Hypothesising Glass Ceiling Factors: A research review

The present paper is an endeavour to broaden the understanding on the ‘glass ceiling’ phenomenon through the window of research results drawn in the context of various life courses of women working across different organisations, cultures and level of hierarchy. Though the women comprise equal proportion in global population, yet the working women in different spheres do not match in number of their male counterparts in organisations, particularly at the helm of affairs of organisations. This underlines the need for elaborate research with pre-devised hypotheses. The paper proposes five hypotheses based on the critical examination of the research results drawn from selected studies conducted across various cultures and organizations.