Glass Ceiling for Women and Work Engagement: The Moderating Effect of Marital Status

Abstract Women face several obstacles and barriers in order to attain high managerial positions as compared to men. They struggle to get fair representation in corporate boards and higher management levels. This is known as ‘glass ceiling’. The present study aims to explore the level of glass ceiling for women (GCW) in terms of its three major barriers, that is, personal barriers, organizational barriers and societal barriers among women managers working in the Indian service sector and identify the impact of GCW on their work engagement level as well as the moderating effect of marital status (single or married) on the relationship of GCW and work engagement. A total of 553 women managers working in the three major industries of the service sector, that is, banking, hospitality and information technology (IT), operating in the state of northern India (Punjab) were selected by using multistage sampling technique. The hypotheses were tested through one-sample t-test and moderated hierarchical regression analysis using ‘Statistical Package for Social Sciences’. It was apparent from the findings of the study that the women managers face glass ceiling in terms of organizational and societal barriers at an above-average level. The study also revealed that the organizational and societal barriers had a major impact of 39 per cent on work engagement. Additionally, marital status of the women managers acted as a moderator between the organizational and societal barriers of GCW and their work engagement level. On the basis of the results, the study provides recommendations to raze the GCW in terms of organizational barriers and societal barriers and to increase the work engagement level among the women managers