Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
Case 15.1: The “Glass Ceiling”
Case Synopsis and Analysis
Lisa Weber is an intelligent and determined senior portfolio manager at a Wall Street firm.
Clients give her the highest commendations for performance; she has brought in the largest
number of new clients at her firm; and other employees regularly turn to Lisa privately for
advice and counsel on market performance. The CEO, Michael, does not recognize Lisa’s
strengths and speaks down to her.
Lisa yearns to make partner and was particularly frustrated when a male peer, who does not
perform as well as Lisa, was recently promoted. Lisa approached her boss about this and
asked about the path to partnership. He asked her what would happen if she made a “huge
mistake” as partner and stated “There’s never been a female partner in the 103 years of the
firm.”
Lisa’s boss clearly has prejudice and gender bias. Other than sue for damages, the larger
question becomes: What can Lisa do about her situation? Students are asked to explore this,
and other components of gender bias, in this glass ceiling case study.
Learning objectives:
• Students will recognize gender prejudice and understand how it influences a woman’s
ability to excel.
• Students will learn methods to help resolve gender prejudice and advance women.
Answers to questions in the text:
1. What advancement barriers did Lisa encounter?
Lisa encountered gender bias and prejudice. One prominent explanation for the
leadership gap revolves around gender biases stemming from stereotyped
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
2. What should the firm’s top executives, including Michael, have done differently to
retain Lisa?
Students will answer “everything,” and this sort of statement does seem to have some
merit. Michael’s behavior is rather appalling and must be corrected. He needs training
3. What type of organizational policies and opportunities might have benefited Lisa and
Pamela?
4. What could the organization do to raise the gender consciousness of Michael and
Lisa’s male colleagues?
The organization could do a lot to raise gender consciousness. Everyone needs
Potential teaching approaches:
Below is a way to structure a class based on Gender and Leadership Case Study 15.1:
• Hold a lecture on gender and leadership.
• Ask students to read Case 15.1 and answer the questions.
• Discuss questions in the case study as a class.
• Finally, the professor may choose to conduct in-class exercises listed below.
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
Exercises for this case study:
1) In small groups, students create a list according to this scenario:
Lisa’s firm has hired a new CEO and is working to reverse gender bias. The new
2) If students completed Activity 1 above and time remains, they could role-play the
meeting between the new CEO and Lisa.
3) Lisa is looking for a new job. The market is strong, but Lisa remains concerned. She
does not want to work at a company that suffers strong gender bias again.
4) Offer the students a bag of fictional “magic dust.” Tell them to sprinkle the magic
dust on a piece of this case to alter the outcome and then ask them to write about it. In