First Female DEA Chief Resigns After Blamed For Not Fixing ‘Good Old Boy’ Culture

[Novara]

This article makes a very good point: First Female DEA Chief Resigns After Blamed For Not Fixing ‘Good Old Boy’ Culture

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Her resignation therefore fits into a pattern of women being given leadership of organizations or companies when they are already struggling with significant problems and then often getting pushed out when they can’t engineer a quick turnaround. This is the phenomenon dubbed by researches the “glass cliff.” Multiple studies have found that women and people of color are more likely to be promoted into leadership when companies are experiencing poor performance or grappling with other big challenges. White men are seen as more natural leaders and can usually hold onto power when things are going well, but a rough patch may make people more inclined to turn to women to try something new. Women are then more likely to be forced out of their jobs, and when they are, white men often are put back into power as the “savior.”

The same pattern has turned up for the first women to lead other government agencies. Julia Pierson, former director of the Secret Service, was also tasked with cleaning up an agency already rocked by scandals, including Secret Service agents hiring prostitutes, and then made to resign when another scandal hit. The first woman to be named postmaster general of the Postal Service comes in at a time when revenue has been falling by billions of dollars every year, it has defaulted on pension payments, and it’s on the brink of financial collapse.

But it crops up in many different places. Two women lost high-up leadership roles at NBC after the Brian Williams scandal. Mary Barra became the first female CEO of General Motors just before its airbag failures came to light. The first head to roll after JP Morgan lost billions to a massively failed trade made by a male trader was a woman, while the first high-profile executive blamed for the crisis was a woman. Xerox’s first female CEO took the job when the company was $17 billion in debt, while Sunoco’s first female CEO got the position after its shares had fallen 52 percent.

It happens to people of color too: JC Penney’s first back CEO was appointed after the last CEO blew a $4 billion hole in sales.

Part of the reason that there are so few women in government and corporate leadership is that they don’t get promoted as often. But the other side is that when they are, they are handed nearly impossible turnaround jobs and then pushed out if they don’t succeed.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/04/22/3649790/michele-leonhart-dea-glass-cliff/

I have long said that GM appointed Mary Barra as CEO in order to take the fall.