We’ve all heard of the glass ceiling. But did you know there’s something called a glass escalator? I didn’t.
I know we have to stop thinking of anything in terms of men and women because that’s how we move toward a more gender-equal world. I get it. But I thought this idea of a glass escalator was so interesting — that men who enter predominantly women-heavy professions sometimes enjoy swifter progress compared to women. And I hadn’t thought about this until I remembered one of the most popular examples is that cooking is widely thought of as a “woman’s job” (I’m having trouble even typing that out) but some of the best known chefs are male.
Even if it’s a product that only women use — some of the most famous makeup artists (Mickey Contractor), fashion designers of women’s clothes (Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta), women’s footwear designers (Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Giuseppe Zanotti, Christian Louboutin) and some of the most popular makers of fragrances for women (Issey Miyake, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs)…they’re all men. Victoria’s Secret was started by a man too embarrassed to shop for sexy lingerie at a physical shop for his wife. I know the story of the man who tried to make sanitary pads affordable in rural India better than a similar story of innovation by a woman.
Even periods are not solely a woman’s prerogative 🤷🏽♀️.
So this glass escalator thing must be real.
And the more I dig, I realise this is true of nearly everywhere.
And as always, these experiences are worse for people of colour or from marginalised backgrounds.
Gender inequality at the workplace has only been exacerbated by the pandemic.
I recently learnt women are expected to spill more about their personal lives in celebrity memoirs while men get to disclose only as much as they feel comfortable. How often are the life stories of men with tainted pasts — Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger, Osho — treated as more an extension of their fame whereas women are judged more harshly simply for being imperfect, whether she’s Princess Diana, Amy Winehouse or Phoolan Devi.
There’s gender inequality in the art world.
That women suffer bias and opportunities to advance in academia is an open secret.
I’ve written about how healthcare has long treated women unfairly. Even now, during Covid, women are getting an unfair deal — expectant mothers in Brazil are dying from the virus. Pregnant women weren’t included in the initial trials of the vaccine and its effects on menstruation weren’t studied closely (but it’s safe for both groups. Please get the vaccine) and sometimes the argument is it’s not standard to check this stuff in clinical trials. But then the question is, why not? I can’t help but think this is because it isn’t a priority?
That’s a separate conversation though.
Pondering about this, however, led me to this interesting project which looks at how the design community has neglected so many products tied to motherhood through which I learnt EVEN A TAMPON was invented by a man and became more popular than the menstrual cup which a woman invented 🙈🙈🙈. The menstrual cup is revolutionary for its design, helps you spend less money and is eco-friendly but because of a latex rubber shortage during WWII, the idea didn’t take off and it wasn’t until only about 20 years ago when it was improved and became mainstream. Earlier versions existed as far back as 1867.
Is it surprising anymore that a glass escalator exists?
I was trying to think of what I wanted to say about this glass escalator.
Why does it exist? Does so much of what we put our trust and money in come from men that even when a woman does or produces something just as good, or better, we’re likely to be sceptical? Or are men’s achievements just more widely publicised which gives them this greater credibility that isn’t necessarily grounded in fact? Or both?
If gaining a level of mastery isn’t enough to get noticed, is telling women to advocate for themselves the solution or do systems need to be built fairer to support their recognition?
How do women become conscious of and correct their own bias and blind spots towards other women?
How do we normalise men and women working in any field without labels like “male-dominated” and “feminine” following them around?
Whether it’s a glass ceiling or a glass escalator, it’s the sneaky nature of these structures — you don’t know they exist until you hit against them. And it’s the frustration of being able to see the top through this invisible barrier but not get to it. How do you get past something like that?
When you know this happens — that women can get drowned out in spaces they originally created or that are meant to serve them — what do you do differently?
I tried looking up “how to be a woman’s ally” and being a “female champion” at the workplace. Which all have great suggestions. Some have been written by men, some by women. Almost all say, listen first. But that a comprehensive resource doesn’t come up on top on the results page for a search like that, ideally representing a variety of viewpoints and circumstances, is telling of how we’re still far away from dismantling the glass escalator.
I guess, like with many, most other things, it starts with awareness. Accepting that something needs to change is half the work. The other half might include:
Being curious about where some of your favourite/most-used products come from.
Thinking about what you can do to help give a woman-led business a step up. A recommendation or positive rating, a mention on your social media, chatting her up to friends who might consider hiring her? Do it.
And maybe most importantly, where are you spending your money?
Equally importantly, being careful of the language we use around children and young people so they don’t think only certain careers are for men and certain others are for women. It really takes a village.
I’d love to hear what your suggestions are. These glass structures have been around long enough and they’re boring. If we’re finally making strides in what women can do, it’s about time they get compensated fairly — financially, socially and within an industry.
In Women Wins this Week
Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the final minutes of George Floyd’s life which went viral, has won a Pulitzer special citation.
Indian-origin Megha Rajagopalan was part of the Buzzfeed team which won the publication’s first Pulitzer. She won the Internet with this tweet.
Rhode Island’s governor finally signed into law a bill to abolish child marriage. England and Wales are set to follow. Northern Ireland and Scotland need to do the same. Get 👏🏼 there 👏🏼 faster 👏🏼. I’ve written before of how many seemingly progressive places in the world still allow this, including the states of New York and California.
What a good problem to have. MacKenzie Scott has now given away nearly $3 billion in charity, her wealth growing faster than she can donate it. After receiving the biggest divorce settlement in history, a fresh set of grants has sent her money to higher education, organisations which bring communities together through interfaith support and reducing global poverty with a focus on women and girls. In 2020, she donated about $6 billion to various causes. Always #TeamMacKenzie!🎉
Lina Khan has been appointed as chair of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). She is the first Muslim to serve in this position and at 32, the youngest too. Have you read my post on what it means to be a first woman?
I stumbled on this lovely story by Vidya Balachander. As a country grapples with the effects of a years-long civil war, I love the idea of trying to make sense of a country’s dark chapter of history through its food as told by its women. You can buy the book here. It’s similar in spirit to Together: Our Community Cookbook, launched and supported by Meghan Markle, following the Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people. On the anniversary of the event, which just went by (June 14), this Guardian story got my attention.
This seems to be a trend and also a good time to mention that Lima Shawa’s, A Taste of Gaza, has been published.
It’s a very literary-heavy set of recommendations this week as Cut From the Same Cloth by Sabeena Akhtar releases, capturing what it means to be a visibly Muslim woman in Britain.
My fascination with how women’s health has been ignored continues. I want to read Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn which is out this month because it sounds ace in this NYT review. Plenty of what it dives deeper into is plain jaw-dropping.
And Germany continues to lead the way for gender equality as its parliament passed landmark legislation to ensure women are part of supervisory boards of some of the country’s largest corporations. The rule will affect public and private companies. This made me think of how so much of the world is still run solely by men.
Last week, I wrote about the value of educating a woman. I’m trying to get mobile phones to a group of women in India who are at the risk of being trafficked and pushed into child labour because their schools have closed during lockdown and they can’t keep up with online classes.
Look at the mad numbers on this tweet. I’ve never had a tweet get so much attention and I’m so glad it’s this one. We still need phones to send to these students. Please send me an email or Twitter DM and I’ll send you a set of instructions on how and where to make the donation and some disclaimers. I’m also happy to share how we’re coordinating this. At the moment, we’re focusing on secondhand phones instead of crowdfunding to keep investments low and logistics to a minimum. Please spread the word!
I’ll leave you with this story from some time ago by Andaleeb Wajid about how life changing it can be when a woman starts to believe in herself.
And I really enjoyed listening to this episode of Pooja Dhingra’s podcast with Rajni Bector and her grandaughter, Sana Bector Parwanda. It’s a fun conversation about business between three women of everything they know and all that they’ve learned. Entering the workforce as a woman in the 1970s in India couldn’t have been easy and that’s exactly what Mrs Bector talks about and of what it’s taken to build a family business that started in her home which has now grown to become publicly listed. She recently celebrated her 80th birthday and received a Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours, for her contribution to trade and industry.
These glass escalators that lead to nowhere aren’t going away. But no limiting glass structure is going to stop women from going everywhere they want to. Because when the escalator doesn’t work, it’s more effort but you do the next best thing — take the stairs.
xx
AA
Eye-opening post. Like you, I did not know of the concept of glass Escalator although it was staring me right in the face. As you pointed out, addressing this starts with awareness, supplemented with education, empowerment and financial independence.
A mammoth mailer and an absolutely riveting read. Thank you for being one of those women taking the stairs and holding the Exit doors open for others with your inspiring writing.