Recorded for the History Council of Victoria.

As women joined the paid workforce in increasing numbers in the twentieth century they battled long-established discrimination. Low pay, exclusion from jobs defined as ‘men’s work’, and forced ‘retirement’ on marriage were just a few of the barriers in place. In the 1970s feminists identified a less-visible form of discrimination — the ‘glass ceiling’, the invisible, but equally-powerful set of assumptions that blocked women from promotion and from appointment to senior management.

Many companies now promote their commitment to gender equity, but how real is it? Have women really shattered the glass ceiling, or does it continue to block women’s progress? Featuring speakers Karen Downing, honorary lecturer in the School of History at the Australian National University; Kate Fitch, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia; and Claire EF Wright, business historian at UTS Business School.