glass ceiling

glass (indicating transparency, to allude to the often unacknowledged nature of the limitation) + ceiling (suggesting a barrier to upward advancement)

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glass ceiling (plural glass ceilings)

1. (idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group.
   • 2007 January 5, Polly Curtis, “Six thousand women missing from boardrooms, politics and courts”, in The Guardian‎:

     Women are “woefully” under-represented in parliament, the courts and the boardroom, with new research showing that the glass ceiling is still holding back 6,000 women from the top 33,000 jobs in Britain.

   • 2017 September 19, Jennifer Szalai, “The Education of Ellen Pao”, in New York Times‎:

     […] it was the genteel chauvinism of the enlightened elites at Kleiner Perkins that carried with it the sting of betrayal. They promised her a meritocracy and gave her a glass ceiling instead: “It just wasn’t fair.”

   • 2022 July 29, Lux Alptraum, “Women, the Game Is Rigged. It’s Time We Stop Playing by the Rules.”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     And yet as we stand amid the metaphorical shards of all those shattered glass ceilings, it’s hard to ignore the fact that empowerment feminism hasn’t really delivered on its promises.

• bamboo ceiling
• cotton ceiling

• glass cliff

• glass ceiling at OneLook Dictionary Search

Unadapted borrowing from English glass ceiling.

glass ceiling m (invariable)

1. glass ceiling