Glass Ceiling and Career Advancement of Women Executives in Readymade Garment Industry of Bangladesh

Abstract

This dissertation delves into the pervasive phenomenon of glass ceiling within Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) industry, analysing complex amalgamation of societal, organizational, and personal factors that hinder women’s ascent to senior managerial and decision-making roles. The research examines existence of glass ceiling and factors contributing to the same. This research primarily adopted the “Gendered Organization Theory” to classify different factors that may affect women’s career advancement in an organization hierarchy. This study selected post-positivism research philosophy due to its ability to combine the empirical rigor of positivism with an understanding of the complexities inherent in social sciences, employing a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative technique. By this design data were collected from in-depth interviews of 13 female executives and survey of 108 female respondents from the RMG industry. For the qualitative aspect of the study, a purposive sampling technique was employed to select participants for the interviews. For quantitative analysis, convenience sampling techniques has been used. To ensure diversity and depth in the sample, efforts were made to include participants from various levels of seniority, job roles, and years of experience. Thematic analysis was conducted with data extracted through interviews using NVivo 14. Survey data was analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) using SmartPLS (Partial Least Squares) version 4 to test 17 hypotheses consisting independent variables and two mediating variables. This dual perspective methodology enriches the findings and presents a comprehensive picture of glass ceiling’s impact on women’s professional advancement in RMG industry. The qualitative exploration exposes clear evidence of existence of glass ceiling. The quantitative analysis further validates the findings and confirms profound influence of organizational and social factors hindering upward mobility of women in corporate ladder and creating glass ceiling. One hand, societal norms and traditional gender roles often place constraints on women’s participation in workforce. Other hand, organization’s hiring and promotion policies, work culture and gender-based work segregation obstructs progress of female executives in career growth. The key contribution of this research is the identification of two previously unexplored factors—risk aptitude and work engagement—having mediating effect to the dynamics of glass ceiling. This research calls for a comprehensive approach, challenging social stereotypes, promoting inclusive work cultures and policy interventions to create equitable pathways for women’s career advancement.