A ceiling is the inside surface at the top of a room. It can also mean an upper limit, like the highest level of pay or performance allowed.
From Middle English 'celynge' meaning 'lining' or 'covering', originally of walls or roofs. It later narrowed to mean just the overhead inside surface.
When people talk about a 'glass ceiling' at work, they’re using a home-building word to describe invisible limits on people’s lives. The idea that your progress can 'hit the ceiling' shows how strongly we think in vertical space, even about careers.
The metaphor “glass ceiling” arose in the late 20th century to describe invisible barriers preventing women (and later other marginalized groups) from advancing in careers despite apparent equality. It reflects documented patterns of discrimination in promotion and leadership.
Use “glass ceiling” with specificity about which groups are affected (e.g., women, women of color) rather than as a vague complaint. Avoid implying that lack of advancement is purely about individual effort when structural barriers are documented.
["barrier to advancement","structural limit","promotion barrier"]
Research on glass ceilings has highlighted women’s experiences in male-dominated fields and helped legitimize their claims about systemic discrimination.
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