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The glass ceiling is an idea familiar to many. It refers to the invisible barrier that seems to exist in many fields and which prevents women from achieving senior positions. Less well-known, but arguably a more pernicious problem, is the ‘glass cliff’. Originally recognised by academics Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam back in 2005, this is the phenomenon of women making it to the boardroom but finding themselves disproportionately represented in untenable leadership positions. Ryan and Haslam presented evidence that women were indeed starting to secure seats at boardroom tables. But the problem was that their positions were inherently unstable. These women would then find themselves in an unsustainable leadership position from which they would be ousted with evidence of apparent failure. The title of their paper sums it up: women are over‐represented in precarious leadership positions. Subsequent research in an array of environments has demonstrated that this is not an isolated issue, nor is it unique to certain industries or geographical locations. It reveals that women in top leadership positions seem to be routinely handed inherently unsolvable problems.

The glass ceiling prevents women from reaching top positions, while the ‘glass cliff’ places them in precarious leadership roles. Identified by Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam in 2005, research shows that women are often appointed to unstable roles characterized by untenable challenges, making them more likely to fail and be ousted. This issue spans various industries and locations.