The Crystal Ceiling: The Integration Of Women Into Society In Ecuador

The crystal ceiling: the integration of women into society in Ecuador

Introduction

The crystal ceiling phrase refers to the difficulty that minorities face when ascending in their professional career, because they belong to a minority group. From the gender approach, it is said that women have problems when aspiring to command or management positions, so also find obstacles when it intends to develop their career in a hard science, several studies talk about this is given becausewoman deals with household and motherhood activities. This phenomenon is invisible, but it has been made visible since the beginning of the eighties. It should be noted that companies and institutions do not even include this problem in their corporate manual and many often. In Ecuador, the problem has been invisible in such a way, that it is difficult to find specialized bibliography in this regard, it is more in many institutions, including academics, it does not deepen the subject.

Developing

The term crystal ceiling is coined at the end of the 90s, at a conference given in the United States, there is talk of the difficulty, which the minority groups present to access positions of responsibility occupational discrimination has barriers that limit theindividual or groups to enter the labor market. In our case, we will talk about this phenomenon with an impact on the labor integration of women. It was called in this way, because at the time of ascending professionally, an invisible barrier was evidence.

Pazmiño Masache tells us about it: the glass ceiling is the invisible barrier that prevents minorities and women, rising to the upper steps of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.

It is important to mention that not only the woman is discriminated against by her male peers, but that a type of horizontal violence is observed, that is, woman to woman this panorama characterizes the ‘crystal ceiling’ as a natural and expected situation that stops theProfessional career, therefore, this facilitates the sedimentation of work barriers to women. In this sense, limited development is perpetuated because both men and women support it, through which gender equity and efforts are represented as minimal.

The existence of the ceiling can be attributed to several reasons: the lack of knowledge of women on the subject, the culture of the company where they are working and the culture of the country where they lie;However, the indices of the places of power for women are increasing, although it is not at the expected rhythm, progress is considered.

There is a disproportion between men and women with respect to power positions, in specific working sectors, this occurs due to the perpetuation of stereotypes such as nursing for women and construction for men, in the same way this inequality is also evidenced inHigher construction levels, for example, civil engineering career is considered a male activity. This thought contributes to salary inequality and even unemployment. The characteristics of this phenomenon are:

• • Be invisible as imperceptible by the majority of society, without responding to express impediments.
• • Loaded, because very few women access positions of decision and power.
• • Solid being a cultural product of certain group and social behaviors that accumulate obstacles and prevents them from continuing to progress in their professional careers.

Our country still presents a macho character, due to the popular imaginary that men and women, in the 21st century, have different capacities, so they consider one gender over the other. It is worth mentioning that the new generations have more awareness on this issue. The problem is not only evidenced at the business level, but it can also be seen in several universities in the country, many women cannot access a higher position in the hierarchy of power under the pretext of maternity and home care schedules.

Here precisely the work difference between women and men is born;Theirs is considered as reproductive and theirs as a productive work, this wrong classification results in gender discrimination, since it places the man above the woman.

It is said that one of the causes is the lack of competitiveness on the part of the woman and there is even talk of an absence of commitment due to factors such as reproduction and breastfeeding, which takes valuable time to develop their career and obtain an ascent,which is also usually subject to the decision of a manager, of male in their great majority.

Among the factors that support and reproduce inequality and non -diversity we find three large groups: external barriers: sociocultural and organizational factors;internal barriers associated with female gender identity and, finally, interactive barriers, caused by reproductive role and family responsibilities.

The woman’s ability to manage positions of responsibility is questioned, which in turn prevents her from integrating in equal conditions into a labor system, the problem is that there is no legislation that stops this phenomenon, but certain social codes is responsiblen of perpetuating it. It is said that professional marginalization is related to the values and vision of the company, in addition to its organizational plan, but it is undeniable that women have suffered oppression throughout history.

Man is the unity of measure of the public sphere, creating heteronormative, patriarchal and phallocentric practices. Which has led to the feminist movement for gender equity and demands the fulfillment of the human, political and civil rights of women around the world. 

In Europe and the United States, after the fight of feminist associations, the management positions occupied by women increased by about 50%, but in small companies or in several newly constituted cases. In Ecuador, the disparity between men and women is more noticeable in women belonging to racial or ethnic minorities, much more discrimination against black and indigenous women is observed, currently, the movements of indigenous women are beginning to strengthen and take greater protagonist inThe search to modify the political agenda of Ecuador. The State is responsible for ensuring the rights of its citizens, moreover, in the Constitution non -discrimination is contemplated, but there are gaps, as for this phenomenon called glass roof, because it is normalized and invisible, in turn, in turn, can be considered as structural violence.

Labor law arose as a result of the need to regulate the relationships between workers and the employer, in order to establish the rights and obligations both for the other, to sustain social balance and avoid the conditions that violated the rights of workers.

Women should be trained in transformational leadership to develop the necessary skills for adequate teamwork, so that there is equity in terms of the percentage of workers. This must be implemented in the corporate plan of each company as part of a training process that promotes the change of thinking schemes until the achievement of work standards and transformation towards personal development, therefore social.

Women who occupy public office are in the constant pressure of being evaluated and questioned by their decisions, several of them feel that they cannot be wrong, because the consequences are therefore more severe than for men, this type of behavior hasmisogynistic characteristics, since it is about demonstrating that what women do or say is not relevant and thus deprives them of their worth. This problem is especially linked to public management spaces, where women are living subtle discrimination situations that prevent them from moving forward in their leadership and decision making.

It is necessary to change the organizational management of companies and develop plans to prevent this phenomenon from being invisible, it is more to be circumscribed in the corporate manual. This work aims. The role of women as a caregiver at home also moves to the work options to which it mostly accesses. The promotion of legislation on issues that favor women and finally, which culminates successfully with the approval of laws for female rights. In summary, one could say that female representation is a process that is formed by an increase in women in legislatures (descriptive).

In case of not giving attention to the problem raised in the place of research, in the future an increase in cases of women’s crystal ceiling are forecast, there will continue to be more barrrhea that will be invisible to women for women. They cannot be overcome professionally due to this problem. Even today, when multiple claims of the role of women have been made in society, there is machismo in institutional environments, this, logically, directly affects the work performance, wages and development of the woman’s career and inYour leadership.

conclusion

In the present study, 30 sources were consulted, to filter 15 and use them within the article, 15 were discarded because they did not present an academic character or were carried out according to the realities of countries such as Mexico and Colombia. After the literature review, a signing was carried out, which highlighted the most relevant results to be used in the review article. All sources used are adhered to the reality of Ecuador in the last five years, except one that was taken into account to clarify basic concepts in relation to the glass roof. The results obtained, after the bibliographic review are:

In the revised literature there are factors that affect the reproduction of the glass ceiling phenomenon in the institutions, these are related to the fact that the woman deals with the home and is also a mother. While it is true, that there is still labor and salary discrimination towards women, it must also be noted that Ecuador, despite being a macho country is aimed towards equality. There are three groups of factors that support inequality: external factors (of sociocultural nature), internal (transgressors of gender identity) and interactive (associated with reproduction). Several women express the discrimination they feel after having used their maternity and breastfeed.