The 'glass cliff' is a serious problem for women in corporate America. Here's how to dismantle it.

• Insider spoke with Michelle Ryan, the researcher who helped coin the phrase the "glass cliff."
• The "glass cliff" is when people from underrepresented groups are promoted during a difficult time.

Companies are pledging to diversify their boards and C-suites, meaning people from underrepresented groups are more likely to be promoted to leadership positions right now.

But employers need to ensure they aren't unintentionally setting up new leaders for failure because of something called the "glass cliff."

The glass cliff is the research-backed occurrence wherein a person from an underrepresented background is promoted to a senior leadership position during a difficult time for a company when the risk of failure is high. This phenomenon acutely impacts women, research has shown. Women's History Month is a critical time to draw attention to the problematic phenomenon in corporate America.

Now there's no question that diversity in management and at the executive level is a good thing. A 2018 study by Boston Consulting Group found that increasing diversity in leadership teams increases profits. Another study of 22,000 firms found that companies with more women in their board rooms and on their executive teams were more profitable. When diversity increases, so does a company's performance.

However, the timing and manner wherein a person is promoted to these leadership positions is what matters here. Will someone from an underrepresented group be chosen for top positions only because of these precarious times? And will they be given the support they need?

The dangers of the glass cliff

In November 2003, the Times in London printed an article that implied the reason why so many companies were faring poorly was because they had women as leaders.

Michelle Ryan, along with her University of Exeter colleague Alex Haslam, decided to investigate the claim. Their research, published in 2005, found that it wasn't that women were bad leaders, but that they were appointed leaders when companies were flailing. The "glass cliff" was coined.

"If women are appointed in times of crisis, it's not that woman are unable to lead, but leading in a time of crisis is more difficult and more precarious than leading when everything is great," Ryan told Insider.

Women may indeed get picked to lead but could be set up for failure.

"We might find that these women don't last as long in these positions or that they may be highly criticized because there's a lot going on. And that potentially reinforces the stereotype that women aren't good at leadership," she said.

Ryan is currently investigating why women are appointed to leadership positions in times of crisis. It could be coming from a number of places, Ryan noted. It could be out of good intentions (though Ryan said she doubts it). It could be because former leaders view non-white male executives as more expendable in an organization, or that they would attract more sympathetic responses from the public. It also could be a form of diversity "tokenism," or that putting a woman leader in charge is a signal of more changes to come within the company.

The last reason, companies seeking to signal change, might be what's happening today, Ryan said.

"It's not designed to be malignant against women and ethnic and racial minorities, but it still has the same effect," she added.

How to address the glass cliff

The existence of the glass cliff does not mean that executives should avoid promoting diverse candidates. Nor does it mean a non-white male leader should pass up an opportunity in the C-suite.

The sad reality is, if people from underrepresented groups don't embrace the opportunity, it might be a while before another comes knocking at the door.

For every 100 men who were promoted to management over the period of 2018 to 2019, only 68 Latina women were promoted. That number was even less for Black women, at 58, per research by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org. You can count the number of Black Fortune 500 CEOs on one hand.

"When everything is good, women and people of color aren't being promoted," she said.

Instead, organizations need to ensure people from marginalized groups in senior leadership positions have the support they need, whether that's bigger budgets, more time, or the support of others within the company.

Company leaders also need to know that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) doesn't stop with the appointment of one executive.

"If organizations are saying 'Right we're going to diversify,' you can't just diversify by putting in different people. That's a form of numerical diversity. If you want a culture of diversity, that's a much harder thing to do," Ryan said.

What Ryan is getting at is inclusion. It involves many things, and often requires DEI strategists to come in and help a company. It involves leaders speaking out about discrimination and taking an anti-racist stance (see this example from Boston Scientific), which encourages others in the organization to follow suit. It means holding mid-level managers accountable for how diverse their teams are, and if their team members feel included or not. It means creating a culture where difference is celebrated (for example, not only having employee resource groups, but making sure concerns voiced in those groups make their way to senior management), DEI strategists previously told Insider.

"Throwing women and ethnic and racial minorities into senior leadership roles where there isn't a culture of diversity, where there isn't policies and practices in place that address issues of discrimination, sexism, harassment, racial harassment, ect., that creates its own crisis," Ryan said.

In addition to structural changes on the part of corporate leaders, folks from marginalized groups who are appointed to senior leadership positions need to get comfortable advocating for more resources and power, according to Deepa Purushothaman, author of "The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America."

"We have been taught to be grateful and thankful for being included. We have no blueprint for when the system stops working for us. And we haven't been given the language or the tools to work against the status quo," she writes. "If we do find the gumption to push back, the system will stop us in our tracks and will try to uphold and spread a definition of power that works for it, rather than us."

This article was originally published in August 2020.