Welcome to the Glass Age

183 over Europe. This situation, known as the “ scissor graphic ”, is described as a “ leaky pipeline ” , where women disappear from scientific careers disproportionately and constantly, and many highly trained women are lost from science [4]. The gender imbalance in R&D institutes is similar to that of Universities. Moreover, in EU industry, the best rough estimate of the proportion of women in top positions is around 3%. In June 2019, just 33 of the Fortune 500 companies had a female CEO, 6.6%. To ignore these patterns is to accept discrimination in the sciences. Businesses of all sizes have the same natural biases; a further phenomenon appearing in the discrimination of women is: the glass cliff . Frequently, when a company or institution is going through a period of crisis, women are appointed to leadership positions, when the risk of failure is highest. Extending the metaphor of the glass ceiling, the notion of the “glass cliff” refers to a danger that involves exposure to risk of falling. A 2013 study by Alison Cook and Christy Glass [5] on CEO transitions in Fortune 500 companies over a 15-year period, found that the appointment of women CEOs traditionally followed poor company performance. To make matters worse, women CEOs are 45% more likely to be fired than their male counterparts. Who are these women CEOs replaced by? Typically, white men, a scenario dubbed “the savior effect”. Why do so many high performing women accept positions that seem almost impossible to overcome? These positions although risky, provide the opportunity to have a big impact and change the course of a company. An excellent example is Iceland. After the banking crash, Iceland’s women led the rescue, determined to reinvent business and society by injecting values of openness, fairness and social responsibility. From the Prime Minister to CEOs of the two biggest crashed banks, Iceland’s experience shows that giving women an equal say in how business and society are run Figure 12.2. Girls sharing lectures. Source: Pixabay.