Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Theresa Vargas.
When Loden’s turn came to speak, she thought about how she had been tasked with at her company to explore why more women weren’t entering management positions. She had gathered enough data that she felt confident the problem extended beyond what her colleagues were wearing or saying.
“It seemed to me there was an invisible barrier to advancement that people didn’t recognize,” Loden said.
That day, she called it the “glass ceiling.”
May 24 will mark 40 years since Loden coined the phrase and, in many ways, it remains as relevant as it did during her time.
Some of the most well-known women in modern history have used the phrase, including Madeleine Albright, Aretha Franklin and Oprah Winfrey.
Hillary Clinton turned to the phrase for two notable speeches.
- “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before,” Clinton said in 2008 after her first failed presidential bid.
- Then in 2016, during her concession speech to President-elect Donald Trump: “Now, I know, I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will.”
Merriam-Webster, defines glass ceiling as “an intangible barrier within a hierarchy that prevents women or minorities from obtaining upper-level positions.”
An origin date is fluid and only reflects when a term appeared in print, said Merriam-Webster editor Peter Sokolowski.
In 1984, the phrase “glass ceiling” appeared in an AdWeek article and in 1986, the Wall Street Journal used it in a headline. In 1993, the term was first printed in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, marking a “relatively quick” pace from its inception, said Sokolowski.
“That shows there was a need for a specific term that meant something like this,” he said. “Now you can say ‘glass ceiling,’ and we all understand precisely what it means.”
Loden kept the letter she was sent about speaking at the Women’s Exposition, which was billed as the “first national dialogue on women at work.” She also saved the program, which lists discussions on topics ranging from sexism to alcoholism over two days at the Roosevelt Hotel. The titles of some of the panels: “All That Glitters,” “Hire Him, He’s Got Great Legs!” and “Becky Wants to be a Plumber.”
Since then, Loden has worked as a consultant on diversity and gender issues for companies, the military and professional organizations.
“When I read about #MeToo and the sort of wave of people acknowledging what’s been going on, it strikes me that there’s still a lot of fear about challenging the status quo,” Loden, now 71, said.
“I thought I would be finished with this by the end of my lifetime, but I won’t be,” Loden said. She has accepted that the term “glass ceiling” will remain needed for a while longer. “I’m hoping if it outlives me, it will [become] an antiquated phrase. People will say, ‘There was a time when there was a glass ceiling.’ ”
