GEMExpert – Gender Equality: Is the Glass Ceiling Soluble in Coaching? – News

Many companies launch coaching programs aimed at female employees to promote women’s access to top management. But these actions have had mixed results… Two researchers from Grenoble Ecole de Management analyzed the reasons in an article and proposed ways to move forward.

Interview with Pauline Fatien and Anne Antoni, Associate Professors at Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM)

What is your approach?

Pauline Fatien: Companies are seeking to develop professional equality, and many tools are emerging, such as coaching. We drew on two years of research in a public administration that wanted insight into its women’s leadership program; and we wrote this article to put into perspective the issues, limits, and potential contributions of such initiatives.

What is your main conclusion?

Anne Antoni: Coaching has counterproductive effects when it contributes to perpetuating or masking the structural causes of the glass ceiling. Yes, you can help your female employees gain leadership skills, self-confidence, etc. But they will hit an insurmountable barrier if, in your company, it is implicitly necessary to encroach on personal time in order to succeed. For example, if top management makes key decisions during informal gatherings after 6 p.m.; in France, the responsibility for domestic duties still largely falls on women.

P.F.: We also identified three common pitfalls of these coaching programs. The first is psychologization: the claim that if women do not reach positions of power, it is because they are “lacking” something. The problem is seen as theirs, not the organization’s — a very reductive shortcut. The second pitfall is overly standardized programs that predetermine which skills must be developed, imposing assumed needs. Finally, some coaching approaches either sidestep gender differences altogether or exaggerate them in a caricatural way.

Do companies seem aware of these limits?

A.A.: I think many sincerely want to break the glass ceiling, launch these coaching initiatives, but then get discouraged by the results. They underestimate the extent to which their organization is gendered. They see it as neutral, whereas in reality it is shaped by masculine rules and codes that one must conform to in order to access power.

What solutions do you propose?

P.F.: Integrating these programs into a genuine culture of workplace equality. This means rethinking the structural causes of dysfunctions, and therefore working conditions and norms. We can also ensure that these programs address the issues from multiple levels of analysis. There cannot be a purely psychological answer to an organizational problem.

A.A.: Perhaps these coaching programs should also include other participants: male colleagues, so they can understand what is at stake? Senior executives, so they can drive change? The goal is not only to help women break through the glass ceiling. At the same time, companies must shift or thin it so that it becomes easier to cross.

The Publication
Pauline Fatien (Grenoble Ecole de Management), Fabien Moreau (IDRAC Business School Grenoble), Anne Antoni (Grenoble Ecole de Management), "Penser un dispositif de coaching soutenable, à l’aune de la sociologie clinique - Application à la lutte contre le plafond de verre", Gérer & Comprendre - March 2025 - No. 159 copyright Annales des Mines

Bio snapshot
Anne Antoni is Associate Professor and team leader of the “Re-Imagining Work” research team at Grenoble Ecole de Management. Her research critically explores the experience of work in the contemporary socio-economic system, particularly work relationships and the role of care, employment relations and solidarity, business morality and ethics, and mental health at work.

Pauline Fatien is Associate Professor in the “Re-Imagining Work” research team at Grenoble Ecole de Management. Her research focuses on the ethical, spatial, and political dimensions of organizational phenomena, such as leadership development (including coaching) and collaborative spaces.