Article summary with Women are over-represented in precarious leadership positions by Ryan & Haslam - 2005

People know that women are underrepresented in leadership positions. Women are prevented by an invisible barrier to rise into leadership positions. This invisible barrier is called ‘the glass ceiling’. Recent research, however, suggests that women are breaking through the glass ceiling and are more likely than before to get a leading position. Once they have reached this, however, they are monitored closely. Women are also not always evaluated positively in traditional, masculine leadership roles. Further research shows that workers prefer male supervisors and that many men think that a woman in a leadership role is not effective.

To makes things worse, some newspapers report that women have a negative impact on company performance. This ‘research’, however, does not report any statistical analysis. The research also had other flaws. It is an important research though. The researchers of this study (and not of the ‘wrong’ study) think that some of the data shows the truth. Women are maybe working in poor companies. But it may not be the women who ruin a company; it may also be the ‘ruined’ company that decides to hire women in leadership roles when things go bad. So it could be that women receive more precarious leadership roles than men. The writers call this the glass cliff. Research shows that when performances decline, companies are more likely to make changes to their board. So people should not only focus on women leaders themselves, but also focus on the circumstances surrounding their appointment.

This study wants to research whether women are really poor leaders and whether women are appointed in conditions of poor company performance. The researchers decided to look at the year 2003. They looked in what month a women was appointed to be a leader. They also measured the company performance. They found that the higher the percentage of women on a company’s board, the poorer the company’s performance. They also looked at the performance of each month and found that when women were assigned during the first half of the year as a leader (so when the stock markets were down), company performance showed an increase over time. When a woman was appointed as leader in the second half of the year (so when the stock market was up), a decrease in performance could be found. So it seems that women are less likely to be placed in leadership roles during a company downturn.