A Solid Investment

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A Solid Investment

Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital

Government report

By: U.S. Glass Ceiling Commission

Date: November 1995

Source: U.S. Glass Ceiling Commission. A Solid Investment: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital (Final Report of the Commission). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995. Available at: 〈http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/120/〉 (accessed April 11, 2006).

About the Author: The twenty-one member, bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling Commission was created by Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The Commission's mandate was to study the barriers to the advancement of women and minorities within corporate hierarchies (the problem known as the glass ceiling), to issue a report on its findings and conclusions, and to make recommendations on ways to dismantle the glass ceiling.

INTRODUCTION

The Glass Ceiling Commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which expanded upon previous civil rights legislation. The 1991 act redefined the language of existing statues, and it used newer terms from the civil rights, labor, and social literature. One of these terms refers to the "glass ceiling," a term that was frequently heard in the economic and labor debates of the late 1980s. Despite the term's novelty at the time, numerous studies show that a glass ceiling existed long before the 1980s. Glass ceiling refers to an invisible barrier faced by women and minorities in the business world that results in lower pay rates and fewer opportunities for promotion and managerial positions.

The commission operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Labor. René Redwood, an African American woman, served as the executive director of the commission. She guided the commission's reports and testimony before Congress and also acted as its spokesperson.

During the time of the commission's activities, women were attaining positions of greater influence and higher visibility in the federal government. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated and confirmed as the second female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, joining Sandra Day O'Connor. Justice Ginsburg is a well-known advocate of equality for women and minorities.

PRIMARY SOURCE

Workplace discrimination presents a significant glass ceiling barrier for minorities and women. The Commission recommends that Federal enforcement agencies increase their efforts to enforce existing laws by expanding efforts to end systemic discrimination and challenging multiple discrimination. The Commission also recommends evaluating effectiveness and efficiency and strengthening interagency coordination as a way off furthering the effort. Additionally, updating anti-discrimination regulations, strengthening and expanding corporate management reviews and improving the complaint processing system play major roles in ending discrimination. Finally, the Commission recommends making sure that enforcement agencies have adequate resources to enforce anti-discrimination laws.

The commissions' fact finding report makes clear that programs designed to expand equal employment opportunity, like affirmative action, work best when combined with real and vigorous enforcement. Strong enforcement efforts give employers an incentive to develop effective programs—like special outreach programs, mentoring and training programs, goals and timetables, and other affirmative action programs—that attack glass ceiling barriers by expanding employment opportunities for qualified minorities and women. Better interagency coordination will enable agencies to improve enforcement effectiveness and seek strong remedies, including affirmative action. Improving the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws is central to breaking the glass ceiling. The Commission recommends the following actions be taken:

Expand efforts to end systemic discrimination

The paucity of minorities and women in managerial ranks serves as a compelling reminder of continued systemic and "pattern and practice" discrimination. Systemic discrimination is practiced against an entire class; pattern and practice discrimination is the regular, routine or standard practice of discrimination by an employer against a particular group. The commission recommends the continuation of efforts to end systemic discrimination through a variety of means, including bringing pattern and practice and class action cases and expanding systemic investigation of Federal contractors.

Challenge multiple discrimination

Discrimination affects different cultural groups differently. Research indicates and statistical data show that minority women face multiple burdens of race and gender discrimination in trying to break through glass ceiling barriers. The commission recommends government agencies recognize this phenomenon and develop enforcement, outreach and public education policies to target specific discriminatory employment practices that affect minority women.

Evaluate effectiveness and efficiency

To effectively enforce anti-discrimination laws, government anti-discrimination agencies must regularly evaluate and improve their existing program and policy systems. The Commission recommends that each agency review all programs and policies (both internally and with regulated groups), seek ways to improve operations and their effectiveness, and conduct regularly scheduled meetings to review the process and the outcomes. Viewed as a working partnership between regulators and those regulated, these consultations should improve fairness and effectiveness for affected parties, bolster public understanding and confidence, and assure that appropriated funds are spent in a cost-effective manner.

Strengthen interagency coordination

Strong interagency coordination—among the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—promotes efficient and effective enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. While these agencies have some coordination of strategies in place, it is important to improve information sharing and ensure the best application of resources. The Commission recommends that Federal enforcement agencies responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws continue to explore new ways to coordinate.

Update anti-discrimination regulations

Over the last 15 years, key legal and legislative developments—such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act—have impacted heavily upon minorities and women. The regulations and interpretations that agencies use to enforce anti-discrimination laws and executive orders must reflect current legal opinion and laws. The Commission recommends revision of regulations and compliance manuals to reflect changes in the workplace, and in society, and the law.

SIGNIFICANCE

Since the 1995 U.S. Glass Ceiling Commission's report, tangible evidence for the improvement and advancement of minorities and women is difficult to quantify. While strides have been made to increase the number of women in math and science, academia, and the legal profession, numerous lawsuits also have been brought by women claiming that they have been passed over for promotions or been sexually harassed in the workplace. Some of these cases have concerned discrimination against women who did not look "womanly enough", and other cases have concerned women who were deemed too forceful in their approach to business. Popular television shows and movies also have attempted to capture the sex-labor debate in their increased portrayals of women executives, business leaders, and educated females.

In 2004, the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, D.C. issued a follow-up report on the glass ceiling entitled "Women's Economic Status in the States: Wide Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Region." The study showed that American women in the workforce continued to earn eighty cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. For African-American women, the gap is even wider, with a salary of twenty to fifty percent less, on average, than white males. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives John Dingell and Carolyn Maloney introduced legislation in December 2005 that would establish a national center that would examine the wage gap and make recommendations to businesses for combating it.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Aptheker, Bettina. Tapestries of Life: Women's Work, Women's Consciousness, and the Meaning of Daily Experience. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

Harvard Business Review on Work and Life Balance. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.