Evolution and Culture: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Women and the Glass Ceiling

Evolved leadership styles such as privilege-based and dominance-based leadership are the basis of hierarchical structures, such as patriarchy. Patriarchy, as a founding principle of the Abrahamic Religions, such as Christianity, amplifies gender inequality. This thesis examines how patriarchy and the paradigm shifts in European Christian history, from the 11th century to the 20th century, demonstrate how system changes, such as secularization, have influenced inequality. This interdisciplinary literature review examines how leadership styles, leadership selection criteria, and resource allocation relate those principles to Christianity with respect to modern-day women and their efforts to break the glass-ceiling and achieve equality. The systems approach highlights how feminism, secularization, and policy are interwoven, sustaining each other, and building the driving forces to change. This systems approach integrates disciplinary insights that could include explanations why men chose leaders for different reasons than women do, and examines how hierarchical structures result in conflicts across paradigms, but also create common ground among concepts such as sexist ideology and parental cost. The analyses support the claim that secularization drives feminism and vice versa. As a result, education, family planning, activism, and policies are accelerating women`s abilities to break the glass ceiling.