glass ceiling

glass (indicating transparency, to allude to the often unacknowledged nature of the limitation) + ceiling (suggesting a barrier to upward advancement)

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glass ceiling (plural glass ceilings)

1. (idiomatic) An unwritten, uncodified barrier to further promotion or progression, in employment and elsewhere, for a member of a specific demographic group.
   • 2007 Jan. 5, "Six thousand women missing from boardrooms, politics and courts," The Guardian (UK), p. 1:

     Women are “woefully” under-represented in parliament, the courts and the boardroom, with new research showing that the glass ceiling is still holding back 6,000 women from the top 33,000 jobs in Britain.

• bamboo ceiling
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