The study was entirely designed by centering the focal problem of the effect of Glass Ceiling on
Women Career Development. The overall study was structure based on the conceptual framework
built up using the information of literature survey. The study was conducted with the aim
of obtaining the following objective. That is “To find out the Effect of Glass Ceiling on Women
Career Development with regard to female executive level employees who are working in private
sector organizations.” At the same time, hypotheses are developed to find out whether there is
a significant effect of Individual Factors, Family Factors, Organizational Factors and Cultural
Factors on Women Career development. Merely this study has been completed with an empirical
survey which was thoroughly conducted using a self-administered questionnaire and the sample
consisted of 150 women executives. For presenting and analyzing the data both descriptive and
inferential statistics were used. The findings reveal that the Glass Ceiling and Women Career
Development have a moderate negative relationship, and also show that Individual Factors, Organizational
Factors and Cultural Factors have a significant effect on Women Career Development
whereas Family Factor has effects on the Glass Ceiling. Following the study results, a
conclusion was eventually made that there are significant effects of the Glass Ceiling on Women
Career Development of Executive level female employees working in private sector organizations
in Sri Lanka. By taking all these facts into consideration, better recommendations have
been made in this study. Finally, the most valuable suggestions for further studies and limitations
of the study have been outlined.