Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی
Authors
1 professor of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Graduated from Tarbiat Modares Universityof tehran, iran.
Abstract
The barriers to women's employment and job promotion are among the main issues surrounding working women. Sociologists study the barriers to women's promotion in terms of glass ceiling. The Glass Ceiling is a set of factors that creates barriers on the path of women's career advancement. Fictional works as the literary and cultural sources of any society play a part in representing social events and the issues surrounding the world of women. In some fictional works, the female characters face different barriers to continuing their studies, going into business, and being promoted. Conducting a study into the fictional works concerning women's employment and career conditions, the present paper attempts to identify the barriers to women's employment in terms of glass ceiling and based on a library research and a content analysis. The findings suggest that patriarchal views, marriage, work corruption, and having children are the major factors in creating the glass ceiling. Due to these factors, different carriers are dominated by men and strongly influenced by gender issues, a situation in which men win the jobs of high rank and women take the lower ones.
Highlights
The phenomenon of “Glass Ceiling” in Contemporary fiction[1]
Introduction
One of the effective factors in the sustainable development of societies is the creation of equal opportunities for the flourishing of the capabilities of men and women. Women gain an understanding of their potential if they have the opportunity to express it. One of the most important issues in women’s employment is the job discrimination between men and women in the workforce. Given the importance of women’s presence and participation in the center of social and economic activities, there are some basic unanswered questions to consider: Why, despite the significant population of women, is their presence in society ignored? What are the reasons why the presence and participation of women in the development of society and the holding of sensitive and high-level responsibilities is ignored? What factors slow down women’s growth and career promotion?
Sociologists and critics, in response to the above questions, examine a set of barriers to women’s career advancement under the heading of the “glass ceiling”. Signs of a glass ceiling include gender inequality in rewards and lack of career promotion for women. This phenomenon stems from negative social and cultural attitudes and organizational discrimination. In most societies, women have been and are employed in low-level and repetitive occupations. False and pessimistic social and cultural attitudes toward women’s abilities, lack of self-confidence, lack of participation in social and economic activities and poverty are among the factors that have made women lack the necessary motivation to earn their rights.
Story is one of the cultural achievements that has chosen its subjects and characters from the heart of society and is a reflection of social events and perhaps the hidden layers of people’s lives. Story writers, in turn, have portrayed the role and position of women in different societies and cultures. One of the issues that has been considered by a number of authors is the issue of women’s employment and the obstacles in this field. Since the stories are a reflection of the culture and community of different human societies, what is said about the phenomenon of the glass ceiling in the stories seems to be closely related to social and cultural beliefs. The present article seeks to evaluate and analyze the existing employment conditions, obstacles and exclusions in the path of employment and career promotion of women with regard to the phenomenon of the glass ceiling, by examining selected stories.
The selected works include seventeen works in various fiction genres by male and female authors, which have been selected based on previous studies by the authors. These stories have been selected based on the employment of women, regardless of gender. Selected stories, in addition to paying attention to the status of women and depicting their issues, also pay attention to women’s job concerns. These works are short stories Surat xâne, Model (Simin Dânešvar), Qesseye âšenâ (Ahmad Mahmud), Âpârtemân (1) (Zoyâ Pirzâd), Doxtari lâye parvandehâ (Akram Azizi), Alân tamâmash mikonim (Soheylâ nadimi farrox), Long story Bâ Šobayro (Mahmud Dowlat-âbâdi), Românhâye Qesseye Tahmine (Mohammad Mohammad-Ali), Sorxiye to az man, Engâr gofte budi leyli (Sepide Šâmlu), Čehel sâlegi (Nâhid Tabâtabâyi), Bogšây lab (Shohre Vakili), Če kasi bâvar mikonad Rostam (Ruhangiz Šarifiyân), Bâziye âxare Bânu (Belqeys Soleimâni), Jazireye sargardâni (Simin Dânešvar), Âdat mekonim (Zoyâ Pirzâd), Modire madrese (Jalal Âl-e Ahmad), thirteen works from female authors and four from authors.
Goal
The present article seeks to evaluate and analyze the working conditions, obstacles and disruptions in the path of employment and advancement of women according to the phenomenon of the glass ceiling by examining the stories in which the life and conditions of working women are presented. The present study seeks to answer these questions: In story works, what factors have been considered by the authors as obstacles to women’s career promotion? What similarities and differences in the barriers to women’s career advancement can be seen in the stories of male and female writers?
Method
The present study is based on the study of content and comparative analysis of results. In this way, by studying the stories, the obstacles that had the greatest impact on the creation of the glass ceiling phenomenon have been extracted and analyzed, and examples from the text of the stories have been given for each obstacle.
Conclusion
Sociologists identify and evaluate barriers to women’s career promotion as the phenomenon of glass ceiling. In the present article, the issue of women’s employment in selected stories from male and female authors is examined. The results show that the four factors of patriarchal attitudes, marriage, promiscuity in workplace and childbearing are the most important barriers that prevent women from entering the job market according to their talents, respectively. The result is the absence of women in many important and sensitive positions. The dominance of patriarchal attitudes is the most important factor that affects the other three factors and makes it less possible to see traces of women in the employment and promotion of women.
Keywords: Glass Ceiling, Employment, Woman, Fiction.
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[1] Hasan Zolfaqâri: Associate professor of University of Tarbiyat Modarres.
Maryam Moqaddami: Ph. D. graduate of University of Tarbiyat Modarres.
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