在政治、經濟陷入危局或混亂時，女性比男性更有可能出任領導。而這種時刻，恰恰是最可能失敗的時刻。研究顯示，這種情況不僅出現在政治領域，在企業中也很常見。這就是“玻璃懸崖”。

Glass cliff is a senior job or important project, particularly one given to a woman, with a high risk of failure.
“玻璃懸崖”指的是交給女性的一項有很大風險或很可能失敗的高級工作或重要項目。

The glass cliff is a term that describes the phenomenon of women in leadership roles, such as executives in the corporate world and female political election candidates, being likelier than men to achieve leadership roles during periods of crisis or downturn, when the chance of failure is highest.
“玻璃懸崖”描述的是這樣一種現象，在危機或衰退期，當失敗的風險最高時，女性比男性更容易獲得領導職位，比如當上企業高管或者在政治大選中勝出。

This may be because women in these industries are often isolated and lack the networks of their male colleagues.
這或許是因為女性在這些行業中經常受到孤立，缺乏男同事的交際網。

One female executive described what happened to her: “I was placed on a project to manage that was the ‘project from hell’. Was I set up for failure? I do not know.”
一位女性高管這樣描述發生在自己身上的事情：“我‘被’接手了一個非常糟糕的‘地獄項目’，我要為失敗做好準備嗎？我不知道。”

（中國日報網英語點津 yaning）