The glass ceiling is a social theory that says women can't rise higher than a certain level in management in corporate business. "The highest ranking women in most industries are in non-operating areas such as personnel, public relations, or, occasionally, finance specialties that seldom lead to the most powerful top-management posts." Women are locked out of jobs in the "business mainstream," the route taken by most CEOs and Presidents. Even when women can get a job higher up than usual it usually doesn't carry weight or mean that much in the success of the business. It will rarely be a job that will market them as "leaders." This barrier has been evident since the earlier signs of sexism in the 1960s and the laws passed to destroy sexism had little effect on this invisible barrier.