Gaffers:
Last week I promised to define more glass metaphors for you. According to the Wikipedia entry on the topic, "Glass Elevator" apparently refers to
The rapid promotion of men over women, especially into management, in female-dominated fields such as nursing. Men in these fields are promoted with ease – they actually have to struggle not to advance due to facing invisible pressures and expectations to move up from where they currently are. This is based on traditional gender roles and stereotypes that men are expected to be in the chief roles, while women are to be in the subordinate positions. Therefore, in the fields where men are less common, they receive differential treatment that favors them to exert their authority and control in the workplace.
I thought this was interesting even though not particularly relevant to any aspect of the legal profession that I know about.
I've got to think of a new metaphor on glass to immortalize my contribution to the field. Perhaps those who write about limitations on women in leadership position would be called "Glass Blowers." The safety instructions for novice glass blowers read something like the following:
Working glass is inherently dangerous, involving heavy materials that can be razor sharp, so hot that damage can be done before feeling occurs, with chemicals immediately poisonous, dusts that can damage the lungs, and heat sources that can wreck the eyes. Understand the safe practices required and use them to blow beautiful glass.
Now that I think about it, leadership in a law firm is quite similar: it is inherently dangerous, involves huge egos that can be razor sharp, the stress of the work can cause damage before it is felt, the atmosphere can be poisonous, the long hours can damage health and the fine print can certainly damage the eyes. Good advice would be to use safe practices, and persevere to create a beautiful career in law.
For tons of information about the art of glassmaking, visit Murano, Italy, or "glassblowing" on Answers.com. See Wikipedia's entry on the Glass Ceiling for definitions of the Bamboo Ceiling, the Concrete ceiling, the Glass Closet, the Sticky Floor and the Sticky Ladder.
Cynthia
Congratulations, Cynthia, on an elegant analogy using glassblowing and law practice! May I suggest Public Glass (http://publicglass.org/) in San Francisco's Bayview District or Bay Area Glass Institute (aka BAGI at http://www.bagi.org/) in San Jose, for local glassblowing workshops, for the East Coast crowd, Urban Glass http://www.bagi.org/ at Corning is the home to the next Glass Art Society conference (a community of international glass art aficionados), membership in the Glass Art Society (GAS at http://www.glassart.org), and visits to galleries that focus on glass for even more information into the making of glass sculpture!
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