The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the glass cliff phenomenon and two forms of sexism: hostile sexism (HS) and benevolent sexism (BS). Glass cliff refers to the tendency to endorse a woman candidate for a normally desirable, high-status position at the time of downfall or when things are not going well. A questionnaire package was first administered to a working people sample (N = 328) with diverse occupational backgrounds. Based on the analyses and findings, to be able to eliminate the potential confounding effect of the order of the scales in the package, the study was repeated on a student sample (N = 147). Finally, analyses were repeated after the data from both samples were combined. Results showed no evidence for 1) the presence of glass cliff and 2) the presence of a relationship between glass cliff and two forms of sexism. The results from both samples were discussed, presenting some plausible explanations for the findings. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also presented.

Women face barriers to advancement in male-dominated fields (Glass Ceiling) and in female-dominated fields (Glass Escalator). More research is needed to elucidate the causes of these barriers in order to reduce the negative effects on women’s advancement. This study attempted to broaden the literature through the experimental examination of the glass escalator to further understand the gender inequalities that are seen in female-dominated fields. It employed a factorial design to examine the impact of gender, gender make up of an occupation, and level of authority within that occupation on a supervisor’s evaluation of an employee and decision to offer promotion, mentoring, and increase income and vacation time. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were just over half women, predominantly White and heterosexual, had a bachelor’s degree or higher, currently engaged in full-time employment, and half indicated their household income to be between $25,000 and $74,999. Each participant was presented with a single vignette of an employee file who was eligible for a promotion from a female-dominated (nurse), male-dominated (engineer), or gender neutral (accountant) occupation. They evaluated the employee’s performance and made recommendations for promotion, increasing raise and vacation days, and offered mentoring. Participants also completed the Gender Attitude Inventory (GAI; Ashmore, Del Boca, & Bilder, 1995) to better understand the role that gender attitudes play in gender bias in promotion decision-making. Multiple analysis of covariance was utilized to examine main effects and interaction effects of target employee gender, gender-type of occupation, and level of authority of the occupation. Hypotheses that men will be more likely to be promoted into positions with more authority, and women will be viewed as most competent in positions that are female-typed with the least amount of authority were not supported. Results showed that gender attitudes were weakly related to an employee’s performance evaluation, raise, and mentoring. Significant differences were found on the GAI where participants identifying as women, gay, and with a graduate degree had more liberal gender attitudes. Possible explanations for the predominantly insignificant results and future directions are discussed. Suggestions are provided for increasing the strength of the manipulation and factors that possibly decreased the salience of gender. Future experimental and continued qualitative studies in applied settings are recommended to identify causal influences of the glass escalator that examine factors of race, SES, and sexual orientation.

Bakgrund: Kvinnors representation i styrelsen har varit en aktuell fråga som länge diskuterats i det svenska samhället och om det borde införas en kvoteringslag. Sverige är ett av de mest jämställda länder Europa, trots det finns markanta gap i kvinnors representation bland de ledande positionerna. Glass cliff-fenomenet antyder att kvinnor anlitas till ledarskapspositioner i osäkra förhållanden, vilket kan förklara den underrepresentation som existerar hos styrelsen. Vi frågar oss själva om glass cliff-fenomenet kan appliceras på kvinnliga ledamöter i den svenska kontexten. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om ett glass cliff-fenomen existerar bland bolag noterade på OMX Stockholm inom small, mid och large-cap kategorin. Metod: Longitudinell studie med en deduktiv ansats där teorin testas mot studiens hypotesprövning. Urvalet består av 86 förlustföretag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen mellan år 2010 och 2018. Slutsats: Från resultatet fann vi att det inte existerade ett glass cliff-fenomen bland de svenska börsbolagen på small, mid och large-cap kategorin.

Gender diversity within the boardroom is an important theme in the research of corporate governance. The lack of female directors during recent years have raised attention where the prejudice against women have been a central theme. Especially, in a gender egalitarian country as Sweden. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between female directors and financial performance, but also the presence of the “glass cliff” theory. The study is based on companies listed on Large Cap in Sweden, where data are collected from annual reports and a database. The collected data are analyzed by several statistical methods. The findings show that female directors do have a positive impact on a company’s financial performance, in terms of accounting-based measurements. However, the market-based measurement does not a provide a significant relationship to female directors, indicating that the Swedish stock market does neither positively or negatively react to a more gender diverse board. As no differences in performance are seen preceding the appointments of females compared to males, no evidence for the “glass cliff” is found. The findings suggest that female directors may enhance the performance of a company and disproves the prejudice against women. Further, the findings indicate that the Swedish boards are becoming more diverse, where precarious situations are not the reason for women to be appointed to the board.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate perception of glass cliff in a Turkish sample. Glass cliff refers to a phenomenon whereby women are over-represented in risky leadership positions. Thus, the current study explored the effect of company performance and candidate gender on perceived suitability and on perceived leadership ability of the candidate for the leadership position. The thesis also examined moderating effects of ambivalent sexism (hostile and benevolent sexism) on the relationship between company performance and perceived suitability as well as on the relationship between company performance and perceived leadership ability of the female candidate. The data were collected from 167 MBA students through quantitative methods. The results of the analyses indicated that compared to an equally qualified male candidate, female candidate was perceived as more suitable and more able as a leader when the company performance was declining. Moreover, the female candidate was perceived as more able when the company performance was declining rather than improving. Participants evaluated the male candidate as more suitable when the company performance was improving rather than declining. The results of the moderation analyses revealed that declining company performance predicted an increase in perceived suitability and leadership ability of the female candidate for the participants who have low benevolent sexism scores. The major contributions of the present study are (1) examining the perception of glass cliff phenomenon for the first time in Turkey, and (2) showing the impact of benevolent sexism on glass cliff.

Research question: How does the industrial company Scania work to get more women in leadership positions? Purpose: The purpose of this work is to describe how companies in a male-dominated industry can work to get a higher share of female leaders. Method: This survey was based on a deductive approach with a qualitative method. Theories have been obtained primarily from scientific articles and the empirical part has been collected through interviews from the companies Wiminvest and Scania. Conclusion: The conclusions the study came up with was different elements that companies in male-dominated industries can work with to get a higher share of female leaders. The first thing that companies can do is to join the project BON or similar projects to work on this issue. They can work with workshops and lectures to disseminate knowledge about the topic. Companies can also create a central function with the responsibility to control the equality work in the organization. They can also work on creating clear goals in terms of gender equality in the company. Companies in this industry can work on to bring more mentors and role models through different communication channels and to design career plans and development opportunities for women. A talent pool or something similar for women can be helpful to create where women can have a valuable network and thereby find mentors and role models. Companies can work with reviewing their recruitment process by, for example, to advertise all positions, for a longer period, try to have an equal distribution of men and women at the recruitment for managerial positions and create a clearer profile of requirements. / Frågeställning: Hur arbetar industriföretaget Scania för att få in fler kvinnor i ledande positioner? Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att beskriva hur företag inom en mansdominerad bransch kan arbeta för att få in en högre andel kvinnliga ledare. Metod: Denna undersökning har utgått från en deduktiv ansats med en kvalitativ metod. Teorier har inhämtats främst från vetenskapliga artiklar och empiridelen har insamlats med hjälp av intervjuer från företagen Wiminvest och Scania. Slutsats: De slutsatser som studien kom fram till var olika faktorer som företag i mansdominerade branscher kan arbeta med för att få in en högre andel kvinnliga ledare. Det första som företagen kan göra är att gå med i liknande projekt som BON för att arbeta med denna fråga. De kan arbeta med workshops och föreläsningar för att sprida kunskap om ämnet. Företagen kan även skapa en central funktion som har till ansvar att styra jämställdhetsarbetet i organisationen. De kan även arbeta med att skapa tydliga mål när det gäller jämställdheten i företaget. De kan även arbeta med att skapa tydliga mål när det gäller jämställdheten i företaget. Företagen inom denna bransch kan arbeta med att få in fler mentorer och förebilder genom olika kommunikationskanaler samt utforma karriärplaner och utvecklingsmöjligheter för kvinnor. En talangpool eller något liknande för kvinnor kan vara bra att skapa där de kan få ett värdefullt nätverk och därigenom hitta mentorer och förebilder. Företagen kan arbeta med att se över sin rekryteringsprocess genom att till exempel annonsera ut alla tjänster under en längre tid, försöka ha en jämn fördelning av män och kvinnor vid tillsättning av en chefsposition samt skapa en tydligare kravprofil.

Sammanfattning Sammanfattning - ”Hur kvinnor ska lyckas ta sig fram i en mansdominerad bransch” Datum:  2014-05-27 Nivå:  Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 ECTS Institution:  Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, EST,  Mälardalens Högskola Författare:  Evelina Ljungman Agnes Åström  910906  901118 Titel: ”Hur kvinnor ska lyckas ta sig fram i en mansdominerad bransch” Handledare: Angelina Sundstöm Nyckelord: ”kvinnligt ledarskap”, ”glastak”, ”kvinnor i industrin”, ”kvinnor i toppositioner” Frågeställning: Hur arbetar industriföretaget Scania för att få in fler kvinnor i ledande positioner? Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att beskriva hur företag inom en mansdominerad bransch kan arbeta för att få in en högre andel kvinnliga ledare. Metod: Denna undersökning har utgått från en deduktiv ansats med en kvalitativ metod. Teorier har inhämtats främst från vetenskapliga artiklar och empiridelen har insamlats med hjälp av intervjuer från företagen Wiminvest och Scania.    Slutsats: De slutsatser som studien kom fram till var olika faktorer som företag i mansdominerade branscher kan arbeta med för att få in en högre andel kvinnliga ledare. Det första som företagen kan göra är att gå med i liknande projekt som BON för att arbeta med denna fråga. De kan arbeta med workshops och föreläsningar för att sprida kunskap om ämnet. Företagen kan även skapa en central funktion som har till ansvar att styra jämställdhetsarbetet i organisationen. De kan även arbeta med att skapa tydliga mål när det gäller jämställdheten i företaget. De kan även arbeta med att skapa tydliga mål när det gäller jämställdheten i företaget. Företagen inom denna bransch kan arbeta med att få in fler mentorer och förebilder genom olika kommunikationskanaler samt utforma karriärplaner och utvecklingsmöjligheter för kvinnor. En talangpool eller något liknande för kvinnor kan vara bra att skapa där de kan få ett värdefullt nätverk och därigenom hitta mentorer och förebilder. Företagen kan arbeta med att se över sin rekryteringsprocess genom att till exempel annonsera ut alla tjänster under en längre tid, försöka ha en jämn fördelning av män och kvinnor vid tillsättning av en chefsposition samt skapa en tydligare kravprofil. / Abstract Abstract-  “How women should manage to advance in a male-dominated industry” Date:  2014-05-27 Level:  Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS Institution:  School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors:  Evelina Ljungman Agnes Åström  910906  901118 Title: “How women should manage to advance in a male-dominated industry” Tutor: Angelina Sundström Keywords: ”female leaders”, ”glass cliff”, ”women in industry”, “women in top positions” Research question: How does the industrial company Scania work to get more women in leadership positions? Purpose: The purpose of this work is to describe how companies in a male-dominated industry can work to get a higher share of female leaders. Method: This survey was based on a deductive approach with a qualitative method. Theories have been obtained primarily from scientific articles and the empirical part has been collected through interviews from the companies Wiminvest and Scania. Conclusion: The conclusions the study came up with was different elements that companies in male-dominated industries can work with to get a higher share of female leaders. The first thing that companies can do is to join the project BON or similar projects to work on this issue. They can work with workshops and lectures to disseminate knowledge about the topic. Companies can also create a central function with the responsibility to control the equality work in the organization. They can also work on creating clear goals in terms of gender equality in the company. Companies in this industry can work on to bring more mentors and role models through different communication channels and to design career plans and development opportunities for women. A talent pool or something similar for women can be helpful to create where women can have a valuable network and thereby find mentors and role models. Companies can work with reviewing their recruitment process by, for example, to advertise all positions, for a longer period, try to have an equal distribution of men and women at the recruitment for managerial positions and create a clearer profile of requirements.

Näringslivet kantas av en stundande underrepresentation av kvinnor på toppositioner. Därav är syftet med studien att skapa en förståelse kring vad det innebär och hur det upplevs för kvinnor att nå toppositioner i mansdominerade branscher. Vi kommer också att belysa vilka möjligheter och utmaningar kvinnorna fått möta under sin karriärväg till den toppositionen de idag besitter. Vår ambition är att undersöka den kvinnliga närvaron i toppskiktets upplevelser och erfarenheter av att vara minoritet i en svensk kontext. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med det empiriska insamlade materialet bestående av 8 stycken intervjuer med kvinnor i ledande befattning i högt uppsatt position verksamma inom olika, till synes mansdominerade branscher, runt om i Skåne, Blekinge och Västra Götaland. För att till fullo förstå den sociala företeelse som studeras, har vi konstruerat en teoretisk referensram som inkluderar relevanta teorier för studien. Vår studie resulterade i att kvinnor till största del anställs till en topposition utav män för att ersätta en annan man då organisationen befinner sig under mindre stabila förutsättningar. Resultaten visar på att de faktorer som gynnat kvinnorna i deras karriärväg är personliga egenskaper, kompetens och nätverk. Kvinnorna upplever utmaningar i de höga toppositionerna genom olika strukturella hinder till följd av deras könstillhörighet som kvinnor i många avseenden skapar själva. En reflektion från resultatet är därför att en jämställdhet i toppskiktet och en jämnare maktfördelning skulle leda till nyansering och ökad lönsamhet men framförallt leda till en jämnare könsfördelning fördelaktigt utifrån moral och social rättvisa. Sammanfattningsvis har vi kunnat fastställa att jämställdhetsprocessen förändras långsamt i toppskiktet, till följd av ökade institutionella krav från omvärlden. / *: Business life is edged by an imminent underrepresentation of women in top positions. Hence, the aim of the study is to create an understanding of what it means and how it has felt for women to reach top positions in male-dominated industries. We will also highlight the opportunities and challenges the women had to face during their career path to the top position they hold today. Our ambition is to investigate the female presence in the top layer's experiences and experiences of being a minority in a Swedish context. The study is based on a qualitative research method with the empirically collected material consisting of 8 interviews with women in senior positions in high-ranking positions active in various, seemingly male-dominated industries, around Skåne, Blekinge and Västra Götaland. To fully understand the social phenomenon that studies, we have constructed a theoretical frame of reference that includes relevant theories for study. Our study resulted in that women mostly being hired to a top position by men to replace a man when the organization is under less stable conditions. The results show that factors that have benefited women in their career path are personal characteristics, competence and networks. The women experience challenges in the high top positions through various structural obstacles as a result of their gender, which women in many respects create themselves. A reflection from the result is therefore that equality in the top layer and a more even distribution of power would lead to nuance and increased profitability, but above all lead to a more even gender distribution advantageously based on morality and social justice. In summary, we have been able to determine that the equality process is changing slowly in the top layer, as a result of increased institutional demands from the outside world. This thesis is written in Swedish.

Submitted by Daniele Santos (danielesantos.htl@gmail.com) on 2017-02-22T17:37:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Elizabeth Rojas.pdf: 1624527 bytes, checksum: b5f7bc8eba2184b3778dbd4c4d06b39d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2017-02-23T17:48:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Elizabeth Rojas.pdf: 1624527 bytes, checksum: b5f7bc8eba2184b3778dbd4c4d06b39d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-24T17:49:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elizabeth Rojas.pdf: 1624527 bytes, checksum: b5f7bc8eba2184b3778dbd4c4d06b39d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-19 / As women make wide strides in labor participation in both, business and politics, a staggering reality is that the progress is rather minimal at the top of decision-making. In Nordic nations, which rank among the top five in the world for gender equality, women fare far worse than their American counterparts in the upper echelons of large corporations. For the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position, the number one leadership and decision-making role in a company, women held 4.6% of CEO positions in S&P 500 companies in the US, while they held zero positions in large cap companies in Finland (Catalyst, 2015). The objective of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of how women are disproportionally represented at the top decision-making position, the CEO post, in corporations. It also seeks to investigate the key factors that impact women’s career pathway to the CEO position in corporations and recommendations from participants to change the course. This study uses an exploratory framework employing a case study of the telecommunications industry, and compares the experiences of a Nordic country, Finland, with the United States, with an eye on the so-called Nordic Mystery (The Economist, 2014). Data was collected by conducting interviews with 11 participants in both countries, including CEOs and chief government decision-makers in the industry and leading experts in academia, business and international executive-search firms. This exploratory study poses limitations: a small number of participants in the sample, a reduced geographical context, short period of time for data collection, and findings applicable solely to the largest publicly traded firms. Contrary to most quantitative studies, however, this qualitative approach of interviewing current top decision-makers deepens the understanding of this phenomenon and serves as a starting point for future research of women CEOs.

Denna uppsats avser att fokusera på kvinnor i mansdominerade branscher, i synnerhet inom byggbranschen för att göra en avgränsning. Vi vill se vilka upplevelser kvinnor i en mansdominerad bransch har kring ledarskap bland män. Detta på grund av att arbetsdelningen som existerar på arbetsmarknaden många gånger har bidragit till svårigheter för kvinnor att avancera sig till chefspositioner i arbetslivet. Både under proceduren till att nå en chefsposition men även under den tilldelade tjänsten som chef, stöter kvinnliga chefer på svårigheter i sin roll. Vi har av avsikt att belysa eventuella hinder som uppstår för kvinnliga chefer på mansdominerade yrken på grund av deras kön. Detta genom att testa våra utvalda teoretiska perspektiv och begrepp och för att se om det råder ojämlikhet på grund av kön, homosocialitet, glastak samt glashiss. Kvalitativa intervjuer utfördes och utifrån våra fyra intervjupersoners uttalanden fick vi fram ett resultat som gav oss svar på våra frågeställningar kring kvinnliga chefer i ett mansdominerat yrke. Resultatet tyder på att majoriteten av våra intervjupersoner än idag upplever mer särbehandling och hinder än möjligheter på den mansdominerade branschen de befinner sig i, på grund av att de är kvinnor. Dock upplevs känslor av att det är mer jämställt numera, i jämförelse med tidigare decennier. Därmed har vi utifrån våra intervjupersoner kunnat konstatera att problematiken i våra utvalda teoretiska perspektiv förekommer ännu i dagens samhälle och i Sverige som betraktas som ett civiliserat samhälle. Problematik i form av hinder, särbehandling samt orättvisan mellan olika kön där kvinnor är underordnade män.   Nyckelord: Könsroller, genussystem, glastak, glashiss, glasklippa, kvinnlig ledare/chef, mansdominerat yrke, särbehandling, segregerad arbetsmarknad, upplevelse. / This essay refers to have its focus on women in male-dominated industries, especially within the construction industry to make a differentiation. We want to see what kind of experience women in a male-dominated industry have around leadership among men. Therefore, the separation existing in the work environment has brought difficulties for the women to advance to manager rolls in their work-life. Women encounter difficulties in their role as a manager also during the procedure to reach an executive position. We have the motive to clear obstacles that eventually come up for female managers in male-dominated professions due to their gender. By testing through our selected ideal point of view and term, to see if it counsels the inequality that exists between the two genders and homosociality, also when it comes to the glass ceiling. When evaluating numbers of interviews that were set up with four different people, their responses guided answers to questions regarding female managers in a male-dominated industry.  The results indicate that the majority of our numbers still experience more privileges and barriers than opportunities in the male-dominated industry that they occupy themselves in, because of their gender as females. However, feelings are felt that it is more equated nowadays compared to previous decades. We are able to conclude from our interviewers that the issue in our ideal point of view still exists in today's world, even in Sweden's civilized society, Through different obstacles, special treatments, and injustice between different sexes, women end up being subordinate to men. Key Words: Gender roles, gender system, glassceiling, glass elevator, glass cliff, female manager, man dominated, special treatment, segregated labor market, experience.