pay equity. That's not my lifetime, and it's not my kids' lifetime. So I asked myself: what can I actually control?
The answer is the sticky floors.
When you confront them head-on, you take back the control you lost, and you realize the ability to break through the glass ceiling is in your hands.
How do you overcome a sticky floor? The SNAP Method.
SNAP is the four-step, science-backed method I teach to get unstuck. It's a pattern interrupt. Here's how it works.
S — Stop and notice what's going on in the body. Your body signals a sticky floor before your mind names it. Notice a racing heart, fidgety feet, nervous energy, a pit in your stomach, tight shoulders, a clenched jaw, that uneasy feeling. Stop and feel it.
N — Name your sticky floor. You cannot change anything until you take agency over it. Name what's actually happening: "This is perfectionism." "This is impostor syndrome." Naming it is the first move toward changing it.
A — Ask and answer the deep questions. I start with two: Is this thought helpful? Is this thought true? Then peel back the onion to the core. Why do I believe this? What did I see or live as a child, a teen, an adult that taught me this? Is this thought still serving me?
P — Pivot. Simply reframe. Choose a new thought that serves you, and step forward.
Use it every time a sticky floor shows up. And they will keep showing up, because every season of your life brings a new you and new challenges. That's not failure. That's being human. You come back to the method, and you start again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are sticky floors the same as imposter syndrome?
Impostor syndrome is one of the most common sticky floors, but it's not the only one. Sticky floors also include perfectionism, fear of failure, burnout, and worrying what others think. They're all limiting beliefs or toxic behaviors that keep you stuck.
Can you break a glass ceiling without addressing your sticky floors?
It's much harder. The two are connected. When your internal doubt keeps you from negotiating or raising your hand, it reinforces the external barrier. Confronting your sticky floors is what gives you the footing to break through the ceiling.
What does SNAP stand for?
SNAP is a science-backed pattern interrupt for getting unstuck and it stands for:
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Stop and notice what's going on in the body
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Name your sticky floor
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Ask and answer the deep questions
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Pivot.
Ready to clean up your sticky floors?
I wrote the book I wish I'd had when I was drowning in perfectionism, impostor syndrome, and fear while trying to climb the ladder. Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors: Shatter Limiting Beliefs and Toxic Behaviors to Uncover Infinite Possibilities walks you through the SNAP method step by step, backed by neuroscience and real stories.
And here's what comes next. These gaps, in pay, in confidence, in who gets a seat at the table, don't disappear in the age of AI. They accelerate. That's why I wrote The AI Gap: Women, AI, and the Next Great Leap Forward — because the same forces that built the glass ceiling are now being trained into the tools that will run the next decade of work.
Same mission, new frontier.
