Access to Leadership Positions and Career Trajectories among Georgian and American Women in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries European Scientific Journal ESJ

https://www.academia.edu/171344067/Access_to_Leadership_Positions_and_Career_Trajectories_among_Georgian_and_American_Women_in_the_Twentieth_and_Twenty_First_Centuries This article examines how institutional, organizational, and carerelated factors shape women's access to leadership positions and career trajectories in Georgia and the United States. Its objective is to identify the principal mechanisms that facilitate or constrain women's progression from education and labour-market entry to managerial and senior leadership positions and to compare how these mechanisms operate across two distinct national contexts. The study uses a qualitative comparative literature review and policy analysis. It primarily draws on peer-reviewed research, official statistics, and institutional reports published between 2020 and 2026, while selected foundational theoretical works and historical evidence are used to contextualize developments across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The analysis is organized around five interrelated dimensions: organizational culture and promotion practices, caregiving responsibilities, flexible work arrangements, intersectional inequalities, and structural access to careerdevelopment opportunities. The findings indicate that women's limited representation in leadership cannot be explained by insufficient qualifications or ambition. In the United States, measurable progress in senior leadership coexists with persistent barriers at the first promotion into management, unequal access to sponsorship, motherhood-related penalties, and racialized