In business, what phrase is used to describe an unofficial cap on personal achievement and development?

"Glass ceiling" is the term used to describe barriers that prevent women and minorities from advancing to management positions in corporations and organizations. The phrase was first used about 1985 or 1986. Statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) indicated that only 2 percent of top level management jobs and 5 percent of corporate board positions were held by women as of 1987. The failure of more women and minorities to crack the upper levels of corporate management is due to the glass ceiling. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 created a Glass Ceiling Commission to address these inequities, just as the Glass Ceiling Initiative, created in 1989 by the DOL under the leadership of Secretary Lynn Martin, had done.

Statistics prove beyond doubt that a glass ceiling existed long before the term was introduced. These barriers to minority progress had previously defied clear definition but, in the late 1980s, the glass ceiling became part of the language of management literature. Several articles in publications such as the Wall Street Journal detailed the increase of women in administrative and management level jobs, from 24 to 37 percent over a period from 1976 to 1987. Yet the glass ceiling blocked women from rising to top management positions as mentioned above.