ABSTRACT Gender bias among US women tennis coaches, a significantly underrepresented group was examined. Leveraging frameworks on gender bias and systemic barriers for women coaches, a concurrent triangulation design was utilised to gain a more holistic and nuanced understanding of gender bias through a quantitative survey (N = 657) and an open-ended question. Results revealed that higher perceptions of gender bias, specifically lack of acknowledgement, male culture, lack of sponsorship, and glass cliff experiences, were significantly associated with lower job satisfaction. Lack of acknowledgement was a significant predictor of intention to leave coaching within 12 months. Qualitative findings reinforced the pervasive presence of six “glass walls” of gender bias across individual, interpersonal, organisational, and societal levels, embedded in a male-dominated culture. Notably, gender essentialism led women coaches to internalise societal stereotypes; while portraying “feminine” coaching styles as a professional strength, which can constrain career trajectories. Practical implications and future research are suggested.

ABSTRACT This research uses a postcolonial feminist perspective to examine how Filipino women leaders turn challenging situations, often referred to as glass cliffs, into opportunities for personal and professional development. Based on unique cultural stories of Filipino women leaders from different sectors, we present three theoretical mechanisms: cultural capital conversion, cultural ambidexterity, and cultural resilience. These concepts are illustrated through cultural archetypes, the hero, the matriarch, and the responsible older sister, which show how influences from pre‐colonial matriarchs and Filipino values such as bayanihan , pakikisama , and utang na loob influence leadership experiences. We extend the glass cliff phenomenon by showing how colonial histories and cultural values alter its expression in postcolonial settings. This study contributes to decolonizing leadership research by showcasing how cultural values form unique paths for women's leadership success, questioning the universal relevance of Western theories, and promoting more inclusive theoretical frameworks in organizational leadership.

Gendered media framing continues to restrict women’s political representation in Southern Africa, where news narratives often emphasise emotion and personality over policy and competence. This systematic review analysed empirical and grey literature (2000–2025) on the portrayal of women politicians in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, and Namibia. Following PRISMA 2020 standards, 1384 records were identified from academic databases and regional repositories, with 73 records meeting the inclusion criteria. The studies were thematically analysed using feminist media theory. The review uncovers enduring stereotypes—such as motherhood, moral virtue, and emotionality—while leadership competence remains marginalised. Coverage frequently reinforces the “political glass cliff,” portraying women as suitable only during crises. Nonetheless, some evidence of resistance journalism and feminist digital counter-narratives is emerging, driven by NGOs like Gender Links and Media Monitoring Africa. Despite methodological diversity, most studies emphasise qualitative textual analysis and highlight limited audience or production research. Major limitations include reliance on English-language and secondary data, which restrict regional generalisability. Overall, the findings underscore that symbolic exclusion persists across Southern African media, emphasising the need for gender-sensitive newsroom frameworks and transformative reporting practices. This review received no external funding and is not registered in PROSPERO.

Previous studies suggest the presence of a "glass cliff" in the sense that women are more likely than men to be appointed to a top leadership position when that position is already risky and precarious. In this study, we examine the theoretical underpinning of the glass cliff hypothesis and empirically test the hypothesis on a large sample of CEO appointments at S&P 1500 firms. A key departure from previous studies is that we characterize precarious CEO positions as those at firms going through a traumatic event or under financial distress. We find no evidence that women are more likely than men to be appointed to such precarious leadership positions. Multivariate probit regression analysis (with controls for firm and CEO characteristics, year and industry fixed effects) further confirms that pre-appointment firm performance and measures for financial distress have no explanatory power for the decision to name a female CEO. The most influential factor is the percentage of women on the board of directors.

Gender inequality in contemporary organizations persists despite decades of policy initiatives, partly because many barriers have shifted from overt exclusion to subtle, often invisible, mechanisms embedded in everyday practices. Existing models—whether grounded in economics, sociology, or social psychology—tend to focus on either the “supply” of candidates or the “demand” of organizations, reify gender categories, and overlook the active role of dominant groups in defining competence standards. This article introduces the Gender Projection Model (GPM), an identity–structural framework that explains how dominant-group members project their own attributes, life patterns, and interactional styles onto the prototypes of valued organizational roles such as leaders, experts, or the “ideal worker.” These prototypes, presented as neutral, are in fact historically situated and power-sensitive, shaping both evaluation criteria and the aspirations of those perceived as non-prototypical. The GPM predicts that projection is strongest when the gender hierarchy is perceived as legitimate, stable, and impermeable, and that it operates as a feedback loop: prototypes influence evaluations and opportunities, which in turn reinforce status beliefs and prototype stability. By reframing “supply” as a product of organizational demand, the model unifies phenomena often treated separately—glass ceiling, sticky floor, glass cliff, backlash, tokenism—within a single identity-driven mechanism. Beyond its theoretical integration, the model generates testable predictions about when projection strengthens or weakens and offers an empirical and diagnostic framework for organizational analysis. This article thus outlines testable implications, proposes a cumulative research agenda, and discusses practical and organizational interventions aimed at redefining prototypes to foster equitable access to valued roles.

Abstract Black women remain acutely underrepresented in senior leadership roles within higher education, often experiencing precarious appointments during times of institutional instability—a phenomenon known as the “glass cliff.” While existing research addresses the barriers to leadership access, limited scholarship explores what happens once Black women assume these high-risk roles. This study asks, “What are the lived experiences of Black women in high-level leadership roles in higher education, and how do they describe navigating workplace cultures shaped by the intersections of race and gender?” Using narrative inquiry, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with five Black women who have held high-level academic leadership positions. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were thematically analyzed using a five-step coding process, with multivocality and researcher reflexivity employed to ensure rigor. Findings revealed eight interrelated themes, including the impact of racial and gender identity on professional trajectories, limited mentorship and sponsorship, inequitable compensation, and persistent organizational cultures reflective of glass cliff conditions. Participants described feeling devalued, under-supported, and excluded from critical decision-making spaces. Despite these challenges, they demonstrated resilience and emphasized the importance of culturally affirming support systems, intentional recruitment practices, and transparent institutional cultures. This study contributes to higher education leadership literature by demonstrating how misogynoir and racialized organizational risk shape Black women’s leadership experiences post-appointment. The findings call for urgent structural reforms in recruitment, support, and retention strategies to ensure that Black women not only access leadership roles but are positioned to thrive within them.

This paper explores how women leaders navigate and construct their identities under crisis. Analysing the narratives and lived experiences of women CEOs during the Greek crisis, we identify five dominant narratives: endurance, heroism, custodianship, sacrifice, and alienation, as central in women leaders’ identity work. Each narrative explains how women leaders resolve tensions triggered by the crisis through different microprocesses of identity work. Our findings illustrate nine microprocesses underlying the five narratives: gender affirmation and identity layering (endurance), masculinization (heroism), cross-domain identity spillover (custodianship), cross-domain identity conflict, exhaustion and loneliness (sacrifice), and gender identity neutralization and disembodiment (alienation). Role metaphors like superwoman, captain, loner/martyr, or antihero, vividly animate these microprocesses. We contribute to better understandings of the glass cliff, gendered leadership, and doing gender under crisis. Our findings indicate partial hopeful agency: women leaders decide how to walk on the glass cliff, moving away from gendered stereotypes and the gender binary.

Abstract: The glass cliff refers to the higher likelihood for women (vs. men) to hold leadership positions in struggling companies because they were appointed during a crisis. We tested whether awareness of this phenomenon influences perceptions of gender inequality, sexism, and collective action intentions for women’s rights. In four online experiments ( Ntotal = 1,333), participants (1) were informed about the link between women CEOs and negative company performance, (2) were additionally given a glass cliff explanation, or (3) only completed our measures. A meta-analysis showed that the explanation reduced sexist beliefs (very low heterogeneity) and potentially increased collective action intentions (low heterogeneity) but did not influence perceptions of gender inequality (moderate heterogeneity). These studies provide an empirical basis for sexism interventions.

This paper aims to answer the following research question, how has the glass cliff been researched and understood? Is this phenomenon sharing any common antecedents? By developing a specific literature review based on the references around the seminal paper by (Ryan & Haslam, 2005), we try to understand the mix of antecedents and outcomes for both corporations and women that lead to the glass cliff. Although designed exploratory, in this review we compiled systematically these elements that defined the glass cliff phenomena and propose future research opportunities as to shed light on it. JEL Codes: J16, M51, G34 Keywords: Gender Diversity, Glass Cliff, Women Empowerment, Context Antecedents.

Purpose The article investigates the role of women in the corporate governance system within the Polish capital market, with a particular focus on the glass cliff phenomenon. Glass cliff theory posits that women are more likely to depart from corporate boards of companies experiencing changes in financial standing. Design/methodology/approach Using survival analysis, we analyzed a sample of 355 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, encompassing 11,223 observations of management and supervisory board members. Findings The findings revealed no significant differences in board tenure or the risk of leaving corporate boards between men and women. Notably, the results suggest that women are less influenced by a company’s financial condition when deciding to leave or remain on the board, potentially indicating gender-based differences in risk attitudes. Specifically, the financial condition of a company has a lower impact on women’s hazard of board departure than men, challenging the glass cliff theory. Moreover, the study highlights the importance of other factors, such as regulatory frameworks, company size and owner type, which may affect board tenure duration. Originality/value The research provides empirical evidence on the factors that influence the tenure of corporate board members in two-tier corporate governance structures. It also demonstrates the potential gender-based differences in risk perception.

This journal takes a narrative approach to address some challenges women face in educational leadership in Zimbabwe. It aims to interrogate the feasible mitigatory strategies propagated by recommendations made by the same educational leaders to create a conducive environment that addresses some deterrents that dissuade other potential female leaders from taking up leadership roles. The study reveals persistent challenges, including limited access to financial training, gender bias in resource allocation, work-life balance pressures, and systemic institutional constraints. Financial management has a thin line between mathematics and accounting skills, and such subjects have had some genderised connotations, especially in a previous non-gender-sensitive curriculum. Research is limited, especially on the solutions to bridge the gap, as mathematics has been observed as more aligned towards the masculine gender. Gender mainstreaming has been advocating for equal access to opportunities, and as such, thrusts have been towards embracing women in leadership positions despite any challenges towards the financial aspect in administration. Some have observed this as aligned towards the Glass Cliff theory, but this paper aims to bridge that gap and provide a favourable environment that proffers a solution to this problem. Such motives are in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which focuses on women’s empowerment and gender equality. We then aim to reduce exclusion and promote gender equality through empowerment. This paper proposes a practical mitigation for female school heads that seeks to empower them and have them perform their roles better whilst gaining necessary skills, staff development and receiving adequate support. Drawing from feminist leadership theory and institutional analysis, this paper contributes to understanding how gender intersects with educational financial management in developing contexts. The findings highlight the need for targeted professional development programs, institutional policy reforms, and mentorship networks to support women's advancement in educational leadership roles. This theory will help minimise the tendencies of potential leaders to shun leadership opportunities in school due to an inadequate mathematical and accounting background. Our methodological dialogue will be grounded in narratives emanating from semi-structured interview questions on school heads’ experiences. Data analysis will be thematic, and conclusions and recommendations will be drawn from the findings. Gender mainstreaming can be coined as a strategy towards equality and equity, and as such, this paper aims to bring part solutions and help empower and encourage women in school management. These findings aim to empower women in educational leadership and foster an inclusive environment for equitable access to leadership roles.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0148/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Women face invisible barriers and obstacles that hinder their career advancement, often referred to as the broken rungs on the corporate ladder. This exploratory study examined whether emotional intelligence (EI)—conceptualized as perceived relationship awareness and leader-member exchange (LMX)—contributes to explaining women’s career advancement and career satisfaction, beyond the effects of self-reported gender biases in the workplace. The study assessed six related but distinct gender-related workplace biases: self-shielding, unequal standards, queen bee effect, lack of mentorship, challenges to competence, and glass cliff. The research design was a cross-sectional survey that adapted validated multi-item scales, with a sample of 165 full-time employed women across various industries. Findings indicate a more consistent negative relationship between self-reported gender workplace biases and career satisfaction versus career advancement. Relationship awareness and LMX each had significant positive relationships to both career variables. However, in hierarchical regression analyses, only LMX had a significant positive additive impact for explaining both career advancement and career satisfaction, beyond controlling for demographic and gender workplace bias variables. Relationship awareness had a significant positive additive impact for only career advancement. These results reinforce awareness that relational competencies can add to understanding career outcomes for professional women beyond experienced gender workplace biases.

The glass cliff phenomenon, which suggests women are more likely to be promoted to leadership positions during crises, has garnered considerable academic interest, though the empirical support is mixed. Surveying the literature highlights critical missing elements needed to explain the inconsistency in the findings. Limited attention has been given to the role of candidates’ characteristics, which leads to the question: which women are promoted into leadership positions during crises? In this paper, we examine the critical roles of candidates’ talent and leadership levels, given their impact in addressing crises. We argue that top-talent women are overlooked during prosperous times but are turned to during crises, given their potential impact on firm performance, and this effect is strongest at the senior management level. We test these arguments using random-effect logistic regressions on a dataset of nearly 60,000 employees in the Canadian oil and gas industry. We find the glass cliff effect is prominent among top-talent women (but not non-top talent) of all leadership levels as evidenced in their (relative to male counterparts) increased promotion likelihood during downturns as compared to upturns. The findings show that women are promoted to leadership positions more during crises, but only if they are exceptional.

Introduction: Women Entrepreneurship plays a vital role towards economic development of a country. The Covid-19 pandemic, while disrupted Bangladesh with experiencing widespread employee retrenchment and economic uncertainty, also helped accelerate women entrepreneurship in several ways. During this crisis, women played a crucial role in fostering economic resilience by embracing technology, with a significant focus on online businesses. Objectives: This paper explores how technological advancement drives as women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship specifically after the Covid-19 period. Methods: To conduct this research, primary data have been collected through focused group discussions (FGDs), from women entrepreneurs who launched their businesses during the pandemic. Results: This study highlights some challenges such as income inequality and economic disempowerment, limited access to education, gender-based violence (GBV), workplace discrimination and harassment, glass cliff phenomenon etc. which drives women to start their online businesses. However, capital insufficiency and lack of knowledge to operate the technology is still a barrier to flourish an enterprise. Conclusions: The situation in Bangladesh following Covid-19 has shown that technology may be a potent facilitator of women's social and economic emancipation. It is of utmost priority to design and execute some policies in favor of women entrepreneurship to have a smooth journey for upcoming women entrepreneurs.

There are still numerous gender-specific hurdles that women face in the professional realm, with the glass ceiling stifling career advancement, and the glass cliff placing women in unwarranted management positions. This investigation explores the attitudinal impression of these phenomena on women professionals in Nagpur, and influences on Career Aspiration, Job Satisfaction, and Professional Resilience. The quantitative research design was implemented, and data was composed through structured surveys from women employees from different sectors. The relationship between perceived workplace barriers and career advancement opportunities was determined using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The studies show that the glass ceiling denies advancement opportunities, while women are pushed into high-risk leadership roles with insufficient support, the glass cliff. The findings underscore the importance of policy changes and workplace reforms to create a more equitable workspace. Future studies should examine intersectional identity factors impacting these barriers and the influence of mentorship on career progression.

Across the globe, communities have been confronted by severe climate shifts, which have brought Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environments. The VUCA environments have therefore called for more inclusive, flexible leadership that incorporates gender equity. This paper looked at the challenges and opportunities of women leadership in such VUCA environments. To achieve this objective, the paper applied the PRISMA framework. In this view, 80 peer reviewed journal articles from different scholarly databases that includes Google Scholar were included. For the quality assessment in the determination of challenges and opportunities of women leadership in VUCA environments, the study applied PRISMA and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The study was hinged on Transformational Leadership Theory and Intersectionality Theory. The results of the study revealed that patriarchal governance systems, limited access to climate finance, and the ‘glass cliff’ phenomenon are the major challenges that hinder women’s leadership in a climate-induced VUCA environment. Women leadership opportunities in such climate induced VUCA environments included the capacity for a collaborated governance system which strengthens community climate change resilience and climate responses. In this view, the study recommended that practitioners give a high priority to initiatives of capacity building that increase women's leadership participation in initiatives to foster and build climate change resilience. The study concluded that the advancement of women leadership is normatively imperative and thus a practical necessity to the creation of more equitable and sustainable climate resilience futures.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the gender gap in Protestant churches’ leadership and its connection to head clergy compensation, using the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices (NSCEP) data. The analysis reveals that women's leadership as head clergy is most common within smaller and theologically liberal churches and during a time of declining membership. These findings imply that clergywomen face both the barrier of a glass ceiling and the disadvantages of a glass cliff, which limits their access to the pulpits that lead to greater compensation and prestige. The analysis also indicates that head clergy compensation is primarily determined by congregational characteristics, most importantly by church size, and the underrepresentation of women in larger churches’ leadership is what drives the gender pay gap for Protestant clergy. Still, the findings hint that the bottom‐up pressure created by the expectations for gender equality from highly educated congregants may help dismantle the barriers for clergywomen.

This study examines the relationship between the glass cliff phenomenon, burnout, and self-confidence among female leaders in the Tunisian civil service. Using a quantitative methodology, we surveyed 66 female leaders who experienced glass cliff situations, employing validated scales for glass cliff experiences, burnout, and self-confidence. Data analysis, conducted using Hayes' PROCESS module and ANOVA, reveals a positive association between glass cliff experiences and burnout symptoms (total effect coefficient = 0.29, p < 0.05), with self-confidence partially mediating this relationship (indirect effect = -0.12). Glass cliff experiences directly decrease self-confidence (coefficient = -0.35), which in turn influences burnout (coefficient = -0.30). Job tenure moderates these relationships, with less experienced leaders reporting higher stress and burnout levels. This study contributes to understanding gender dynamics in leadership within Arab and Mediterranean public sectors, being among the first to empirically examine these variables in this cultural context. Our findings highlight the need for targeted support mechanisms, including mentoring programs and confidence-building initiatives, to promote the well-being and success of women leaders in the Tunisian public sector. Limitations include the relatively small sample size, potentially affecting generalizability. This research offers practical insights for policymakers and public service managers to address gender-specific leadership challenges while extending theoretical understanding of the glass cliff phenomenon in diverse cultural settings. Received: 14 September 2024 | Revised: 29 October 2024 | Accepted: 23 January 2025 Conflicts of Interest The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement The data that support this work are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author. Author Contribution Statement Zyed Achour: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.

In 2022-2023, across all Division I women's college sports teams, women only held 42% of all head coaching positions. Women's college basketball represents one of the outlier sports, as almost 70% of their head coaches for NCAA Division I women's basketball teams were women. While women head coaches are well represented in women's college basketball, Gerretsen et al. (2023) suggest inconsistencies exist in past experience, tenure length, and gender perceptions in women's college basketball hiring practices. This study further aimed to investigate these inconsistencies utilizing role congruity theory and the glass cliff phenomenon. To investigate, the researchers collected data on the gender of head coaches (n=6,205), head coaching changes (n=775), and performance (win %) for Division I women's basketball programs between 2005-2023. Results indicate that the role congruity theory was not supported, as women head coaches were hired approximately 70% of the time when a coaching change occurred. The glass cliff phenomenon was supported by diving deeper into the data. Gender does play a significant role in the hiring process, with women head coaches being more likely to take over a poorly performing team, replace a former successful female head coach, be replaced after a poor performance by a male head coach, and less likely to take on a higher resourced position (Power-6 conferences).

Abstract PurposeThe paper aims to highlights the landscape of women leaders in the BFSI sector and gives an overview of various theories established envisaging women as leaders. The paper aims to Understand theories related to women's leadership.Design/Methodology/ApproachThe methodology applied for paper is descriptive research. The information was collected through secondary sources like research articles, web articles and reports on women leadership.FindingsA deep dive into the topic shows that though women have reached the leadership position it is not yet at the level which one would expect women to reach. Multiple theories promote women as leaders such as Feminist theory, Glass cliff theory, etc.Originality ValueIt is going to be a humungous task to bring gender parity, not gender diversity, into the BFSI sector. Further fullling the lack of gender equality in terms of equal opportunities for leadership positions requires a multi-faceted approach