Glass ceiling（玻璃屋頂）一詞講的是女性在職場遇到的發(fā)展瓶頸，到了一定職位就很難再上升了。而這里談到的glass cliff與glass ceiling有著千絲萬縷的聯(lián)系。

A glass cliff is a term coined by Prof Michelle Ryan and Prof Alex Haslam of Exeter University, United Kingdom, in 2004.
Glass cliff(玻璃懸崖)這個詞是由英國埃克斯特大學的兩位教授米歇爾？萊恩和亞歷克斯·哈斯蘭姆在2004年創(chuàng)造的。

Their research demonstrates that once women break through the glass ceiling and take on positions of leadership they often have experiences that are different from their male counterparts. More specifically, women are more likely to occupy positions that can be described as precarious and thus have a higher risk of failure - either because they are in organizational units that are in crisis or because they are not given the resources and support needed for success. Extending the metaphor of the glass ceiling, they evoke the metaphor of the 'glass cliff' to capture the subtlety to the phenomenon and feeling of teetering on the edge.
這兩位教授研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，女性在穿過玻璃屋頂擔任領導職務之后所經(jīng)歷的事情跟同等職位的男性多有不同。具體來說，這些女性所處的職位“危險性”較高，也就是說她們工作過程中遭遇失敗的風險較高，出現(xiàn)這種情況的原因可能是她們所在的公司機構本身就陷于危機之中，也可能是她們沒有得到必要的資源和支持。Glass cliff將glass ceiling(玻璃屋頂)的比喻意義進一步延伸，以此來表現(xiàn)女性領導者的處境以及她們在職場邊緣岌岌可危的生存體會。