Glass Ceiling Factors Hindering Women's Advancement in Management Hierarchy

Aims: This aim of this paper is to identify the barriers that hinder women’s advancement in the management hierarchy in the financial sector (both banking and insurance) in Republic of North Macedonia, a country historically known for its masculine culture and stereotype–driven expectations regarding the role of woman in the society.

Study design: Original research paper. Analytical observational, cross-sectional study.

Place and duration of study: The research sample was consisted of male and female employees from banking and insurance sectors in North Macedonia in March 2021.

Methodology: A questionnaire was designed to achieve the objectives of the study in which the items for the barriers have been measured using 5–points Likert scale. The reliability and validity analyses were conducted; descriptive analysis was used to describe the characteristics of the sample as well as the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables, and ANOVA test was employed to examine the proposed three hypotheses.

Results: The obtained results of Cronbach’s alpha are 0.821, 0.836 0.918 for individual, organizational and cultural factors, respectively. The results suggest a significant difference among the barriers (individual, organizational and cultural factors) that prevent employees from obtaining upper–level positions in the organizations due to gender (p <0.001), whereas no significant difference was found among the barriers that prevent employees from obtaining upper–level positions due to age and work experience.

Conclusion: The obtained results call for attention to existence of gender disparities and gender inequalities in many areas of life, particularly in the labor market, when climbing up the corporate ladder. The study contributes to the literature by providing new practical insights into gender diversity initiatives focusing on growth and development aspects of female employees by breaking the glass ceiling and recognizing their competencies, qualifications, and achievement as well as giving them prospects for upward mobility.