6 minBusiness
McKinsey Partner's Glass Cliff Comments Spark Backlash
A senior McKinsey partner questioned the glass cliff phenomenon on LinkedIn, prompting the firm to distance itself from his remarks and reigniting debate over women in corporate leadership.
A senior partner at McKinsey & Company has drawn widespread criticism after publicly questioning the existence of the «glass cliff» — the well-documented phenomenon in which women are more likely to be appointed to top leadership roles when a company is already in trouble. The remarks, made on LinkedIn, have forced the consulting giant to distance itself from one of its own senior leaders and have renewed scrutiny of how corporate America treats female executives.
The exchange began when Julia Carreon, a former Citigroup and Wells Fargo executive, promoted her new book, «Walking on Broken Glass: Navigating the Aftermath of the Glass Ceiling,» in a LinkedIn post. A friend of Carreon's used the post to highlight the glass cliff concept. Chris Bradley, a senior partner at McKinsey and a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, commented on the post and challenged the entire premise. «We once had a problem of female advancement to CEO, but now we have a new problem that the jobs they get are too hard? Is this actually a thing?» Bradley wrote, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the exchange. He added that the concept seemed like a convenient excuse to «always be a victim in the rain.» When Carreon suggested he research the topic, Bradley replied that it was not worth his time, saying he would not «start researching glass cliffs» because he did not think it ranked among the top 1,000 problems in the world.
McKinsey moved quickly to contain the fallout. «This exchange was inconsistent with our views and the standards we expect,» a company spokesperson said in a statement. «The comments were made in a personal capacity and have since been deleted. We stand by our research and leadership on these topics. We are disappointed by these comments and do not endorse them.» Bradley did not respond to a request for comment.
The episode is particularly awkward for McKinsey because the firm has built a substantial body of research on gender inequality in the workplace. The McKinsey Global Institute, which Bradley helps lead, has published reports on the barriers women face in leadership. McKinsey is also known for its annual «Women in the Workplace» report, produced with Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In organization. The term glass cliff itself appears in a 2020 McKinsey report on women in healthcare, in a discussion of the unique challenges facing women of color.
Carreon said she was initially stunned that a leader at McKinsey would dismiss the concept so casually. «I wasn't understanding that he didn't know that the glass cliff was a thing,» she told Fast Company. «It finally hit me in real time that he thought we made it up for our book.» She described the incident as «very squarely a black eye over the fact that their senior partners do not live their values.»
Researchers who study the glass cliff say Bradley's skepticism is not unusual. Michelle Ryan, one of the scholars who coined the term, found in a 2007 paper that men often minimize or dismiss the issue. Christy Glass, a sociology professor at Utah State University who has studied the glass cliff for decades, said the reaction reflects a deeper discomfort. «The unspoken reality of the research on barriers to leadership for women is that men have not had to prove themselves to the same degree that women leaders have,» Glass said. «I think there's something deeply threatening about anything that suggests that you've had it easier than some other people.»
Multiple studies, including work by Ryan and Glass, have concluded that women are more likely to be installed in leadership positions when a company is facing headwinds, though some research contradicts those findings. Glass's work also shows that once women are appointed, they are given less time to turn things around and shoulder more blame even when problems predate their arrival. She noted that the public nature of Bradley's comments was telling, since he made them on a professional social network in full view of his employer and women who might report to him. «Good leadership means evaluating complex evidence, engaging diverse stakeholders, and truly seeking to understand how your organization works and what the landscape looks like — not just for you, but for everybody,» Glass said. «Here's a person who is this far into a highly visible, high-status leadership role and career, and he has never had to face accountability for this kind of behavior before.»
The controversy comes as female representation in top corporate roles remains limited. About 11% of CEOs at the 500 largest U.S. companies by revenue are women — a record high, but still a small fraction. For Carreon, the exchange echoed experiences from her Wall Street career. «I feel like women are constantly having to relitigate our value,» she said. Carreon is currently pursuing a sexual harassment lawsuit against her former employer Citigroup, which has said the claim has «no merit.»
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