Factors Influencing Glass Ceiling for Women Employees

Women employees in Universities experience an invisible barrier and disparities in their career advancement. They experience disparities in terms of behavior, recognition, promotion, salary and the extent of opportunities they have. This unacknowledged, invisible barrier that creates restriction to progress in profession, especially affecting women employees in university level, is referred to as 'glass ceiling' in this research. The main focus of the study was to explore the factors influencing the career path of Malaysian women employees in universities and whether their characteristics and career prospects influenced by perceived glass ceiling. It is a qualitative phenomenological study that mainly aimed at finding the perceived glass ceiling by women employees throughout their career in Malaysian universities and their way of breaking and overcoming this invisible barrier in the advancement of their career. The objective of the study was also to explore the perception of women regarding the glass ceiling followed by the extent of glass ceiling in Malaysian universities and whether it is still present or not in system.