Lock in on Coordinates: Mapping the Glass Ceiling with Career Women's Reflections on Power

Abstract

In an attempt to solicit career advice for young women by interviewing experienced career women, thisstudy discovered the location of the proverbial glass ceiling and revealed distinct types of power operatingin organizations. The careers of the women participating in this study were circumscribed by conflicts. Ifthey developed technical expertise as a mode of insulation, they escaped high conflict but remained on atechnical career path without access to higher executive opportunities. If they pursued executiveopportunities through general management positions, they were surrounded by high conflict and becamecareer casualties in powerful threat systems. A review of the literature revealed that each of these systems issimilar to a type in Boulding's (1989) theory of power.