Aspiration Level as a Self-imposed Glass Ceiling: Sources of Korean Womenʼs Career Aspiration Levels

This paper examines the determinants of womenʼs aspiration levels for their career advancement, on the premise that a low career aspiration level may work as a glass ceiling imposed not externally by others, but internally by women themselves. According to our empirical study, which used a dataset collected through a questionnaire survey of female employees at Korean companies, the likelihood that a woman will develop an aspiration level to become an executive was shown to be affected positively by the number of female executive role models at her organization and by her belief in female gender efficacy, whereas it was found to be influenced negatively by her internalization of the institutionalized inter-gender role structure that assumes male supremacy and also by her internalization of anti-women stereotypes. We also found that the positive relationship between gender efficacy and career aspiration level decreased with age.