The Glass Ceiling Is Raised

I have always believed the glass ceiling is there. In the land of the rising sun where I was last week for two days for a regional meeting, I found out what I suspected - I walked into the meeting room of 40-50 executives attending the meeting (about 20 of them were local Japanese) and found myself to be the only female.

I felt immediately awkward but no one seemed to notice the same.

For the communications sector executives across Asia Pacific, numbering between 50+, I am the only female. I feel honored, challenged, ignored, young, alone, excited and tired of the battle, all at once.

I have never written about the glass ceiling. At work dealing amongst equals, I never feel the challenge of the glass ceiling, but when networking for business reasons, dealing with older executives, in the "man's" world, I sometimes feel overwhelmed, that I have to do more, that what I understand always seems not widely applicable enough, that I worry and work too much with the details, that I don't go to wine and dine with senior C Level folks enough.... then I realise I go back to the basics - there is a path and way for everyone, as long as I feel I am of service to my client, how I do it is my choice, how I get it done is my choice, and how I communicate I cannot change as it is me. And be contented I need to be.

The wrestle with the personal challenge of being a woman in a man's world is at times internally overwhelming, and at times, when we fit in with the rest, it almsot makes us aggresively not feminine. I acknowledge the balance to fit the inner self, the family, the work environment is indeed challenging.

As a closing to this deep thought, I found out that Japanese women hardly work after they are married, and that the % of women to men in my office in Japan is 10% and that there was only one female executive in Japan, maybe out of 80+. Live is more challenging in some countries. The glass ceiling is lower and cannot be raised.

The glass ceiling for me is raised, but it has always been there, it always has been and it always will. Sometimes one can raise it by defying the odds, but the most sensible thing is to just not worry too much about it I guess - worrying cannot make it go away and neither will fighting it.