Breaking Glass Ceilings.

In the late 1950’s, the gender quota for American astronaut candidates was 100 percent male and 0 percent female. After some men had gone into space, Jerrie Cobb broke the all-male quote in the early 1960’s with twenty-four other female pilots when NASA allowed them to go through the physical and psychological evaluation as part of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees Programme. Jerrie ranked in the top 2 percent of all the astronaut candidates (regardless of gender), which is no surprise as she has been teaching men to fly places at nineteen years of age and had gone on to set a world record for speed altitude and distance. She was told by NASA that she’d be the first women in space and was celebrated on television.

However, America was not ready to let its all-male quota go, NASA canceled the women’s program in 1963.John Glenn testified that ‘’men go off and fight the wars and fly the planes’’ and added ‘’the fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order’’

Jerrie put up a fight but eventually gave up, but she did so many amazing things in her life despite this setback, she won pilot of the year by her colleagues and did some amazing humanitarian work. Jerrie had smashed so many ceilings before hitting this bump in the road, making world records and winning multiple awards.

Jerrie’s story highlights how because of ‘social order’ and gendered roles women were not allowed to succeed or try to succeed in the way that men where. Her story is a testament to the sex discrimination that women did and still undergo. Whilst we have come far there are still limitations that many of us face.

‘Glass ceilings’ is a term that was created by Marilyn Loden in 1978, when she listened to a panel of female individuals discussing women’s deficiencies in socialisation and the self-deprecating ways in which behaved and the poor self-image that women allegedly carried. She was shocked that the criticisms were on women’s personalities and not focussed on the issue that was cultural. Many women have been limited by the glass ceiling put in place by society, including women like Jerrie.

Now as women we are able to do many jobs that a long time ago Jerrie and others could not do because they were not seen as jobs for women. That glass ceiling seems in many of the western world to have been smashed, however, there is still stigma within many industries and for women reaching higher paid/positioning jobs. And still gender-based inequalities within many job roles.

Women in Work are hosting a ‘Breaking Glass Ceilings’ open discussion on the 6^th February at Mansions of the future, 6:45pm, we will be discussing the inequalities that may still exist for women now. The personal ‘glass ceilings’ we place on ourselves and the responsibility that we have as modern women today. We hope to see you there. (Tickets can be purchased here)

So whether we see you at our next event or not, keep breaking them glass ceilings, and smashing back them prosecco glasses at every little success you have!

Elena Cossar – President of Women in Work.