The Glass Ceiling in Politics: Formalization and Empirical Tests

Arbeitspapier

There is a scarcity of women and minorities at the apex of political power. This paper formalizes the concept of the glass ceiling for political organizations and builds on previous research to suggest four testable criteria. A glass ceiling exists if women and/or racial minorities (1) are discriminated against in the organization's promotion process and (2) the discrimination increases in severity for the top levels of power and over an individual's career trajectory. We suggest a series of empirical tests for this phenomenon and apply them to longitudinal data on Swedish politicians. Results show that women face a glass ceiling, while minorities' career disadvantages are more severe at the earlier career steps (a "sticky floor").

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFN Working Paper ; No. 1034

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Structure and Scope of Government: General ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Public Sector Labor Markets
• Subject: Glass ceiling ; Political careers ; Subnational politics ; Women and politics ; Supply of politicians ; Gender inequality ; Racial inequality

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Folke, Olle ; Rickne, Johanna
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2014

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/109126
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 3:43 PM CET