Glass Cliff Phenomenon

In a new study of major companies, Professors Ryan and Haslam of Exeter University (in the UK) and his team have discovered a phenomenon they call the “glass cliff,” where companies appoint women to senior management only after suffering reverses, making the position a precarious one, with a high risk of failure—and a certainty of critical media scrutiny.  Not only is the situation tense, but there is the real possibility the newly appointed manager will have to shoulder the blame for mistakes made before she arrived on the scene.

The result is that when women do break through, the scrutiny of them is harsher, their missteps are magnified and become part of their permanent legacy—in contrast to men, who are allowed to fail and learn and move on. The highest-profile recent example of this is when Carly Fiorina became CEO of not only a Fortune 500 company, but became the first woman CEO of a Dow 30 company.  She may have been set up, in a manner of speaking, from the beginning.

In Fiorina’s case, she was given the opportunity to take the reins of an iconic but lethargic and declining company with plunging profitability in the industry itself and many of HP’s product lines.  When the strategy she and the board embraced, and which they still embrace did not produce increased profits fast enough, Fiorina was ousted unceremoniously in February 2005.

When women fall from grace, they not only seem to fall farther and faster, but they can be sent to the dungeon, as well.  Many Americans (and, in fact, citizens worldwide) felt it was a travesty of justice for Martha Stewart to be sent to prison for her recollection of a stock trade that affected no one but her. At the same time, many male executives who've looted their companies and annihilated the savings of countless widows, orphans, and future retirees—are still rattling around in their mansions, ski chalets, and beach villas.