Women who expand their freelance careers hit a different kind of glass ceiling — the glass wall |
Most people know about the glass ceiling: the invisible barrier that keeps women from reaching top leadership positions. Researchers have also identified the glass cliff, where women are placed in leadership roles during times of crisis, and the glass escalator, where men in female-dominated fields get fast-tracked into management.
These concepts all assume careers move up. Increasingly, however, they do not. More people are building careers sideways — taking on extra gigs, branching into new skill areas or negotiating customized roles within their organizations. We call this lateral work.
As companies flatten their hierarchies and organize around project-based work, lateral moves have become the new career ladder. According to Statistics Canada, roughly 2.4 million Canadians — nearly nine per cent of the working-age population — engaged in some form of gig work in 2022.
This is especially true for freelancers, who must constantly seek out new clients and new income streams to advance. For women, advancing this way comes with added challenges. Our research shows that they hit a different kind of invisible barrier — the “glass wall.”
The freelancing catch-22
Freelancers face a well-documented dilemma: you need experience to get hired, but you need to get hired to gain experience.
The standard advice is to start as a specialist, build a reputation, then gradually branch out into new areas of work. A songwriter may focus on specializing in writing top lines but later take on........