Sophie Williams - The Glass Cliff

Sunday Papers Live Business Section

The Glass Cliff - Why Women in Power are Undermined

Sophie Williams is an ex global Leader at Netflix, and has held the titles of COO and CFO in various leading London advertising agencies. She is a speaker, the author of The Glass Cliff and the voice behind Instagram’s @OfficialMillennialBlack.

Sophie will discuss what happens when women break the rules, and break through The Glass Ceiling and the phenomenon of The Glass Cliff - whereby women are often only hired in leadership roles when a business is already underperforming, meaning their chances of success are limited before they ever even start in the role.

Backed up by over 20 years of international research Sophie will talk us through how The Glass Cliff offers a glimpse into the inner workings of a system that was simply never made with successful female leadership in mind. Rather than being set up for success, all too often women in leadership are set up to fail, left to clean up messes they didn't create, and expected to act as scapegoats for failing businesses during a time of crisis.