The "glass cliff": why women get the top job in a crisis

If you're a woman running a venue or a festival, this day is built around you, and it's open to anyone working in the performing arts. On Wednesday 4 November, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Spectacle Vivant holds a day on the "glass cliff" at the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon. It's the agency that supports performing arts professionals in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

Everyone knows the glass ceiling. The glass cliff is what women find once they're through it.

The organisers call it a documented pattern: women get leadership jobs more often in times of economic, environmental or political crisis. Those are the times when margins are tighter, teams more stretched and the risk of failing higher.

Their question for the sector: with subsidies getting scarcer and, in their words, creative freedom under threat, under what conditions are women running things now? And do they have the means to match their ambitions?

The talks start at 10:00 with Clara Kulich, a social psychologist and associate professor at the University of Geneva, on what the glass cliff actually means. At 11:15, three women who run venues and organisations in France talk about when an opportunity turns into a risk. One of them is Nadia Rastimandresy, who directs GRAME, the national centre for music creation in Lyon and the day's co-organiser.

The afternoon splits into two workshops. The first is reserved for women who direct cultural venues, to build shared resources so they stop facing the job alone. The second looks at privilege and patterns of domination, and at what someone in charge can change inside their own organisation.

Concretely: it's free. You do have to register, on the agency's site. It runs from 9:30 to 17:30, as part of Zone XP, a festival of exploratory music held from 3 to 14 November.