Uses of Time

>>Last March 8, International Women’s Day, the City Council focused on the fight against vertical segregation that still today prevents many women from accessing positions of responsibility.

The impact of the glass ceiling on women’s working life is not a perception. It is a reality contrasted with various and truthful data and sources that show the current difficulties women face in accessing positions of responsibility. For example:

• Only 33.8% of management positions in Catalonia are held by women. Source: Labor Force Survey, Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (2022)
• There are only 2 female rectors in the 8 universities in Barcelona. Source: Catalan Universities (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2024).
• Only 25.1% of cinema films in Catalonia are directed by women. Source: The keys to the current production of Catalan cinema: a look at the period 2012-2022 and presentation of the 2021 statistical report. Audiovisual Production Observatory (2022).
• Only 34% of the research field is led by women. Source: Gender bias in the recruitment, promotion and retention of staff in universities. Live Universities Network (2023).
• Women hold only 23.44% of key positions in information and communication technologies (ICT). Source: Barometer of the technological sector in Catalonia 2023. Technology Circle (2023)

It is essential to address and firmly combat all the gaps and structural inequalities that women have suffered for years in their professional development.

For this reason, this year Barcelona City Council focused the March 8 campaign on demanding more women in management and command positions. Reference women who not only open gaps in the barriers of the present, but who inspire future generations of bosses, leaders, and directors.

The glass ceiling is transversal, it exists in the political, scientific, technological, educational and business spheres, and it limits the representation of women in the elites of any work sphere.

Vertical segregation is exacerbated by other factors, such as a higher percentage of women opting for part-time and temporary jobs to make their profession compatible with caring tasks. The inequalities that women face are often linked, and the glass ceiling is no exception: it is closely linked to the feminization of care, and also to the feminization of poverty, gender-based violence and mental and emotional health problems.

The lack of opportunities for women must have serious consequences such as the salary and pension gap, the loss of talent and the absence of female references in leadership.

The Harvard Business Review article by Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg on breaking through the glass ceiling highlights that “when women and men are not given the same opportunities to shine and grow professionally, work itself becomes gender, and positions of lower status are considered competition between women”.

They also ensure that measures can be taken from the organizations to identify and address the different gender biases within the sphere of influence of the organization itself and be an agent of change within the team of working people. Reducing the glass ceiling must be a deliberate and continuous process in organizations, complementing changes in team dynamics, but also guaranteeing company policies that take into account gender equality in all areas.

You can consult more data on gender inequalities and the glass ceiling in the Municipal Data Office, which collects a wide range of indicators, the Sociodemographic Survey of Barcelona, the study Gender in numbers. Women’s living conditions and gender inequalities in Barcelona, the Survey on gender issues (Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió, Generalitat de Catalunya) and the 2023 Gender Equality Index (Catalan Institute of Women, Government of Catalonia).