See glass ceiling in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for glass ceiling meaning in English (6.4kB)
{
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"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ceiling"
},
"expansion": "ceiling",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "glass"
},
"expansion": "glass",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Q55622178",
"in": "1978",
"nobycat": "1"
},
"expansion": "Coined by Q55622178 in 1978",
"name": "coin"
}
],
"etymology_text": "A metaphor using ceiling to suggest a barrier to upward mobility, and glass to allude to the often unacknowledged or “invisible” nature of this limitation.\nCoined by Q55622178 in 1978.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "glass ceilings",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "glass ceiling (plural glass ceilings)",
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"parents": [
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"source": "w"
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{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Feminism",
"orig": "en:Feminism",
"parents": [
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"Ideologies",
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"kind": "topical",
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"name": "Forms of discrimination",
"orig": "en:Forms of discrimination",
"parents": [
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"Society",
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"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Sexism",
"orig": "en:Sexism",
"parents": [
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"Biology",
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"Sociology",
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"Sciences",
"Social sciences",
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],
"source": "w"
}
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "glass cliff"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2007 January 5, Polly Curtis, “Six thousand women missing from boardrooms, politics and courts”, in The Guardian",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 September 19, Jennifer Szalai, “The Education of Ellen Pao”, in New York Times",
"text": "[…] 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.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021 November 19, Chris Megerian, quoting Bakari Sellers, “Kamala Harris makes history, again, as first woman with presidential power — for 85 minutes”, in Los Angeles Times",
"text": "“Has the glass ceiling shattered?” said Bakari Sellers, a political ally of Harris. “No, but it does have another crack.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "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",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 October 14, Raphael Minder, quoting Agnieszka Holland, “Lunch with the FT”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3",
"text": "“My father really believed at some point that [communism] would be great for humanity, perhaps also because he was facing all the glass ceilings for being a Jewish boy,” she says.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group."
],
"id": "en-glass_ceiling-en-noun-yg25ysaA",
"links": [
[
"uncodified",
"codify"
],
[
"barrier",
"barrier"
],
[
"promotion",
"promotion"
],
[
"employment",
"employment"
],
[
"demographic",
"demographic"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "bamboo ceiling"
},
{
"word": "cotton ceiling"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "sostre de vidre"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "bōli tiānhuābǎn",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"word": "玻璃天花板"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "glazen plafond"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"word": "lasikatto"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "plafond de verre"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Gläserne Decke"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "garasu no tenjō",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"word": "ガラスの天井"
},
{
"code": "oc",
"lang": "Occitan",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "plafon de veire"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "szklany sufit"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "telhado de vidro"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "stekljánnyj potolók",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "стекля́нный потоло́к"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "techo de cristal"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "glastak"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"glass ceiling"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-glass ceiling.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-au-glass_ceiling.ogg/En-au-glass_ceiling.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/En-au-glass_ceiling.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "glass ceiling"
}
{
"derived": [
{
"word": "glass cliff"
}
],
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"2": "ceiling"
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"expansion": "glass",
"name": "m"
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}
],
"etymology_text": "A metaphor using ceiling to suggest a barrier to upward mobility, and glass to allude to the often unacknowledged or “invisible” nature of this limitation.\nCoined by Q55622178 in 1978.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "glass ceilings",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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{
"args": {},
"expansion": "glass ceiling (plural glass ceilings)",
"name": "en-noun"
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"lang": "English",
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"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "bamboo ceiling"
},
{
"word": "cotton ceiling"
}
],
"senses": [
{
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"English nouns",
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"English terms with quotations",
"Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
"Russian terms with redundant script codes",
"en:Feminism",
"en:Forms of discrimination",
"en:Sexism"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2007 January 5, Polly Curtis, “Six thousand women missing from boardrooms, politics and courts”, in The Guardian",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 September 19, Jennifer Szalai, “The Education of Ellen Pao”, in New York Times",
"text": "[…] 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.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2021 November 19, Chris Megerian, quoting Bakari Sellers, “Kamala Harris makes history, again, as first woman with presidential power — for 85 minutes”, in Los Angeles Times",
"text": "“Has the glass ceiling shattered?” said Bakari Sellers, a political ally of Harris. “No, but it does have another crack.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "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",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 October 14, Raphael Minder, quoting Agnieszka Holland, “Lunch with the FT”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3",
"text": "“My father really believed at some point that [communism] would be great for humanity, perhaps also because he was facing all the glass ceilings for being a Jewish boy,” she says.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group."
],
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],
[
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[
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"wikipedia": [
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]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"audio": "en-au-glass ceiling.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-au-glass_ceiling.ogg/En-au-glass_ceiling.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/En-au-glass_ceiling.ogg",
"tags": [
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}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "sostre de vidre"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "bōli tiānhuābǎn",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"word": "玻璃天花板"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "glazen plafond"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"word": "lasikatto"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "plafond de verre"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Gläserne Decke"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "garasu no tenjō",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"word": "ガラスの天井"
},
{
"code": "oc",
"lang": "Occitan",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "plafon de veire"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "szklany sufit"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "telhado de vidro"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "stekljánnyj potolók",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "стекля́нный потоло́к"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "techo de cristal"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "unwritten, uncodified barrier",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "glastak"
}
],
"word": "glass ceiling"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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