60 Glass Ceiling Quotes To Motivate You To Break Barriers

Looking for inspirational quotes about breaking the glass ceiling? We have rounded up the best collection of glass ceiling quotes, sayings, captions for Instagram, Status messages, (with images and pictures, memes) by famous woman who are successful in their fields to motivate you to break the barriers created by men.

Also See: Hard Working Woman Quotes

Glass Ceiling Meaning:

It is a colloquial term for the social barrier preventing women from being promoted to top jobs in management. Breaking the glass ceiling means overcoming the barriers set to prevent access to advancement. 

Also See: Strong Women Quotes

The glass ceiling is a popular metaphor for explaining the inability of many women to advance past a certain point in their occupations and professions, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.

Related: Black Women Quotes To Empower You

Glass Ceiling Quotes

  1. “The glass ceiling is now my floor.”

  2. “Glass ceilings are meant to be broken.”                                                                                 

    Breaking The Glass Ceiling Quotes
    Breaking The Glass Ceiling Quotes

  3. “Ever ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor.” ― Aldous Huxley


  4. “I didn’t come to polish your glass ceilings. I came to break them.”                                           

    Motivational Glass Ceiling Quotes
    Motivational Glass Ceiling Quotes

  5. “Break through that imaginary ceiling you’ve placed over yourself.”


  6. “I don’t do what I do to try and break a glass ceiling.” ― Kathryn Bigelow


  7. “Don’t try to squeeze into a glass slipper. Instead, shatter the glass ceiling.”


  8. “Ladies make sure to wear shoes there’s glass everywhere.” ― Kamala Harris                                                                                                                                                   

    Inspirational Glass Ceiling Quotes
    Inspirational Glass Ceiling Quotes

  9. “We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.” ― Max Depree


  10. “Break the glass ceiling around you and explore the world in a different sight.”                                                                                                                                                   

    Glass Ceiling Quotes
    Glass Ceiling Quotes

  11. “There is no glass ceiling; it’s really just a thick layer of men.” ― Laura A. Liswood


  12. “The glass ceiling gets more pliable when you turn up the heat.” ― Pauline R. Kezer


  13. “I believe women still face a glass ceiling that must be shattered.” ― Andrew Cuomo


  14. “Glass ceilings have been broken, but more have to be broken.” ― Madeleine Albright


  15. “The glass ceiling doesn’t apply when you’re building your own house.” ― Heidi Roizen


  16. “In the future there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.” ― Sheryl Sandberg


  17. “So if you see a glass ceiling, know that it’s only there so you can shatter it.” ― Justin Baldoni


  18. “I guess the glass ceiling is in the west. For us, it’s the glass wall.” ― Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud


  19. “Breaking the glass ceiling and carefully recycling all the shattered glass because that’s how we roll.”


  20. “We’ve removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.” ― Jesse Jackson


  21. “The power I exert on the court depends on my arguments, not on my gender.” ― Sandra Day O’ Connor


  22. “When one person breaks the glass ceiling, the light shines through and others can go.” ― Elaine Marshall


  23. “The glass ceiling will go away when women help other women break through that ceiling.” ― Indra Nooyi                                                                                                 

    Shattered Glass Ceiling Quotes
    Shattered Glass Ceiling Quotes

  24. “Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.” ― Bill Shankly


  25. “Teach your daughter to worry less about fitting into glass slippers and more about shattering glass ceilings.”


  26. “Many women have been successful at breaking the glass ceiling only to find a layer of men.” ― Jane Harman                                                                                       

    Glass Ceiling Quotes Images
    Glass Ceiling Quotes Images

  27. “What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters.” ― Kamala Harris


  28. “Women have broken through the glass ceiling, and they’re now more and more in the power seats.” ― Aretha Franklin


  29. “I raise up my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.” ― Malaya Yousafzai


  30. “Someone’s got to break the glass ceiling, and once it’s broken, everybody else comes clamouring up behind.” ― Helen Clark


  31. “No glass ceiling was ever shattered by a whiner.” ― Melanie Hope, Book: “Get Over It & Get Started: Self help with a spine!”


  32. “I’m not the woman president of Harvard, I’m the president of Harvard.” ― Drew Gilpin Faust, President Harvard University

  33. “Don’t aim to break the glass ceiling; aim to shatter it.”

  34. “When you break through a glass ceiling, you’re going to get cut, and it’s going to hurt.”

  35. “Ambition is a word associated with women negatively. People say, ‘she’s too ambitious.’ Why is that a bad thing?” ― Priyanka Chopra


  36. “My dad always said. Don’t fit into the glass slipper like Cinderella did. Shatter the glass ceiling. Be whoever you want.” ― Priyanka Chopra


  37. “I never thought I was breaking a glass ceiling. I just had to do what I had to do, and it never occurred to me not to.” ― Marian Wright Edelman


  38. “The best advice I can give women at all levels is increase training. There are still areas where we have to break through that glass ceiling.” ― Hilda Solis


  39. “Society’s limit on achievement is the glass ceiling that gives a resting point for those who fail to have their achievements defined by others.” ― Calum Ross


  40. “My objective as Secretary of Labor is to look through the ‘glass ceiling’ to see who is on the other side, and to serve as a catalyst for change…” ― Elizabeth Dole


  41. “Now I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.” ― Hillary Clinton                                                                                                 

    Woman Glass Ceiling Quotes
    Woman Glass Ceiling Quotes

  42. “I certainly came up in an era where women were really making strides and making a point to beat down doors and find their place and crash through the glass ceiling.” ― Gina Torres


  43. “Feminism is not inherently bourgeois, but bourgeois feminism is the only one given voice in our society. That is why women’s issues discuss glass ceilings rather than dirt floors.” ― James Rozoff


  44. “We must carry forward the work of the women who came before us. Ensure our daughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles to their achievements and so remaining ceilings to shatter.” ― Barack Obama


  45. “There are mountains growing beneath our feet that cannot be contained all we’ve endured has prepared us for this, bring your hammers and fists, we have a glass ceiling to shatter. Let’s leave this place roofless.” ― Rupi Kaur


  46. “I just don’t think there are any rules to color. You have a small space with no windows? Put lamps in there, make it dramatic, paint the ceiling black. Do something with it. If it’s dark, accentuate the darkness.” ― David Bromstad


  47. “Often we women are risk averse. I needed the push. Now, more than ever, young women need more seasoned women to provide that encouragement, to take a risk, to go for it. Once a glass ceiling is broken, it stays broken.” ― Jennifer Granholm


  48. “I think we’ve broken a lot of barriers and kind of shattered our “glass ceiling” that was there for women. There are so many great fighters and we’ve proved a lot of people wrong. A lot of the times our fights are the best fights on the card.” ― Miesha Tate


  49. “Educational equality doesn’t guarantee equality on the labor market. Even the most developed countries are not gender-equal. There are still glass ceilings and ‘leaky pipelines’ that prevent women from getting ahead in the workplace.” ― Michelle Bachelet


  50. “There are so many people who don’t her to succeed, and they’ve been doing everything to deny her what is literally her entitlement. And she has still triumphed over it all, the biggest crack in the glass ceiling ever, and it’s Mrs. Hillary Clinton.” ― Rush Limbaugh


  51. “We’re going to school for higher education in higher numbers, but the numbers still show we’re not breaking though the glass ceiling. For every Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton there are millions of women stuck in cement on the floor that are not getting up.” ― Carolyn Maloney


  52. “We know the road of lack of recognition, of people telling us that we can’t headline a movie because black women don’t translate overseas, that every time we try to break the glass ceiling, people say no, people push back. And it’s everything that people don’t see out there.” ― Viola Davis


  53. “There is no “glass ceiling” when it comes to happiness; no limit whatsoever. No matter how happy you are, you can always add to your happiness. So ask yourself right here and now: What would make me even happier right now? What would make this moment even better? And do that!” ― Teal Swan


  54. “My daughter could do and be anything, without having to fight to get through the glass ceiling. Without having it be so extraordinary, If my daughter went to produce a soundtrack for a movie, there would be nothing extraordinary about a girl doing it. When I did it, it was highly unusual.” ― Ronee Blakley


  55. “As far as a glass ceiling, I feel that all you can do is give it your absolute best with whatever gifts the universe has given you. And if you make it in some way that other people can recognize, that’s fine. But even if you don’t quote-unquote make it, you’re fine if you’ve given it your whole heart and soul.” ― Alice Walker


  56. “We always look at the ‘Fortune ,’ and we say, men in power, but we don’t look at the glass cellar as opposed to the glass ceiling and say, men also are the homeless, men are also the ones that are the garbage collectors. Men are also the ones dying in construction sites that aren’t properly supervised for safety hazards.” ― Warren Farrell


  57. “I believe the only limitations are the ones that we accept. I know that there is, in theory, a glass ceiling. But I don’t believe that it’s a solid wall. I’m going through it. Nothing’s stopping me. Yes, there are these preconceived notions; yes, we have challenges. Let’s accept them, let’s not be afraid of them, let’s break through them.” ― Debbi Fields


  58. “Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, male my short… make my documentary… make my small films… use my own money… raise money myself… and stay shooting and focused on each project.” ― Ava DuVernay


  59. “It’s very tough to give advice because it’s tough out there for everybody but for a girl it’s even tougher, because I don’t think the glass ceiling has changed at all in the past 30 years. Otherwise the radio would be covered with girl bands, or girls in bands, so I don’t think much has changed on that level. But I think that bands can still have a lot of success trying to go another route.” ― Joan Jett


  60. “Still, I wonder if more women artists, musicians and writers aren’t household names because we don’t have enough faith in our own pursuits to give ourselves the time we desperately need to be transformed by a creative vision. Maybe that glass ceiling isn’t really made of glass at all, but of sticky little fingers, dishes piled in the sink, and mortgages that demand two incomes.” ― Holly Robinson Peete


  61. “Peter Hart, who’s a pollster that’s – who’s done many focus groups about Hillary Clinton, talks about a glass curtain. She talks about the glass ceiling. He says voters feel there’s a glass curtain between themselves and Hillary Clinton. They can’t relate to her. They feel they don’t really understand her, and that’s made it easier for her opponents, of which there have been many over many years, to define her the way they want to.” ― Tamara Keith


  62. “Shattering glass ceilings is not easy, you need to work hard, day after day, facing disappointments, embracing tiny moments of happiness, only to be challenged and questioned, again and again. But after a terrible phase of sweat and tears, with your persistence and self belief, there comes a day, when you look at the mirror, and realize, that all those who break the glass ceilings, with their wounds, scratches and scars also glow, a little too much.” ― Sarba Roy


  63. “From her concession speech: 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…You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable.” ― Hillary Clinton


  64. “The United Nations was the thing I wanted to work for. Like the United Nations Commission for Refugees is what I was interested in. And then people said if you do that you’ll hit glass ceilings all the time, because you are not Ghanian or Nigerian and that’s the way to progress though a multinational organization like that. In any event, they said do five years’ legal experience and come back. And after five years I decided to stay where I was. So I am really an accidental lawyer.” ― John Gimlette


  65. “That rock ‘n’ roll, eh? That rock ‘n’ roll, it just won’t go away. It might hibernate from time to time, sink back into the swamp. I think the cyclical nature of the universe in which it exists demands that acquiesce to some of its rules. But it’s always waiting there, just around the corner,” he added. “Ready to make its way back through the sludge and smash through the glass ceiling, looking better than ever. Yeah, that rock ‘n’ roll, it seems like it’s faded away sometimes, but it will never die. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” ― Alex Turner


  66. “I was raised by a single mom who had to put herself through school while looking after two kids. And she worked hard every day and made a lot of sacrifices to make sure we got everything we needed. My grandmother, she started off as a secretary in a bank. She never got a college education, even though she was smart as a whip. And she worked her way up to become a vice president of a local bank, but she hit the glass ceiling. She trained people who would end up becoming her bosses during the course of her career.” ― Barack Obama


  67. “When it comes to politics, we have an internal glass ceiling. We stand as good a chance as a man to win a political race, but women don’t want to run at the same rate as men do. People point to the work-family balance issue, but I think it’s much more than that. Many women don’t have children, or have children who are no longer at home. There are some deeper psychological and emotional issues in play, like the fact that many of us feel like the embarrassment, humiliation and personal demonization in politics are simply more than our hearts can take. What stops us is fear.” ― Marianne Williamson

Origin of The Term Glass Ceiling?

Marilyn Loden coined the phrase ‘glass ceiling‘ at a 1978 Women’s Exposition. Women make up 55.9% of the labor force in the U.S but hold only 29.9% of executive positions. To address the glass ceiling, the U.S. Department of Labor launched the Glass Ceiling Commission in 1991

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Share these quotes with the classic women in your life, with the women you admire, the ones you want to see succeed, and the ones who have been there for you. Feel free to share with friends and family on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and more.

 

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