Glass ceiling strategies of women: An amprical inverstigation on large-size Turkish companies

One of the major obstacles of economic development is that women are not getting their fair share in economic opportunities. Several obstacles that prevent women from reaching desired occupational positions are known as glass ceiling. Glass ceiling despite efforts, has not been eliminated in any society completely yet.The purpose of this study is to investigate the most efficient strategy used by women to break the glass ceiling. Among the strategies included in this study are such as level of education and training, networking, career tracking, mentoring and demonstration higher performance. Women working in 11 Turkish companies that are listed in the FT 500 in 2005 constituted the population of the study.Data was obtained from those women who were promoted at least once in their career development efforts. Some 196 of those women provided usable information through a survey concerning women?s career strategies. SPSS program was used to process and analyze obtained data. The findings revealed that the most efficient strategy used by women was to demonstrate higher performance in order to promote their career.Key Words: Glass ceiling, strategies for breaking glass ceiling, education and training, networking, career tracking, mentoring and demonstrating higher performance.