Woman Teeters on a Glass Cliff

"The glass cliff is a program of research investigating the context in which women (and other minorities) are appointed into leadership positions. This research suggests that women tend to be appointed to leadership positions under very different circumstances than men. More specifically, this research suggests that women are more likely to be appointed to leadership positions that are associated with an increased risk of criticism and failure. Women's leadership positions can thus be seen as more precarious than those of men. Extending the metaphor of the 'glass ceiling' and the 'glass elevator' [is] this phenomenon 'the glass cliff'.....In November 2003 The Times published an article entitles 'Women on Board: Help or Hindrence' (Judge, 2003). The article reported a tendency for companies with women on their boards to perform less well than those that have all-male boards. The article concluded that women leaders were 'wreaking havoc' on the performance of FTSE 100 companies...

Putting paid to the argument that women directors are bad for business, the analyses revealed that the appointment of a woman director was not associated with a subsequent drop in company performance. Indeed, in a time of a general financial downturn, companies that appointed a woman actually experienced a marked increase in share price after the appointment. On the other hand, those appointments that were made in less unsettled times tended to be followed by a period of share price stability... companies that appointed a woman to their board had experienced consistently poor performance in the months preceding the appointment. Thus women were more likely than men to be placed in positions already associated with poor company performance . In this way, female directors were more likely than male directors to find themselves on a glass cliff, such that their positions of leadership were more risky and precarious than those in which men found themselves...

The full account of the research is at:
The Glass Cliff - Research

A BBC article fleshes out the theory with examples in real-life - BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Introducing... the glass cliff