Are female leaders set up for failure by bringing them into disproportionately risky and undesirable leadership positions, which limits their chances of success and reinforces externally the idea that women are not well suited to successful leadership? Author and former corporate executive Sophie Williams examines the so-called glass cliff. Y ou’ve probably heard of the glass ceiling, the invisible but seemingly impossible to break through barrier Glass Ceiling? What About the Glass Cliff? Women often hired because of perceived soft strengths Sophie Williams Author and former corporate leader
Researchers Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam , coined the term in response to a 2003 Sunday Times article that purported to show that companies with women on their board perform poorly in the stock market, asserting that the presence of women in the boardroom had “wreaked havoc on companies’ performance and share prices” and that “corporate Britain might be better off” without women in leadership. What this article had failed to consider, which Ryan and Haslam’s research did, was the performance of the businesses in question in the period immediately preceding appointment of new, underrepresented leaders. The story the research actually tells is one
that sits above women in business and stops them from reaching the peaks of professional success. The glass cliff, on the other hand, is likely a newer term for many, but while the name might be less familiar, it’s a phenomenon that you’ve almost certainly seen play out time and time again. The invisible sister to the glass ceiling, the glass cliff looks not at what stops women from taking on the most senior leadership roles but at what the circumstances are that lead to underrepresented leaders getting the chance to lead — and their experiences once in place.
34 | April/May 2024
Leadership & Career
CCI Magazine
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