As a woman you bust your ass trying to get that promotion. You try and you try and finally, finally you get the call you have been waiting for: you are hired. All of those cover letters, interview preparations, interviews, rejections, interview outfits, planning and stressing was worth it. You. Got. The. Job.
You walk into your new job, but oops, you fall over the cliff. I guess no one told you that the game was not over yet.
What is the glass cliff and how do I not fall off of it?
What’s the glass cliff, you ask? British comedian Sandi Toksvig explained it best: ‘It’s a case of men going, ‘Wow, it can’t get any worse, quick, let’s put a woman in charge!’
Well, let’s back up first, and discuss the glass ceiling, which is the informal, invisible barrier that keeps women out of upper management.
Interesting new research is showing something even more startling; women who are able to break through said ceiling are now facing a new crisis, because they have a better chance of breaking though when an organization is facing a crisis — thus finding themselves on the glass cliff.
So what is happening?
Well, it seems like we are starting to get the opportunities we are looking for, but we are being expected to do much more, than our predecessors to prove our positions and keep them.
The glass cliff is the theory is that women can rise to leadership, but when they’re brought in to turn things around during dire times, they have to bear the blame if things don’t go well. So while they’ve managed to break through the glass ceiling, they’re then pushed off the glass cliff.
We are being used as test subjects, under the worst…
