Women are underrepresented in public sector leadership positions, including municipal management. We examine one explanation that may contribute to gender inequity in the profession—a “glass cliff” phenomenon whereby councils are more likely to hire women as managers during difficult times, increasing the likelihood for women to fail in the position. Using original observational data on municipal managers in Florida, we test whether municipalities are more likely to hire women during times of fiscal stress and whether women are more likely than men to leave the position if municipal finances do not improve. Our results show that increasing budget deficits are associated with municipalities hiring women as managers. Post-appointment, a lack of improvement in the deficit condition is associated with a higher probability of women, but not men, leaving the position. A glass cliff in municipal management could be one factor that hinders women from advancing within the field.

中文翻译：

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地方政府管理是否存在玻璃悬崖？检查妇女的雇用和离职

妇女在公共部门领导职位中的代表性不足，包括市政管理。我们研究了一种可能导致该行业性别不平等的解释——一种“玻璃悬崖”现象，即理事会在困难时期更有可能聘请女性担任经理，从而增加了女性在该职位上失败的可能性。我们使用佛罗里达州市政管理人员的原始观察数据，测试市政当局在财政压力期间是否更有可能雇用女性，以及如果市政财政没有改善，女性是否比男性更有可能离开该职位。我们的研究结果表明，增加预算赤字与市政当局雇用女性担任经理有关。任命后，缺乏改善的情况与女性的概率较高有关，但与男性无关，离开岗位。市政管理中的玻璃悬崖可能是阻碍女性在该领域取得进展的一个因素。