IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v32y2025i3p1018-1043.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The second glass ceiling: The dark side of women recategorization in corporate boards

Author

Listed:
  • Bartolomé Pascual‐Fuster
  • Ryan Federo
  • Rafel Crespí‐Cladera
  • Patricia Gabaldón

Abstract

Previous research has shown evidence of the existence of glass ceilings, especially for women who face several barriers to reach the most powerful corporate positions. However, even when these women have reached the board, they seem to experience resistance within this group, a second glass ceiling that prevents them from being appointed to the most influential positions of the board. Based on categorization and recategorization theories and using a sample of publicly listed Spanish firms during the period 2004–2012, we find that women directors with characteristics that should facilitate their promotion to most board leadership and major board committee positions are not reaching them, that is, are not recategorized. Moreover, we uncover that it is also hard for women to attract more women and evolve into their own majority group, as the number of women directors does not increase when women are already directors in those boards.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartolomé Pascual‐Fuster & Ryan Federo & Rafel Crespí‐Cladera & Patricia Gabaldón, 2025. "The second glass ceiling: The dark side of women recategorization in corporate boards," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1018-1043, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:32:y:2025:i:3:p:1018-1043
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13185
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.13185?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:32:y:2025:i:3:p:1018-1043. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.