It may have divided the country but Brexit got a woman to the top. Is anyone surprised that in these times of division and dissent following the Brexit vote, we appear to be in a position where we have a female Prime Minister again? We have only ever had one female Prime Minister before and prior to Brexit, were Theresa May ever in the picture for the PM role?
For me, this situation reflects what happens in the corporate world with regard to female leaders. A research project by Utah State University (2013) found that when companies were experiencing times of crisis e.g. when there are serious financial issues or during mergers/acquisitions, they were much more likely to promote a woman to the top table. The researchers called this the ‘Glass Cliff ‘theory.
The researchers also suggested that company boards may believe that women have particular skills which may help them motivate staff and get the company out of trouble e.g. an upbeat nature and interpersonal warmth. This may be another reason why women have a higher chance of being promoted to the top table when a company is struggling.
Women are also more likely than men to accept these types of positions with struggling companies because this may be their only chance to get to the top table. Men on the other hand can see that during times of crisis there is a high risk of failure and they do not want their careers to be harmed by being associated with that failure, so they are more likely to decline such positions. We may have already seen some evidence of this with certain prominent men busily distancing themselves from leadership roles e.g. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage.
Interestingly along with the ‘Glass Cliff’ theory, the Utah State University study also found another phenomenon which they called the ‘Saviour’ effect. During their studies the researchers observed that when women were appointed to struggling companies, their leadership tenure was much shorter and they were replaced by white males who were then perceived as ‘Saviours’.
This research suggests that Theresa May should exercise a degree of caution, in that, a female PM will probably have to battle all the difficult decisions of Brexit but will then be replaced by a male Saviour’ who will receive the credit for steering the country through, what is undoubtedly going to be one of our most challenging times as a nation.