and either condition can be present without the other. A gl prejudiced person does not always act on his or her biases The White president, for example, might ti spite his or her stereotypes to hire the Vietnamese American. This would be prejudice without discrimina tion. On the other hand, a White corporate president with a completely respectful view of Vietnamese Americans might refuse to hire them for executive posts out of fear that biased clients would take their business elsewhere. In this case, the president's action would constitute discrim ination without prejudice. Discrimination persists even for the most educated and qualified minority group members from the best fam ily backgrounds. Despite their talents and experiences hey sometimes encounter attitudinal or organizational bias that prevents them from reaching their full potential. The term glass ceiling refers to an invisible barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified individual in a work environment because of the individual's gender, race, or ethnicity (Schaefer 2000; H. Yamagata et al. 1997) In early 1995, the federal Glass Ceiling Commission. issued the first comprehensive study of barriers to pro- motion in the United States. The commission found that
glass ceilings continue to block women and minority group men from top management positions in the na- tion's industries. While White men constitute about 43 percent of the paid labor force, they hold about 95 of every 100 senior management posts. According to the re- port, the existence of this glass ceiling results principally from the fears and prejudices of many middle- and per-level White male managers, who believe that the inclusion of women and minority group men in manage- ent circles will threaten their own prospects for ad- vancement (Department of Labor 1995a, 1995b) Institutional Discrimination Discrimination is practiced not only by individuals in one-to-one encounters but also by institutions in their daily operations. Social scientists are particularly con- cerned with the ways in which structural factors such as employment, housing, health care, and government oper ations maintain the social significance of race and ethnic ity.