Forum on Public Policy, Vol. 2010, No. 4/5 (December 2010).
Abstract:
In 2005, Fortune Magazine published “How Corporate America is Betraying Women.” The article‘s focus was that although sex discrimination in the United States became illegal in 1965, women continued to experience significant salary and promotion differentials in corporate America. A more common phrase for this inequity is “glass-ceiling,” defined as a generally insurmountable barrier to women seeking the chief executive‘s office. Some women, however, pierced the glass. Carly Fiorina became CEO of Hewlett-Packard 1999–2005. In 2006, Indra Nooyi became Chief Executive at PepsiCo. This paper outlines research on women‘s management style and access to executive positions, traces the public career trajectories of Carly Fiorina and Indra Nooyi, and discusses whether their individual successes negate the “glass-ceiling” hypothesis, in which case, the issue may be less about access and more about women‘s lifestyle choices.
Article can be accessed here.
