Falling off the Glass Cliff? Crises and Gendered Coverage of Ministerial Leadership

In October 2020, the Belgian federal government – a coalition government involving seven parties – became the first government with a parity in terms of gender at this level of power in the country. Women have been appointed to traditionally male-dominated ministers such as the Ministries of Defense, the Interior and Foreign Affairs. Although these women seem to have broken the glass ceiling, their ministerial mandates were marked by the management of delicate moments, and even multiple crises such as the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed or the refugee crisis, which attracted extensive media coverage. The situation echoes the “glass cliff” phenomenon, defined as the idea that women are nominated at leadership positions when organizations face difficult times, and the risk of failure is higher (Bruckmüller & Branscombe 2010; Kulich et al. 2021). Furthermore, some women have resigned from government, either because of decisions or declarations considered as political errors or for “personal” reasons. Several of these women were young politicians with no ministerial experience. These circumstances constitute a privileged opportunity for the study of the gendered coverage of politicians holding executive positions in proportional electoral system. Using quantitative textual analysis assisted by a textometry software and qualitative discourse analysis, this paper analyzes how the Belgian Francophone press covered ministerial leadership, with a focus on sensitive events such as crisis moments and resignation episodes.