Journal of Education and Health Promotion

The role of glass ceiling in women’s promotion to managerial positions from the perspective of faculty members at Iran University of Medical Sciences

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Ghobad Ramezani
. Ghadir Pourbairamian
. Salime Goharinezhad 1
. Azam Norouzi
. Mohammad Hasan Keshavarzi 2
. Zohreh Sohrabi

1 Preventive Medicine and Public Health Research Center, Psychological Health Research Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Clinical Education Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract
BACKGROUND: In recent years, many changes have been observed in women’s roles in
organizations. In Iran, women face challenges to be promoted to high‑level organizational positions.
The present study aimed to examine the role of glass ceiling in promoting women to managerial
positions from the perspective of the faculty members at Iran University of Medical Sciences.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research was an applied study in terms of objectives and
a descriptive‑survey study in terms of data collection, variable monitoring and control, and
generalizability. The statistical population of the study encompassed all clinical and basic sciences
faculty members at Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019–2020. The simple random sampling
method was adopted, and the study instrument was the standard questionnaire of women’s beliefs
about glass ceiling developed by Smith (2012). To analyze the data, descriptive and inferential (namely
paired‑sample t‑test and one‑sample t‑test) statistics were run in the SPSS software.
RESULTS: The results revealed that glass ceiling dimensions could predict 48% of the variance
of women’s promotion to managerial positions. Furthermore, a significant difference was noticed
between men and women’s perspectives toward glass ceiling (P < 0.001); however, there was no
significant difference between the two groups of clinical and basic sciences (P > 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Failure to provide appropriate opportunities for qualified women to be promoted to
managerial positions would result in nonexploitation of about half of the available capacities and talents.
Women have unique abilities and soft skills in the human resource management. At the macro‑level,
policy‑makers and planners to review the plans and delegation of organizational‑managerial positions
and also to further consider the role of women in managerial positions by observing gender justice
and meeting criteria such as capability and expertise.

Keywords

Gender justice
glass ceiling
women leadership
women management
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 8
September 2021
Pages 1-7

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