The Glass Ceiling

    Over the last two decades many women in the corporate world have advanced into managerial positions. But most have found that top leadership positions remain elusive for women, as an invisible ceiling makes further promotion seemingly impossible. Only a few women have broken through the so-called 'glass ceiling' and reached the upper echelons of corporate power in the United States. Which factors account for the systematic exclusion of women from high-level leadership positions? And which circumstances have allowed women to break through?

    The Center for Leadership and Public Interest Advocacy confronted these questions in a symposium entitled 'Smashing the Glass Ceiling: Women Leaders Discuss Power and Gender in the Corporate World' on March 9th, 1998. The panel participants were Mount Holyoke alumnae who told and analyzed from first-hand experience how they broke through the glass ceiling and which obstacles they had found to be most formidable on their way to the top.

The participants were:

Roberta Puschel '65, managing director, J.P. Morgan;
Barbara Moakler Byrne '76, managing director, Shearson Lehman Brothers;
Margaret Wolff '76, senior partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher;
Karen Davis-Delk '82, senior vice president, GE Capital Corp;
Stella Kang '94, associate, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Equity Research
Moderator: Eva Paus, director of the Center for Leadership and Public Interest Advocacy

A videotape of the event is available through the alumnae association.

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