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glass ceiling
[ glas see-ling ]
noun
- an upper limit to professional advancement, especially as imposed upon women, minorities, and other nondominant groups, that is not readily perceived or openly acknowledged:
It’s more difficult for women of color to break through the glass ceiling.
glass ceiling
noun
- a situation in which progress, esp promotion, appears to be possible but restrictions or discrimination create a barrier that prevents it
glass ceiling
- An unacknowledged — and ultimately illegal — barrier to advancement, especially for women and people of color: “In many professions a woman cannot break through the glass ceiling to the upper level of management.” The term dates from the 1980s.
Word History and Origins
Origin of glass ceiling1
Idioms and Phrases
An unacknowledged discriminatory barrier to advancement, especially for women and minorities. For example, Harriet knew she'd never be promoted—she would never get through the glass ceiling . [1980s]Example Sentences
If it’s glamour you’re after, check out the Wolves downtown, which offers affordable cocktails on par with the real thing under a historic domed stained glass ceiling.
Might she venture to break through Sacramento’s ultimate glass ceiling?
The Prices were motivated by “a funny version of feminism, where the glass ceiling is whether or not you’re allowed to shoot a gun at policeman,” Zetumer said.
Harris very deliberately downplayed both her gender and racial identity this campaign, in sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton's 2016 run, centered around soaring rhetoric about the candidate breaking the final glass ceiling.
She has been talking about what was on the other side of that glass ceiling since the day the vice president announced her candidacy.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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