“You need to communicate as vividly and clearly as possible that you’re on some different trajectory. And the stronger the break from the past, the clearer the signaling,” Haslam says. “For that reason women or members of other minority groups are often preferentially appointed under these circumstances.”

Yaccarino’s background in promoting, Twitter’s main income, actually makes her a logical option to attempt to salvage the corporate’s crumbling enterprise. But consultants who spoke to WIRED say that one cause ladies step into dangerous glass cliff roles is that they typically have few different probabilities to take management positions, regardless of being extremely certified.

“For a lot of executive women, sometimes their first opportunity to step into a role that’s really that powerful is to do a turnaround of an entire division or company,” says Coco Brown, CEO of the Athena Alliance, a networking group for ladies executives in enterprise.

That could make turning down a precarious glass cliff function tough, even when the dangers are evident. According to Glass of the University of Utah, although ladies usually tend to be appointed in instances of disaster they’re additionally extra prone to be blamed for the disaster itself and, later, changed by a white male CEO in what researchers have dubbed the savior impact.

“Very rarely are women CEOs given a second chance,” Glass says. “It’s a double whammy for women CEOs: These crisis appointments may be the only opportunities they have, and by virtue of stepping into them they put their future leadership careers in jeopardy.”

But, Glass says, many instances ladies are sometimes finest suited to assist proper the ship. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, famously introduced the corporate again from the brink of failure after the 2008 monetary crash. Anne Mulachy took over as CEO of Xerox because it was flailing, making it worthwhile, earlier than stepping down in 2009.

Yaccarino’s probabilities of success, says Sandra Quince CEO at Paradigm for Parity, a corporation addressing the gender hole in companies, will partly rely on how a lot time and freedom she’s given to show the ship round. The help of the board and Musk’s willingness to actually let go of the reins could possibly be essential.

Musk has stated that with Yaccarino in as CEO he’ll develop into govt chair of Twitter’s board in addition to the corporate’s CTO. He’s additionally CEO of Tesla and of SpaceX, the place president and COO Gwynne Shotwell is chargeable for day-to-day operations. 

“She’s going to need the board to be supportive of her vision that she has for the organization,” Quince says. “She’s going to need someone to run air cover for her. In times like this, where you’re trying to figure it out, no one is perfect, and mistakes can be made.”

It could also be tempting to see Yaccarino’s appointment because the cynical final gasp of a failing firm. But Brown of the Athena Alliance says Yaccarino’s bravery needs to be applauded, whether or not or not Twitter seems to be salvageable.

“We shouldn’t be saying that has been set up to fail publicly but that she has decided that this is her shot to try something a bit heroic,” says Brown. “By most people’s accounts, she is going to fail. But wouldn’t it be cool if she pulls it out?” If Yaccarino manages that, it may be probably the most shocking twist of all within the spiraling story of Musk’s takeover.