Michele Leonhart, one of the few women to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has resigned from her role after being blamed for failing to change an “old boys club” atmosphere at the agency, despite that atmosphere existing before her tenure and Congress giving her limited powers to change it.
Leonhart was nominated to lead the DEA in 2010 but had served as the acting administrator for three years before that. Her position came under fire recently after a report from the Justice Department’s inspector general found complaints of agents hiring prostitutes dating back to 2005 and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a summary of another report finding that agents had sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels going back to 2001.
Many of these scandals occurred under Leonhart’s watch, but it’s also clear that they began before she took over leadership of the agency. She has also testified that Congress has given someone in her position little authority to take action when such complaints arise. “I can’t fire,” she told the committee at a hearing last week. “I can’t recommend a penalty … I don’t have the authority to intervene in the disciplinary process.” The power to fire people lies with FBI Director James Comey.
Yet after that same hearing, the Committee members released a statement blaming her for failing to turn the culture of the agency around and saying they had lost confidence in her leadership. “Leonhart has been woefully unable to change or positively influence the pervasive ‘good old boy’ culture that exists throughout the agency,” they wrote. “From her testimony, it is clear that she lacks the authority and will to make the tough decisions required to hold those accountable who compromise national security and bring disgrace to their position.”
Leonhart’s resignation also comes after she split with the Obama administration over accepting state laws decriminalizing marijuana. But the most direct cause seems to be the male agents hiring prostitutes both under her watch and before she was even given the role.
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.
Update:
This post has been updated to reflect the fact that Leonhart wasn’t the first woman to lead the DEA. Karen Tandy was the first woman to have that role.