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The purpose of the paper is to review and analyse different glass ceiling studies conducted in different Asian countries during the three decades after the introduction of the metaphor. It also describes the antecedents and the consequences of the glass ceiling.

The method chosen for the study was a computerised search of available materials using the keywords relating to glass ceiling in Asia and latest reports from international organisations.

The perception of glass ceiling existence in Asian countries has been sorted out region-wise. Different factors for glass ceiling have been categorised under different theories.

The study includes a multiregional aspect of glass ceiling, which will be useful for further studies in this area. The limitation of the study is that it did not assess the awareness and influence of glass ceiling in each industry.

Since the study showed glass ceiling practices in different countries in Asia, it might help policy makers for making proper decisions for breaking of glass ceiling.

The study may be a part of empowering women as it analyses areas of inequality and finds out antecedents.

This paper is the first to shed light on glass ceiling on a multicultural and multiregional aspect.

Recent statistics indicate that the number of minority-owned and women-owned firms in the United States continues to rise. Indeed, the number has risen substantially since the last census count; from 2.3 million minority businesses in 1992 to over 3 million in 1997 – a 30 percent increase. During this same period, the receipts of minority businesses increased 60 percent – from $369 billion to $591 billion. At the same time, the number of firms in which women held majority ownership (51 percent or more) increased 16 percent – from 6.4 million to 7.4 million. The receipts of predominantly women-owned firms increased 33 percent – from $1.2 trillion to $1.6 trillion (when data are adjusted for comparability of 1992 and 1997 statistics – see U.S. Department of Commerce, 1992a, b, 1997a, b, c).

Asian immigrant entrepreneurs in the UK have been used as examples of what can be done through free enterprise. Academic interest is developing in the changes taking place as newer generations emerge. Seeks to address these issues.

A small‐scale qualitative study was undertaken with interviews of five men and five women entrepreneurs of the second generation. The issues explored included their background, the factors that have influenced, facilitated or inhibited their decision to become self‐employed, their experiences of entrepreneurship and the particular issues that confronted them. Female entrepreneurs in the sample were older and felt inhibited and more constrained than their male counterparts in their freedom to act.

Both males and females of second generation entered business through attraction for the opportunities rather than as their only option in an unknown environment. Notwithstanding expectations, later generations did not enter activities adding much greater value than those of the first generation, even though they were better integrated with their environment. Boundary stresses between first and second generation are likely to lead to further studies of succession planning and of the influence of culture and gender on attitudes to enterprise.

Methodologically the study is novel in so far as the researcher (an Asian female from a typical family business background) has taken care to observe the cultural proprieties often noted within this particular group. Hence, the data are arguably more authentic than previous studies undertaken by distant researchers.

This study aims to undertake an in-depth analysis of glass ceiling literature and suggest some directions for future research.

A systematic review of the glass ceiling literature was carried out using academic databases like Scopus, EbscoHost and Proquest.

Social and cultural stereotypes give rise to individual barriers in the form of lack of selfconfidence and lack of ambition for managerial posts. Social norms also create organizational barriers in the form of “think manager think male” stereotype and discriminatory corporate policies. These organizational barriers further lower the self-confidence of women and exaggerate work-family conflict. Policy barriers in the form of lack of stringent laws and policies also create glass ceiling for women employees. Glass ceiling leads to various consequences which have been further classified as organizational and individual level consequences. The study also highlights that contextual variables like level of education, age, social class, marital and motherhood status influence the perceptions towards the role of different factors in creating glass ceiling.

This review highlights that though several levels of barriers exist for women aspiring for a managerial position, the main problem lies in conscious and unconscious stereotypes that often find their way in the organizations through gendered culture and gender discriminatory corporate practices. Therefore, organizations should firstly work on reorienting the attitudes of its employees towards women employees by conducting gender sensitization programmes for all the employees at the workplace. These gender sensitization programmes should aim at making people aware about the unconscious stereotypes that somehow find way in their speech and actions. Secondly, the organizations should work on extending the family friendly programmes to every employee irrespective of gender and every one should be encouraged to avail those policies so that female employees do not suffer from bias due to lack of visibility. Thirdly, organizations should work on introducing scientific procedures for performance evaluation to ensure removal of any form of bias during the process of appraisal. By creating a positive and equitable work environment for women employees, firms can combat their feelings of stress and burnout and can significantly improve their bottomline. The positive steps that will be taken by organizations will put forward a positive example for the society as well.

Even though more than three decades have passed since the term “glass ceiling” made inroads in the management literature, till date, there has been no study that holistically reviews various dimensions of glass ceiling literature. Hence, this is the first study that systematically reviews the existing literature on glass ceiling. Based on the review, the study also proposes an integrated conceptual framework highlighting interrelationship between various causes and consequences of glass ceiling and sheds light on the directions along which future studies can be carried out.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate personality-related antecedents of Vietnamese workers' attitudes toward female managers, which subsequently predicted workers' judgments of them.

This study used a factorial experiment to examine participants' general attitudes toward women's rights and roles and their particular attitudes toward female managers in the workplace. Vietnamese workers (N = 159) were randomly assigned to experimental conditions of manager performance and completed a post-test questionnaire. This study also qualitatively explored participants' observations of any gender stereotypes in the workplace.

Findings demonstrated that participants' gender, general attitudes toward women's social rights and roles, and internal work locus of control positively predicted their attitudes toward female managers. Qualitative findings showed perceived gender-based egalitarianism in the workplace, but women's leadership qualities were barely recognized.

This study is the first to utilize a mixed-method approach to assess Vietnamese workers' attitudes, contributing to the literature on attitudes toward both women in general and women in management in Asia generally and in Vietnam in particular.

This paper aims to examine the experiences of Filipina women business executives occupying top-most leadership roles in male-dominated industries in the Philippines.

This qualitative research utilized the institutional theory and a phenomenological approach with semi-structured interviews for data collection. The seven women executives were purposively selected and interviewed in-depth. Participants were renowned leaders in six male-dominated industries in the country.

Three phases – growing up years, career advancement and raising a family and becoming and being the chief executive officer (CEO) tracked the career development journey of the Filipina women business leaders that participated in the study. Cultural, organizational and familial factors emerged as contextual dimensions at each phase that the women business executives needed to navigate in their journey to the top. Six sub-themes reflect challenges in their career progression – women as in-charge of households, expectations as mothers, limited representation in the boardroom, discrimination as women leaders, women not seen as leaders and husband's ego. Four other sub-themes served as enablers – equal opportunity culture, career pathing and diversity, male mentors/role models and enlightened husbands. The CEO's personal characteristics surfaced as a critical factor – spirituality, being competitive but not ambitious, speaks her mind, can-do attitude, accountability, openness to learn and continually re-invents self.

The participants only included top-most Filipina women business leaders. Implications to women executives' career development in organizations are discussed.

This current study contributes a proposed conceptual model in the understanding of the career development journey of Filipina women executives in the Philippines where recent findings found greater recognition of their work in the corporate setting as compared to more developed Asian countries.

To understand how Indian first-time mothers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) organisations returning to work cope with the perceived ideological psychological contract breaches from a work–home resources perspective.

This paper utilises interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) within the work–home resources (W-HR) model to analyse returning first-time mothers' lived experiences.

This study shows that significant life/work events such as childbirth/lack of career growth can trigger resource depletion at work and home and materialise in first-time mothers perceiving ideological psychological contract breaches at work. It has also been observed that key resource usage and macro support structures aid employees in attenuating work–home conflict by balancing contextual demands and personal resources. This study's participant accounts reveal that the recovery of volatile resources was possible by psychologically detaching and being silent.

The study offers a distinctive perspective by investigating the ideological PC breach experienced by first-time Indian mothers upon their organisational re-entry from a work–home resource model lens. Situated in a unique socio-cultural space and bringing forth the rich lived experiences of women working in the Indian STEM field, this paper explores how key resources shape the coping responses of first-time mothers in this context.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of usage of family friendly policies on the careers of women executives.

An in-depth and systematic review of literature on family friendly policies (FFPs) was carried out using Scopus database.

The study consolidates positive and negative consequences of usage of FFPs on women executives’ careers.

This study is one of the foremost attempts to consolidate the literature on different effects of usage of FFPs.

The Iranian entrepreneurial ecosystem has grown dramatically during the past decade. Several improvements have been made at different levels, and, therefore, one could witness its unique achievements. Digital entrepreneurs are an integral part of this ecosystem, as most of the early achievements are the results of their proactive behaviors. Hopefully, the number of female digital entrepreneurs has increased, and their entrepreneurial activities have profoundly changed the competition scene. Therefore, this chapter provides a better understanding of the multilayered entrepreneurial ecosystem of Iran and then elaborates how female entrepreneurs are positioned in this ecosystem. Moreover, six well-known award-winning female digital entrepreneurs are introduced, and their challenges are scrutinized accordingly through narrative research. Finally, the chapter concludes with some remarks and directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the situation (presence of young children, working hours, social and organizational support) and person-based factors (core self-evaluations) that influence work-family conflict (both work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC)) and to examine the relative power of situational factors vs person-based factors in predicting work-family conflict.

Data were collected from 367 married working professionals from eight organizations in the manufacturing and services sector in India. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses. Usefulness analysis was performed to reveal the unique contribution of the dispositional variables over the situational variables in predicting the variance in work-family conflict.

Personality factors accounted for more variance in FWC than in WFC, and situational factors accounted for more variance in WFC than in FWC.

Given the limitations associated with a cross-sectional design, caution is needed concerning the inferences drawn. Only a few variables are considered to assess the characteristics of the context.

Organizations should not view the resolution of work-family conflict as the sole responsibility of an individual because of the demonstrated influence of both dispositional and contextual factors on the presence or absence of such conflict. While individuals may strive to have better self-management skills and stay positive in adverse situations, employers may assist them in dealing with work-family demands by introducing need-based support.

The relative importance of situation-based and person-based variables in predicting work-family conflict has rarely been examined on a managerial sample in India. Research on personality-based antecedents of work-home interference is also in its infancy. A better understanding of the factors as they relate to both directions of work-family conflict may help to identify suitable approaches to managing conflict.