It is thick concrete ceiling; no matter what we do, it does not work. No matter what, we cannot shatter the glass ceiling’: Bankers’ accounts of sexism

Abstract

Purpose: To provide women in the wider Bahraini society and in the Bahraini banking sector in particular a language with which they can challenge traditional Arab patriarchal practices and other forms of sexism they encounter—especially in the workplace—while remaining true to Islam.

Methodology/Design: Semistructured interviews designed to collect in-depth findings were conducted with 21 women and nine men working in the Bahraini banking sector, along with a review of governmental and organisational documents that, in the Global North, usually incorporate gender-equality clauses.

Findings: Findings demonstrate the prevalence of gender bias in the Bahraini banking sector. Barriers that impede women’s efforts to climb the corporate ladder were found to be similar to those reported in other Global North contexts. The major difference was the impact of the Muslim patriarchal culture in Bahrain, which has greatly influenced expectations about women’s roles in society and the workplace and women’s behaviours. I also found that labour regulations and policies in Bahrain are gendered and are designed to restrict women’s role to the private sphere. There are no explicit laws at the governmental level or policies at the organisational level that ban gender discrimination in the workplace or mandate equal rights for both genders. This is made worse by the lack of any type of positive action to help women navigate their way to the top and juggle family and work responsibilities, as well as by a lack of decision makers willing to commit to gender equality.

Practical implications: The study contributes to our understanding of the hurdles in the Bahraini banking sector that impede women’s career progression and contribute to a glass ceiling. The study also contributes to our understanding of the lack of gender regulations and policies in Bahrain in general and in the Bahraini banking sector in particular. This knowledge will be valuable for organisational leaders who seek to bring more diversity to the executive levels of the banking system. The findings will also be valuable for governmental and organisational leaders interested in improving existing labour regulations and policies in Bahrain and elevating them to the level seen in the Global North.

Originality/value: This study, to the best of my knowledge, is the first to investigate the glass-ceiling phenomenon in an underresearched context—namely, the Bahraini banking sector —and to examine the effectiveness of existing gender regulations and policies at governmental and organisational levels in the sector.