For those of you out there who might think this concerns that sweet gal with the golden slipper of that fairy tale of old, I assure you it doesn’t. The glass cliff is a modern phenomenon that affects the working world and particularly the women trying to make their way through it in the most negative of ways. Identified in a recent English study conducted by two professors at Exeter University, the glass cliff phenomenon is a situation that occurs whenever companies appoint women to higher management only after suffering severe reverses, almost insuring a precarious position for the woman in question.
Not only does “the glass cliff” practically guarantee failure, it will also do so under the critical eye of media scrutiny. This is so unfair, not even so much for the obvious, but also because this new person will have to shoulder the blame for whatever mistakes her predecessor made (and not even the president of the United States does that).
Understand this is not in any way to bash the males among us. It does seem, however, that when women fall from grace, they don’t slip, they plop. Take, for example, the case of Martha Stewart. No matter how you may feel about her, it was a travesty of justice that she was sent to prison for a stock trade that only affected her. At the same time, in all fairness, many male executives who’ve done everything except wear a mask and tote a gun, have looted companies and annihilated the savings of countless widows, orphans and retirees. Although some, like Michael Miliken, for example, are in prison where they belong, many others are busy skiing alongside their Swiss chalets and basking in the sun on the sandy beaches of far away places.
The glass cliff phenomenon is unfair whether it affects men or women. And the fact that it is made of glass means everyone should watch out. After all, there are only so many shares of glass cleaner stock left to sell!
Do YOU have a glass cliff story to tell? Please share.
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