When That Job Promotion Is Really a ‘Glass Cliff’

When Boeing tapped Stephanie Pope to run its commercial airplanes division in March, positioning her to become the company’s first female chief executive, not all gender equity advocates were celebrating. Some saw the move — which came after a harrowing plane malfunction led to a public-relations nightmare — as yet another example of the “glass cliff effect,” a phenomenon in which a company in crisis appoints a woman to turn things around, often setting them up for failure.

Examples of the glass cliff abound. Stephanie Linnartz was put in charge of turning around Under Armour in late 2022, but lasted just a year. When Bed Bath & Beyond was crashing toward bankruptcy, it appointed Sue Gove as its first female chief executive.

Companies say they aren’t consciously doing this. But some researchers think companies in crisis sometimes turn to women because they are perceived as having the soft skills needed to navigate difficult situations. The glass cliff is also prevalent in other countries and outside the corporate world: in government, sports leagues and at universities.

How it’s pronounced

/gläs klif/

The term glass cliff, which is a sister to “glass ceiling,” was coined in 2005 by two British researchers, Michelle K. Ryan and S. Alexander Haslam. Since then, use of the term has expanded to apply not just to women but more generally to people of color. (“Glass escalator” usually refers to white heterosexual men, who don’t experience the same limitations.)

Sophie Williams, author of the book “The Glass Cliff,” which was published in March, said the term “speaks again to that invisible danger of being up high and potentially falling down.” Research shows that businesses that appoint women to leadership roles for the first time tend to have been in crisis for five months or more, she said.

“Idon’t think it’s a coincidence that when there is this big public mess, when there’s a possibility of someone’s reputation being tied up with this problem, we suddenly default to women in a way that we haven’t historically,” Ms. Williams said.

Christy Glass, a professor of sociology at Utah State University, has studied the phenomenon since the mid-2000s and often publishes research about it with her colleague Alison Cook. One thing they have found is that women and people of color tend to have acquired the skills needed to lead in times of crisis.

“They are only able to have the reputation of a crisis leader because they were able to overcome so many obstacles along the way that were precarious,” Ms. Glass said.

But even for people with those skills, accepting a glass cliff appointment can have devastating consequences.

“We’re building this incredible pool of talented C.E.O.s and we’re giving them this one shot that is high risk and if they fail or perceive to fail they’re gone,” Ms. Glass said. “The risk of crashing and burning is high.”