The Glass Ceiling for Women Working in the Information Technology Field

It is the new Millennium, yet the equilibrium between women and men in the corporate world still has not been reached. Even though society has come a long way in attaining more opportunities for women, there is still a long way to go in order to reach true equality. This inability to reach equality is sometimes called the "Glass Ceiling" which refers to an artificial barrier that prevents qualified individuals advance within their organization and reach their full potential. Specifically, in the Information Technology field, there has been significant evidence which shows that both women and minorities have been prevented from attaining their true potential and have been undermined when it comes to wages and executive positions in this particular industry. The problem in a wide range of careers had become so troublesome that The Glass Ceiling Commission was created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Its responsibility was to identify glass-ceiling barriers in order to promote employment opportunities for minorities and women, however barriers in the IT profession still need to be further discussed. 

Interestingly enough, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has done research on women and men in the labor force and the numbers seem to be somewhat unsettling. In terms of managerial and professional specialty, it is stated that men, on average, in the year 2000, had 15,739,000 workers while women had 15,866,000 workers in the same fields. In the year 2001, the numbers were very similar, men with 15,947,000 workers compared to women with 16,155,000 workers. Nevertheless, even though the numbers for women workers are somewhat larger, the wages they earn are significantly lower. For the year 2000, median weekly earnings for men were recorded at $1009 compared to $726 for women. Similarly in the year 2001, median weekly earnings for men were $1046 compared to $742 for women. That is a $15,000 annual income difference for people who are supposedly completing the same jobs and receiving a drastically different amount on their paycheck