
woman dressed in business suit image by PP_PHOTO from Fotolia.com
The proverbial glass ceiling has been used for many years to describe the difficulty women and minorities have faced moving upward in the corporate environment. The metaphorical glass wall describes the difficulty women and minorities have moving laterally within corporations.
Glass Ceiling

business woman image by Kurhan from Fotolia.com
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 authorized the Glass Ceiling Commission, which was designed to address the obstacles by women and minorities attempting upward mobility in the corporate environment. The Department of Labor found in 1987 that only two percent of women held top level corporate management positions and only five percent of corporate boards comprised women. Minority figures were not much better.
Glass Walls

woman working on a laptop computer image by Julia Britvich from Fotolia.com
Within the corporate environment, it is generally understood that to rise upward, a person needs to first be able to move laterally from department to department to learn the business. When barriers are created to block women and minorities from moving laterally the invisible obstruction is the “glass wall.”
Importance of Equity

business woman image by Kurhan from Fotolia.com
Beyond simple equity for women and minorities, breaking glass walls and the glass ceiling is good for business. The nonprofit research organization Catalyst found that corporations with more women in top executive positions do better than corporations with fewer women in those positions.
References
Resources
Writer Bio
Douglas Hawk has been freelance writing since 1983. He has had articles appear in numerous Colorado newspapers and in a wide variety of national magazines. Hawk has sold three novels and one short story, which won an award from the Colorado Authors' League. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Adams State College and master's degree in mass communications from the University of Denver.