First Female DEA Chief Resigns After Blamed For Not Fixing ‘Good Old Boy’ Culture

[Novara]

This article makes a very good point: First Female DEA Chief Resigns After Blamed For Not Fixing ‘Good Old Boy’ Culture

<snip>

Her resignation therefore fits into a pattern of women being given leadership of organizations or companies when they are already struggling with significant problems and then often getting pushed out when they can’t engineer a quick turnaround. This is the phenomenon dubbed by researches the “glass cliff.” Multiple studies have found that women and people of color are more likely to be promoted into leadership when companies are experiencing poor performance or grappling with other big challenges. White men are seen as more natural leaders and can usually hold onto power when things are going well, but a rough patch may make people more inclined to turn to women to try something new. Women are then more likely to be forced out of their jobs, and when they are, white men often are put back into power as the “savior.”

The same pattern has turned up for the first women to lead other government agencies. Julia Pierson, former director of the Secret Service, was also tasked with cleaning up an agency already rocked by scandals, including Secret Service agents hiring prostitutes, and then made to resign when another scandal hit. The first woman to be named postmaster general of the Postal Service comes in at a time when revenue has been falling by billions of dollars every year, it has defaulted on pension payments, and it’s on the brink of financial collapse.

But it crops up in many different places. Two women lost high-up leadership roles at NBC after the Brian Williams scandal. Mary Barra became the first female CEO of General Motors just before its airbag failures came to light. The first head to roll after JP Morgan lost billions to a massively failed trade made by a male trader was a woman, while the first high-profile executive blamed for the crisis was a woman. Xerox’s first female CEO took the job when the company was $17 billion in debt, while Sunoco’s first female CEO got the position after its shares had fallen 52 percent.

It happens to people of color too: JC Penney’s first back CEO was appointed after the last CEO blew a $4 billion hole in sales.

Part of the reason that there are so few women in government and corporate leadership is that they don’t get promoted as often. But the other side is that when they are, they are handed nearly impossible turnaround jobs and then pushed out if they don’t succeed.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/04/22/3649790/michele-leonhart-dea-glass-cliff/

I have long said that GM appointed Mary Barra as CEO in order to take the fall.

[tblue37]

1. Which is also what happened to Obama. He gets crap for not fixing the

Bush disasters faster and more completely. Actually, this is the same thing Republicans do generally. They make a mess of things, then leave the Dems to fix them, while taking pot shots from the side and blaming the Dems for the mess that isn't immediately fixed as soon as Dems get into office.

As soon as I started reading this article, I recognized the similarity.

[Novara]

2. I've got the same dynamic going in my own family

It's so very easy to stand back, do nothing, then criticize the one who is doing something.

[eridani]

3. I don't approve of her stance on marijuana at all

The War on Some Drugs has done nothing but give us the highest incarceration rate in the world. Granted, that's probably not why she quit.

[Novara]

4. I agree, but that's not the point of the article

It's to show that often, women are promoted to high positions when there's trouble, then they are forced out when they have difficulties fixing the problems. It sets up a narrative that women aren't capable: "Look, we promoted one and she couldn't do the job. Next time we'll get a man to do the job." While I haven't heard these exact words, that's what's going on.

[geek tragedy]

5. I dunno, being in charge means accountability.

It isn't always fair. But, the buck stops at the top.

Leonhart had been there 8 years. At some point, excuses wear thin.

Women deserve the same opportunities to succeed--and to fail--as men do.

[seabeyond]

6. it depends. it depends if she even had the fuggin' authority to address the good ole boy

ya, a man can step up and say stop. out of bounds. no

he will have the authority.

i can easily see putting a woman in that position and if she says anything, HER authority shot down, without support. even for those under her.

i dunno. i can easily see it. i do not know all the particulars, but who knows.

maybe....

it was a whole network or connection of the fuggin' good ole boy.

would i want a lot more authority from her... challenging it. say, i dare you, fire me. i am taking this on?

would have LOVED it.

but do not even think even with position and responsibility that she would be on a level playing field. that is what we address. it is not within the structure yet.

[geek tragedy]

7. but that leads to the trap of "well, we can't expect women to lead an organization

that has good old boy issues, they just don't know how to deal with it"

Maybe fair to her, maybe not, but I think it's dangerous to attribute her inability to get DEA agents to act professionally to her gender. Even if indirectly due to entrenched sexism.

If she had been there two years, I can see maybe

But, she was there for two full presidential terms. (since 2007).

[seabeyond]

9. it is looking at the reality. and making sure she does have the authority to address the issue.

it is being honest. calling it out. addressing it.

instead of just insisting she work at the level of power to accomplish anything, while the field is way tilted.

i have just perused this subject. i have also been an owner in a business. the fuggin owner. and i had to GENTLY fuckin walk around the male ego to not offend. our primadonnas, without the support of husband in his role of owner and pres. my marriage was not worth the battle. it is a reality women live in, even with title.

it is not excuses. it is reality that must be recognized and addressed. that is all.

[geek tragedy]

11. I hear you. nt

[seabeyond]

12. thank you. lol, cause....

i am fuggin' dealing iwth this very thing, today, in my RL, with two 20'sh boys, lol.

it is all so very interesting. but both those boys are so damn smart, aware, perceptive. they think. they listen. one is only 17 and he has been hitting me with his brain this last year. and my oldest, working on 20? has been for a lifetime.

thank you, for an opportunity to better define this, for me, for a conversation with them, lol.

[Novara]

8. It demonstrates a pattern

but do not even think even with position and responsibility that she would be on a level playing field. that is what we address. it is not within the structure yet.

Exactly. She is only one example of a woman in power unable to change the problems. Why is this? Is it because they don't take a woman seriously? Does she not have the authority and resources to make heads roll (and if she did that, just imagine the backlash)?

It's systemic - it's not even isolated to this specific case.

[seabeyond]

10. yes. nt

[ismnotwasm]

13. In nursing

A dominantly female profession. We don't have this problem, or at least not often. Just sayin'

[Novara]

14. It's not the same thing as a woman put in charge at a male-dominated organization

Especially these high-profile organizations. It's great that they're getting the opportunities but I wonder if cultural sexism makes it much more difficult for them to succeed. I also wonder if they're getting the same amount of support from the organization itself as a male would. I would suspect not, although I don't have stats to back up my opinion.

[ismnotwasm]

15. That was actually my point

I should have been more clear. Women are not only struggling to be leaders, they struggle for appropriate power once they are there. I find it interesting that when they're are fewer men, women thrive. I can only point to the sexism inherent in business.

And nursing organizations are all female dominated. It's a facininating dynamic

[Novara]

16. Yes, exactly

I may have misunderstood. I have a feeling that there just isn't the institutional support that men have in male-dominated professions and women have in female-dominated professions.