Many woman are never hitting the glass ceiling because they choose to get off the fast track long before it come into view . In recent years, an ongoing discussion concerns something referred to as the opt-out trend. In a recent survey of nearly 2,500 women and 653 men, 37 percent of highly qualified women report that they voluntarily left the workforce at some point in their careers, compared to only 24 percent of similarly qualified men.
Quite a debate rages over the reasons for the larger number of women who drop out of mainstream careers. Opt-Out proponents say women are deciding that corporate success isn't worth the price in terms of reduced family and personal time,
greater stress, and negative health effects. for example , Marge Magner lift her job as CEO of Citigroup's Consumer Group after suffering both the death of her mother and a personal life-changing accident in the same year. In evaluating her reasons,Magner said she realized that "life is about everything, not just the work.
One school of thought says womens don't want corporate power and status in the same way that men do , and clawing one's way up the corporate ladder has become less appealing. Yet critics argue that this view is just another way to blame women themselves for the dearth of female managers at higher levels.