Female CEOs Are Almost Always Veterans of Family Crisis

From this Bloomberg View piece on why women CEOs get fired more often:

Over the past 10 years, 38 percent of female chief executives of the world’s 2,500 biggest public companies were fired, compared to 27 percent of their male counterparts.

This is not evidence of male superiority on the job, but of the so-called glass cliff theory. According to this, women and other “occupational minorities,” such as people with a different skin color, tend to get appointed to top jobs when a company needs saving. When these women fail — and in a crisis, the probability of failure is higher — boardrooms fall back on tradition. They replace the women with white men who have lots of industry experience.

Most interesting of all is this link to personal history:

Women who reach corporate heights tend to have started their training as crisis managers at an early age, according to Fitzsimmons. “Nearly all of the female respondents experienced one of the following: a forced international move; the death or serious illness of parents, siblings or close relatives; domestic violence or serious marital instability; or an estrangement from their parents before the age of sixteen.”

“Male CEOs,” in contrast, “typically looked back on more sheltered, idyllic childhoods.” Coolcoolcoolcoolcool. [Bloomberg View, via]