Earlier this year I contributed to a panel discussion on female empowerment and, whilst there, I was asked a question that I have been playing over in my mind ever since. Nova Fairbank, CEO of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, asked me the following question: “What has been the most significant barrier in your career and what did you do to overcome it?”

Nova’s question came in the context of a discussion about the glass ceiling. This is the idea that women face invisible obstacles to career progression that their male counterparts simply never encounter.

Before I share my answer to Nova’s question, I want to take a closer look at the idea of the glass ceiling. Where does it come from? Does it still exist? And, most importantly, how can we prepare our female students to move beyond any barriers to their success?

The phrase “the glass ceiling” was coined in 1978, at another panel on female aspiration. Marilyn Loden, a management consultant, suggested that there was an “invisible glass ceiling” for women who wished to move into senior leadership positions.

For Loden, this barrier was due to managers’ prejudices regarding gender roles. Loden recalled in a later interview: “I was an experienced HR professional in the telecoms industry, and yet was often told by my male boss to ‘smile more’. He made a point of commenting on my appearance at literally every meeting.”

Loden continued: “Once I was told that despite my better performance record, a promotion I was hoping for was going to a male peer. The reason given was that he was a ‘family man’ – that he was the main breadwinner and so needed the money more.”

These recollections of the 1970s workplace reveal an assumption that leadership, provision and strength were inherently masculine qualities, and that women, if they belong in an office at all, had a largely decorative role there.

When I reflect on the experiences of women from previous generations, I am struck by how much society has changed. Pay parity and gender equality are enshrined in law, and I can only imagine my current students’ outrage if I tried to introduce a 1980s style “Home Economics” GCSE at Norwich High. However, when surveyed, parents, students and alumnae felt that not offering the opportunity to learn how to cook in school was a gap in our curriculum. This is, however, something we are already addressing with a new Food Technology room in our Prep School and we have longer term plans to create something similar in the Senior School. It is an interesting juxtaposition that as a girls’ school we have previously shied away from offering such courses for fear of gender stereotyping.

A study conducted in March 2022 found that, of the FTSE 100 top companies in the UK, only nine were led by women.

Some people argue that lingering gender stereotypes present a new form of glass ceiling for today’s women. Felix Danbold, an assistant professor at UCL’s School of Management, explains: “The traits that people typically associate with success in leadership, such as assertiveness and strength, are also typically associated with masculinity.”

Another potential issue is that people respond very differently to leadership traits in men and women: behaviour perceived as strong and assertive in a man can be interpreted as aggressive or unlikeable in a woman. Dr Kevin Stannard, Director of Innovation and Learning at the GDST, observes that young people are particularly keen to police what they consider to be “unlikeable” leadership traits in women.

As evidence for this, Dr Stannard cites an experiment conducted in 2006, cited in The Atlantic magazine, where two NYU classes read case studies about a technology entrepreneur who in some versions was named Heidi and in others, Howard. The students rated Heidi and Howard as equally competent, but liked Heidi less and didn’t want to work with her.

Journalist and author Mary Ann Sieghart believes that widespread underestimation of female competence undermines women’s prospects in today’s workplace. She argues that there is a deep-rooted “authority gap” between the sexes preventing women from being awarded leadership roles.

Research on unconscious bias is fascinating, but another key factor limiting women is our own lack of self-belief.

According to the GDST Girls’ Futures Report 2022, today’s young women do not necessarily aspire to leadership. Out of 17 possible attributes, the girls surveyed said that ‘being a leader’ came last in their list of priorities. This is a saddening statistic, and one that highlights how much work there is still to be done in promoting leadership as a viable option for our young women.

Dr Stannard’s research indicates that girls end up limiting themselves due to gender stereotypes. Reading his paper on ‘Why (and how) girls thrive in girls-only schools’ I was shocked by one particular study. This experiment found that girls who were reminded of their gender right before a test tended to perform significantly worse than those who weren’t: a process dubbed ‘stereotype threat’ by the study’s authors. At a young age, these girls had learnt to associate their gender with a lack of academic ability, and that belief held them back.

Girls who believe girls can’t be intelligent grow into women who don’t believe in themselves. Suki Sandhu, a UK-based diversity specialist and CEO of diversity and inclusion consultancies Audeliss and INvolve, observed that women downplay their talents in job applications. “Ingrained societal attitudes have led to women being more tentative when applying for roles,” she says. “They are more likely to be self-deprecating and cite where they don’t have skills, instead of highlighting where they do.”

At our school, Norwich High School for Girls, girls study STEM, design, build and drive go-karts, code and apply for leadership positions without ever perceiving those activities as ‘stereotypically male’. To my mind, that is the greatest gift that we give our students: the ability to achieve and aspire unconstrained by gendered expectations.

A deeper look at the GDST Girls’ Futures 2022 findings reveals that girls are not rejecting leadership per se, just a certain form of it. One participant felt that ‘being a leader’ in the current world meant exerting stereotypically masculine traits such as assertion and dominance in the workplace, and concluded “If this is what a leader is, I do not wish to be one.”

The study concluded: “Girls today see the word ‘leadership’ to mean… working in a team, not giving up, being responsible, inspiring others, ensuring individuals are understood and appreciated, and that team dynamics work. [Girls define good management as] competent, honest and thought-through leadership to form a system that people can trust and have confidence in.”

So, to return to Nova and that panel discussion, what was the biggest barrier to my career?

The biggest barrier to my career has been my own lack of self-belief. When I look back at my younger self, I realise my own fear of failure, rather than any external factors, held me back on occasions.

Overcoming the internal glass ceiling is an ongoing process. At Norwich High we always advise our students to ‘have a go’ at activities they find challenging, and I’ve had to offer this same advice to myself when applying for leadership positions.

The support of others – both women and men, has been invaluable to me during moments of low self-confidence. Friends and mentors boost us up when we are doubting ourselves, and their belief can make the difference between success and failure.

In my capacity as Head of Norwich High School for Girls, I aim to offer the same support to all our students and staff. The next generation of young women should grow up without glass ceilings, external or otherwise.

Sources: Maya Loden; Felix Danbold; Mary Ann Sieghart