Yes / Over the past 30 years, the term the ‘glass ceiling’ has come to be known as a metaphor for vertical segregation, symbolising an invisible barrier that prevents women from progressing in their careers. Increasingly women are found in higher level positions and mentoring has often been touted as an important way to help women break through the glass ceiling. This paper explores the continued relevance of the glass ceiling and the use of mentoring programs as a means to help women to overcome it. The findings suggest that although some women have penetrated the glass ceiling, further work is needed if a more equitable number of women are to advance to senior level positions. Whilst mentoring can play an important role in helping women to achieve more senior positions, mentoring is not a panacea but only one of many strategies that must be adopted to effectively address the phenomena of glass ceiling.

The purpose of the thesis is to understand and analyze the present situation of gender equality in politics in the Philippines, investigate women's opportunities to be politically active and to exercise political influence. Finally find out if there is a difference in horizontal and vertical positions between women's and men's representation in politics and investigate further possibilities and problems that might be associated with women's political representation in the Philippines. The empirical material for this thesis has been gathered through qualitative interviews with male and female politicians from Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The theoretical framework is divided into different parts which are used to analyse various points from the empirical material. In this chapter, we included theories about differences between gender experiences and why women should be politically active. As well as the meaning of an overrepresentation of a certain group in politics and the possible reasons to women’s underrepresentation in politics as well as the arguments about women's presence in politics, and also the horizontal and vertical segregations. To analyse the empirics from a theoretical point of view, we have divided the results into three sub-categories which are the respondents' attitude to the present situation of gender equality in politics, women's opportunities to be politically active and to make political influence and the horizontal or vertical divisions between women and men's positions in politics.  The results from this thesis shows that women are as competent as men in the political field, and they have a lot of experiences to contribute with in politics that benefit all the citizens, but it is easier for women to come in politics if they are a part of a political clan. But these women, who replace their family members, usually pursue those members’ decision, but do not act according to their own will.

My final thesis deals with women's employment in USA and its changes during two historical moments of the World War II and Great Depression. Because of the continuous changes in this area an analysis of historical trends is a valuable source of information for understanding these changes. For a correct understanding of the influence of chosen historical periods the beginning of the thesis deals with an analysis of the situation before these periods. In the main part one chapter deals with the period of Great Depression, when women faced the pressure of the society to leave the labor market and leave the jobs to men, as to a main breadwinners. Next chapter describes trends during the World War II, when women work was promoted and the pressure was in the opposite direction. The last chapter analyzes a situation after the war and an impact of the World War II in both the short and long term. Special attention is given to two groups of women, married and Afro-American. These groups were influenced in given periods in a specific way. The reason why is mostly social norms within married women and disadvantages position of the Afro-American women in a labor market within this group. Aim of the thesis is not only description of the trends but also deeper analysis of governmental approaches, economical factors and social norms and it's interdependence and causality. From the trends we can see that changes in women's employment were strongly influenced by economic situation of the country and that social norms were able to adapt to these economic circumstances in a short term. In long term they were constant.

The thesis describes the gender pay gap and evaluates it from the view of the European Union and the Member States. It focuses on the measures and instruments that have been developed to tackle the causes of the gender pay gap. The definition of the pay gap is given and the gender and gender roles are described. The gender pay gap as a systematic underpayment of women is measured using adjusted and unadjusted data. The thesis concerns with primary causes of the gender pay gap, such as the horizontal and vertical segregation, differences in human capital, or discrimination. It deals with the gender pay gap at the level of the European Union and at the level of the individual Members States. The role of the European Union is described and assessed as well as its legislative and non-legislative instruments. The focus is on the proactive measures that contribute to solving the primary causes of the gender pay gap. The positive action measures and family-friendly measures are presented.

The thesis deals with women in Komerční banka focusing on their career and possibilities of work-life balance. The main aim of the thesis is to find out an attitude of the bank towards the equal opportunities, employees' awareness of instruments of family policy as well as the biggest difficulties in women's career. In order to support the practical part of the thesis, we present information about women's role in society, women in the media, career, equal rights and work-life balance. The adopted method of the empirical part is an individual interview with women managers and a questionnaire aimed at selected employees of the bank.

L’exploitation des couches interfaciales à base de d’oxydes métalliques ouvre des perspectives nouvelles dans le domaine des cellules photovoltaïques organiques (PVOs).Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le développement, la caractérisation et l’analyse de couches interfaciales, à base d’oxyde de zinc (ZnO), déposées par pulvérisation cathodique, dans l’élaboration de dispositifs solaires compatibles avec des substrats flexibles et des procédés « roll-to-roll ». Après un état de l’art du domaine, une première étude sera consacrée à l'apport et à l’optimisation des dépôts par pulvérisation cathodique des films de ZnO sur des couches actives de P3HT:PCBM dans le cas de structures conventionnelles. Une seconde partie mettra en évidence l'importance des procédés de recuit des couches de ZnO déposées sur des substrats flexibles ou rigides à base d’ITO pour des structures inverses de cellules PVOs flexibles. Suite à ces études, l’élaboration de ces dispositifs sera testée et validée à partir de techniques inspirées de la lithographie douce. L’interfaçage des films de ZnO avec de nouveaux matériaux tel que le graphène sera également abordé dans ces recherches. / Exploring interfacial layers based on metal oxides opens new perspectives in the field of organic photovoltaic (OPV). This thesis takes place in development, characterization and analysis of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) based interfacial layers, deposited by sputtering in the preparation of solar cells devices compatible with flexible substrates and "roll-to-roll" process. After a state of art, the first study will focus on contribution and optimization of ZnO films sputtered on active layer (P3HT:PCBM) for conventional structures. A second study will highlight the importance of annealing processes of ZnO layers deposited on flexible and rigid substrates based on ITO for inverse flexible solar cells. Following these studies, the development of the devices will be tested and validated using printing techniques inspired from soft lithography. Finally, new materials as graphene will be interfaced with ZnO layers and discuss in this research.