The phenomenon of Glass Ceiling in Contemporary fiction

The barriers to women's employment and job promotion are among the main issues surrounding working women. Sociologists study the barriers to women's promotion in terms of glass ceiling. The Glass Ceiling is a set of factors that creates barriers on the path of women's career advancement. Fictional works as the literary and cultural sources of any society play a part in representing social events and the issues surrounding the world of women. In some fictional works, the female characters face different barriers to continuing their studies, going into business, and being promoted. Conducting a study into the fictional works concerning women's employment and career conditions, the present paper attempts to identify the barriers to women's employment in terms of glass ceiling and based on a library research and a content analysis. The findings suggest that patriarchal views, marriage, work corruption, and having children are the major factors in creating the glass ceiling. Due to these factors, different carriers are dominated by men and strongly influenced by gender issues, a situation in which men win the jobs of high rank and women take the lower ones.