Glass cliff: Opportunity or liability?

Women are underrepresented in leadership roles. The well-known name for this phenomenon is the “glass ceiling,” an invisible yet persistently difficult barrier between women and positions of power. But there’s a major and problematic exception. When a company stumbles, profits decline, and market share drops, suddenly the chances it will hire a woman as CEO increase. This is the glass cliff. The term lacks the simple metaphorical elegance of the glass ceiling—it’s sometimes used to describe women leaders who are suddenly let go, even if the company itself is fine, as in “falling off the glass cliff.” It’s also a judgment call whether a company that just hired a woman is truly in moment of crisis or simply facing normal fluctuations. Still, the women who grab these precarious positions and gamely clean up messes they didn’t make can attest: The glass cliff is real. Let’s take a careful walk on a slippery slope. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Glass cliff October 24, 2019 The clean-up crew --------------------------------------------------------------- Women are underrepresented in leadership roles. The well-known name for this phenomenon is the “glass ceiling,” an invisible yet persistently difficult barrier between women and positions of power. But there’s a major and problematic exception. When a company stumbles, profits decline, and market share drops, suddenly the chances it will hire a woman as CEO increase. This is the glass cliff. The term lacks the simple metaphorical elegance of the glass ceiling—it’s sometimes used to describe women leaders who are suddenly let go, even if the company itself is fine, as in “falling off the glass cliff.” It’s also a judgment call whether a company that just hired a woman is truly in moment of crisis or simply facing normal fluctuations. Still, the women who grab these precarious positions and gamely clean up messes they didn’t make can attest: The glass cliff is real. Let’s take a careful walk on a slippery slope. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( by the digits [62%:]( Share of students who chose a male CEO to head a fictional company they read about for a Harvard Business Review study, when the company was described as doing well [69%:]( Share of students in the same study who chose a female CEO when the company was performing poorly [6%:]( Jump in Yahoo stock price after CEO Carol Bartz was fired [20%:]( Amount by which male CEOs are better paid, on average, than female CEOs [77:]( Women promoted to leadership roles for every 100 men promoted [72%:]( Share of senior managers in Fortune 500 companies who are white men [6.4%:]( Share of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies who are women [6 years:]( Average tenure of a white, male CEO [3.25 years:]( Average tenure of an Asian American CEO AP Photo/Paul Sancya origin story Look out below --------------------------------------------------------------- Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam, researchers at the University of Exeter, coined the term “[glass cliff]( in 2005 as part of a study of gender and corporate leadership. What they found was that although women are underrepresented on corporate boards, they are overrepresented when companies are in periods of struggle or decline. One of the [dominant theories about why this happens is that white men reject precarious roles]( preferring to wait for a better opportunity, while women are more likely to jump at a chance to lead. That’s not all there is to it, though. Corporate boards may go looking for a candidate who [signals change]( proving to investors that bold action is underway. The glass cliff isn’t limited to women, or to business. It also exists in politics and in high-profile industries like sports. Utah State University professors Alison Cook and Christy Glass compared CEOs in Fortune 500 Companies with head coaches of NCAA basketball teams. [They found that minority coaches]( are more likely to be promoted to losing teams than white coaches, and minority coaches are more likely to be replaced by white coaches if they fail to produce a winning streak. Likewise, in 1998, Robert Nakasone, an Asian American man, was [brought on as CEO of Toys “R” Us]( amid declining profits and market share. While Nakasone lasted less than two years, some glass cliff gambits, like [Mary Barra’s tenure at GM,]( have been more successful for both CEO and company. brief history [1972:]( Katharine Graham becomes the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company as the Washington Post, which she had led since 1963, makes the list. [1974:]( Marion O. Sandler, who co-founded Golden West Financial Corporation in 1963, becomes the second female CEO of a Fortune-listed company. [1987:]( Linda Wachner of Warnaco becomes the third. [1998]( Robert Nakasone, an Asian American, becomes CEO of Toys “R” Us. [2001:]( Anne Mulcahy is appointed as CEO of Xerox as the company nears bankruptcy. [2002:]( Patricia Russo guides Lucent through three years of negative shareholder returns as CEO. The Lucent board then hires Dutchman Ben Verwaayen to replace her. [2005:]( The term “glass cliff” is coined by psychologists at the University of Exeter. [2009:]( After Iceland’s economic collapse, women take over critical roles at the top of government and the banking sector. [2011:]( Carol Bartz is fired from her CEO role at Yahoo, two and a half years after taking over the struggling company. [2017:]( Theresa May becomes Britain’s prime minister after Brexit in 2016. [2018:]( Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is met with public criticism as the tech company’s market value drops. AP Photo/Virginia Mayo person of interest Some words of advice from Christine Lagarde --------------------------------------------------------------- In July of 2019, Christine Lagarde, the French lawyer who has headed the International Monetary Fund for the past eight years, was nominated by the European Council to become the next president of the European Central Bank. While the ECB is not in crisis, and her nomination is not a glass cliff situation, Lagarde–a global leader with serious management experience–[sees the glass cliff as opportunity](. “When the situation is difficult, when it’s really challenging, when the financial situation is really poor, when budgets have been blown: Then there are opportunities for women. I’ve always encouraged women to say yes in these situations,” [she told Quartz founding editor in chief Kevin Delaney](. “You can only move it up.” Lagarde’s tenure at the ECB, which is slated to begin in November of 2019, will negotiate the financial chaos of Brexit, which itself was a [glass cliff for former UK prime minister Theresa May](. Pop quiz Which of the following is a real term researchers have used to describe women in the workplace? Termite queensAnastasias Queen mums Snow women Correct. Mary Ann Mason, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has described the accumulation of small tasks, extra responsibilities, and additional burdens, like wearing stylish clothing and makeup, that women have to deal with to make it into leadership roles as “the snow-woman effect.” Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. million-dollar question Are women actually better than men in a crisis? --------------------------------------------------------------- It’s not just that women are the only ones who will take a leadership position at an organization in crisis–they may actually be better at resolving major problems. A 2019 study from Lehigh University and Queen’s University Belfast found that women were better able to restore trust among employees, largely due to interpersonal skills. “We showed that when a crisis hits an organization, people trust leaders who behave in relational ways, and especially so when the leaders are women,” Corinne Post, a [professor of management at Lehigh, explained](. Relational behavior includes considering and anticipating the emotional impact of situations and actions, and has been shown to establish and bolster trust in workplace settings. Women may also be better built for handling a crisis. A 2018 [study of historical data]( by researchers at Duke University found that survival rates for women are higher than men in times of severe stress. Life expectancy rates were also higher for female infants, which suggests a biological reason in addition to potential behavioral factors. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Glass cliff? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – fun fact! Asian Americans are less likely to be promoted into management roles than other groups. In times of crisis, however, companies are more than [twice as likely]( as usual to appoint an Asian American CEO. this one weird trick! While the glass cliff can present opportunity where it might not otherwise exist, a scenario in which women and people of color are promoted only when the stakes are unusually high is less than ideal. Anna Beninger, senior director of research at Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on promoting women in business, [told Vox that there is one way to eliminate this issue](. “[T]he glass cliff phenomenon does not seem to apply to organizations when they have a history of female leaders,” she says. quotable “I have noticed, time and again, that when it’s bad, you call women to the rescue. Or as a former central bank governor said to me… ‘The men go to war, and the women pick up the pieces.’” —[Christine Lagarde,]( president of the ECB, to Quartz]( Reuters/Robert Galbraith take me down this 🐰 hole! The myth of the $10 million f-word --------------------------------------------------------------- Carol Bartz, a tech dynamo with a computer engineering degree and business chops to match, was brought on as CEO of Yahoo in 2009 to save the floundering company. Just over two years later, she was fired, over the phone, for not increasing revenue fast enough. Less than 24 hours later, she gave [Fortune an exclusive interview]( in which she said of the Yahoo board, “These people fucked me over,” then referred to them as “doofuses.” She had signed a contract with a non-disparagement clause, which led to the conjecture that she had forfeited a $10 million golden parachute with those remarks. Years later, though, when [Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics asked her]( whether she had to pay anything back for speaking badly of the Yahoo board, she said, “Oh, no. All those little men just ran in the corner.” [Listen to Dubner’s entire 50-minute interview]( with Bartz. Nathan Wert poll Is the glass cliff an opportunity or a trap? [Click here to vote]( OpportunityTrapBoth 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [rubber ducks]( 45% of you said “gross, no,” there’s not a rubber duck in your bathroom; 35% said “of course!”; and 20% said “yes, but belongs to my kid.” 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20the%20glass%20cliff&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Brianna Holt]( ([@BriannaNHolt]( edited by [Annaliese Griffin]( and produced by [Tori Smith](. The correct answer to the quiz is Snow women. Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? [Send this link]( to a friend! Want to advertise in the Quartz Obsession? Send us an email at ads@qz.com. Not enjoying it? No worries. [Click here]( to unsubscribe. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10011 | United States [Share this email](