Factors Causing the Glass Ceiling in Public Organizations

Despite of women’s enthusiasm for more presence in different fields of society, unfortunately, their presence in both macro and micro level management is not outstanding. Also women are not as opportunist as men in employment opportunities, and work achievements. This phenomenon is called glass ceiling, and it is affected by personal, organizational, cultural and social factors. This research is applicable in its objectives and it is descriptive in methodology. The target population of this research includes all the state (governmental) organizations in Isfahan. From the target population; all the personnel of head departments of education, technical and vocational, labor and social affairs and welfare organization including 637 people were selected. The calculated volume sample was 219. The researcher collected 199 questionnaires, for data collection; the researcher used interview and questionnaire. Based on this, the researcher collected data about the personal, organizational, cultural, and social factors that would allow the appointment or disengagement of women for management positions. The results indicated that two reasons naming cultural and social factors are the most influential in not appointing women for management or higher positions in an organization. Among the rejected hypothesis, and based on the interviews, there are 2 main reasons why women can’t be appointed for management or higher positions in an organization; including: 1) women are emotional and are not capable of doing the kind of work that needs to be done away from family (from personal perspective) 2) lack of equal employment opportunities for men and women (from organizational perspective)