Measuring women's beliefs about glass ceilings: development of the career pathways survey

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to develop a new measure called the Career Pathways Survey (CPS) which allows quantitative comparisons of women's beliefs about glass ceilings. Design/methodology/approach - A 34-item version of the CPS was completed by 243 women from all levels of management, mostly in Australia. An expanded 38-item CPS was administered to another sample of women (N = 307). Findings - Analyses of data from both studies yielded a four factor model of attitudes to glass ceilings: resilience, acceptance, resignation and denial. The factors demonstrated good internal consistency. Practical implications - The CPS allows a comparison of positive attitudes towards seeking promotions via resilience and denial scores, and provides feedback on negative attitudes towards seeking promotions via resignation and acceptance scores. Social implications - This new measure can be recommended for studies of women's and men's attitudes towards gender inequality in organizational leadership. It could play a role in identifying sexist cultures in organizations. Originality/value - Due to the scarcity of measures of glass ceiling beliefs, this study makes a major contribution to the literature on women’s beliefs about barriers to career advancement. Keywords - Glass ceilings, Measures, Women's beliefs, Resilience, Denial, Acceptance, Resignation, Australia