Beyond Glass Ceilings and Brick Walls - International Labour ...

• Of the total figure of 68,491 employees, 37,003 are men and
31,488 are women.
• Women employees constitute 45.9% of the total employed in these
organizations. However, it must be noted that this includes
companies representing the plantation sector and export industries,
where there are large concentrations of women employees.
• Almost 95% of women are crowded into the “workers category,
skilled and unskilled”. Jobs at this levels require little decisionmaking
and are not very demanding- conveying their lack of
positional and agenda setting power within the organization as
well as little chance for skills up-gradation that is needed to move
beyond glass ceilings and brick walls.
• The majority of women in the “workers” category also indicates
horizontal (occupational) as well as vertical segregation in general
(reflecting their lower levels of skills and organizationed openings).
• Of the total (104) representatives of apex decision-making bodies,
only 5 are women, thereby illustrating the paucity of women in
decision-making positions (4.8%), which tends to reflect the overall
country statistics (Table 3.) of the dearth of women at the top.
• There are only 3 women CEOs from the total figure of 69 CEOs
heading the organizations (they constitute 4.3% of the total number
of CEOs, and 0.009% of the total number of female employees).
This confirms previous observations that women very rarely reach
positions of executive control.
• Of the female CEOs, one CEO works in an insurance company of a
conglomerate spanning various sectors of industry/service. The
second CEO is heading a 30-year-old, family-owned, property
development company, while the third CEO is in charge of a 160-
year-old organization in export/import trading.
• Even though women are part of management, their numbers are
limited (10% - 20% of management). They are distributed as 12.3%
of senior management, 19.2% of middle management and 18.7%
of junior management.)
• Between 20% - 30% of executives at senior/junior levels and
superintendents/ supervisors are women.
Concurrently, the survey came across divisions and departments within
organizations that are occupied entirely by men or women. In many instances,
the transport/maintenance divisions of organizations were staffed completely
by men. This, of course, is linked to the social perception of certain job
spheres as masculine or feminine; and which, therefore, preclude access to
the opposite sex.
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