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glass cliff
[glas klif]
noun
a situation in which a woman or minority has advanced professionally at a time when adverse circumstances or crises make it more likely for the person to fail at the job.
Hired to boost sagging morale, the CEO is facing the edge of a glass cliff.
Word History and Origins
Origin of glass cliff1
Example Sentences
This dynamic, where a talented female leader inherits a collapsing situation, is so common in the business world that experts have a name for it: The glass cliff.
She added that “the Glass Cliff disproportionately impacts women who aren’t white.”
“It was clear from the start that this seemed to be a case of The Glass Cliff waiting to happen,” Sophie Williams, the author of “The Glass Cliff: Why Women in Power are Undermined — And How to Fight Back,” told Salon.
Perhaps the most sympathetic reason Williams gave for the glass cliff phenomenon is that sometimes an institution wants to signal they’re shaking things up by promoting someone who isn’t a cookie-cutter white guy.
Part of the issue of the disproportionate numbers of men to women is the “glass cliff,” Glass said.
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When To Use
The glass cliff is a metaphor for putting women and other minorities into leadership positions during times of crisis. It suggests they are getting set up to fail, as if getting pushed over a cliff.
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