Factors Affecting Academics' Perceptions of Glass Ceiling Barriers

Aim: This paper investigated academics’ perceptions of glass ceiling barriers and the factors affecting those perceptions. Methods: This study adopted a descriptive, comparative, and correlational research design. The sample consisted of 225 academics from a university in Ankara/Turkiye. Data were collected using a personal information form, the “Glass Ceiling Barriers Scale (GCBS)”, and the “Perception of Gender Scale (PGS)”. The data were analyzed using the student's t-test, Mann Whitney-U, One Way Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Welch Anova, Kruskal Wallis, and Pearson correlation tests. Results: Participants had a mean GCBS and PGS score of 74.93±17.62 and 102.74±16.99, respectively. There was no significant difference in GCBS scores between male and female participants (p > 0.05). However, male participants had significantly higher mean GCBS “multiple roles” and “stereotyped prejudices” subscale scores than their female counterparts, while female participants had significantly higher mean GCBS “informal communication” and “professional discrimination” subscale scores than their male counterparts (p < 0.05). Female participants had a significantly higher mean PGS score than their male counterparts (p < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between GCBS total and “multiple roles,” “personal preference,” and “stereotyped prejudices” subscale scores and PGS total scores (respectively, female, r= -0.429, r= -0.382, r= -0.441, r= -0.523, p < 0.05; male, r= -0.542, r= -0.678, r= -0.324, r= -0.663, p < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between GCBS total and “multiple roles” and “stereotyped prejudices” subscale scores and the number of siblings in male participants (respectively, r= 0.191, r= -0.232, r= -0.313, p < 0.05). Conclusion: How academics view gender determines how they perceive glass ceiling barriers. Academics who believe more in gender equality are more aware of glass ceiling barriers. However, how academics perceive the glass ceiling needs to be examined from multiple perspectives.