Glass Cliff

The term glass cliff was coined by psychologists Michelle Ryan and Alexander Haslam at the University of Exeter in 2005, building on earlier "glass ceiling" research. Their study, published in the British Journal of Management, analyzed FTSE 100 companies and found that women were more likely to be appointed to corporate boards during periods of sustained poor stock performance, placing them in precarious positions where failure was more likely and visibility of that failure was high.

The concept has since been extended beyond corporate boardrooms to politics, law, and public administration. Researchers have documented similar dynamics in:

• Political candidacies, where women are more often selected to contest unwinnable seats or take party leadership during electoral collapse.
• Public-sector appointments, particularly in agencies facing scandal or budget crises.
• Law firm partnerships and university presidencies, where minority leaders are disproportionately installed amid declining enrollments or reputational damage.

Proposed mechanisms include in-group favoritism (majority-group leaders preserving "safe" roles for themselves), stereotypes associating women with crisis-management traits like empathy and communication, and a "think crisis–think female" association documented by Ryan, Haslam, and colleagues in follow-up experimental work (2011). Critics, including a 2007 Strategic Management Journal paper by Adams, Gupta, and Leeth, have questioned the statistical robustness of the original findings, prompting ongoing methodological debate.

The glass cliff is relevant for researchers studying gender and representation in international organizations, foreign ministries, and multilateral bodies, where leadership transitions during institutional crises (e.g., reform efforts, funding shortfalls, or reputational scandals) may show similar selection patterns. It is distinct from the glass ceiling, which describes barriers to reaching senior roles at all, and from the glass escalator, which describes accelerated promotion of men in female-dominated fields.