Rhode Island Glass Ceiling Attorney
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The Corporate Pyramid and Glass Ceiling DiscriminationThink of a corporation as a pyramid. At the top is the Chairman of the Board and the President. As one goes lower on the pyramid one finds the Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Mangers, Directors, Supervisors, and eventually one gets to the large number of workers who do the day to day work.
The WorkersNext let's suppose that this corporation has one thousand workers who are comprised of fifty percent female, ten percent African American, twenty percent Latino, etc. In looking at the numbers, the corporation can claim that they don't discriminate against any protected group.The Glass CeilingNow let's see where these workers are located in the pyramid. Let's assume we draw a horizontal line in the pyramid at the Manager's level, approximately two-thirds up the pyramid. Above that line are the Managers and executives of the corporation. When we look at that imaginary line, we find that 100 percent of the people from managerial positions to chairman of the Board are white, Angle-Saxon males. The imaginary line is the glass ceiling, below which is found the group of females, the African Americans, the Latinos, etc. and above which the females, African Americans, Latinos, etc., can't rise. That imaginary line may apply to all or any one of a protected group.Glass Ceiling Discrimination Potential Class ActionGlass ceiling cases are primarily proven by statistics. If all women cannot rise above the position of supervisor, then all women are being discriminated against in promotion and hiring. Therefore, any glass ceiling case is a potential class action case.
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