Good morning, Broadsheet readers! General Motors exceeded earnings expectations for Q1, 41% of male student-athletes are unaware of their school’s policies and procedures for sexual violence, and Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO took a job on a glass cliff. Happy Wednesday.
– Beyond saving. Over the weekend, Bed Bath & Beyond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing was the next step in the demise of the once-beloved home goods chain—and repeated a pattern typical for a certain category of female CEO.
Sue Gove became interim CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond last June and claimed the job on a permanent basis in October. A board member since 2019, she stepped in after the departure of CEO Mark Tritton, who held the job between 2019 and 2022, a period during which the company’s stock fell almost 50%.
Gove had spent the years before her Bed Bath appointment as a board member and adviser at companies like Logitech and AutoZone, according to her LinkedIn; before that, she spent 25 years at the jewelry retailer Zales.
Her Bed Bath tenure started with a turnaround plan. The company announced a restructuring in August and planned to shutter 150 stores. But that wasn’t enough. The store closures continued, the share price sank to below $1 after a brief spell as a meme stock, and the retailer will now “wind down” operations and sell off its assets.
Gove’s CEO appointment is a classic example of the so-called glass cliff, the phenomenon in which a female executive is only given the top job in an impossible situation—whether that’s a time of crisis or when failure is all but certain. Women are seen as the right choice to clean up a mess, but not to lead when times are good. Other examples include Marissa Mayer’s tenure at Yahoo, Jill Soltau’s time overseeing the collapse of J.C. Penney, Peggy Johnson at Magic Leap, and Heyward Donigan at Rite Aid.
The end of Bed Bath & Beyond as we know it is a sad moment for coupon-clippers and college dorm shoppers. So too, it’s an unfortunate turn of events for those who follow gender diversity among Fortune 500 companies, where women hold 10% of CEO jobs. Retail has traditionally been a sector that has boosted female execs to the top job, but from Bed Bath & Beyond to Gap Inc., those ranks are dwindling.
A risk of the glass cliff is that people begin to believe, consciously or not, that women are less capable leaders after seeing the companies they lead fail. One consolation in this case? Bed Bath’s demise was so dramatic and drawn out that few are blaming Gove for the company’s fate; ultimately, Bed Bath & Beyond proved beyond saving.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
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- A warning. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan joined top officials from U.S. civil rights and consumer protection agencies on Tuesday to warn developers of A.I. tools like ChatGPT that the government will crack down on any harmful practices perpetuated by the technology. She also flexed her antitrust authority, threatening to take action to protect competition in the space. Associated Press
- GM earnings. General Motors out-earned expectations for the first quarter and raised its profit outlook for the year. GM says consumers are eager to buy high-end cars after years of supply chain holdups. The company, led by CEO Mary Barra, will also discontinue the Chevy Bolt by the end of the year and focus resources on electric pickup trucks. Wall Street Journal
- Slowing delivery. UPS revenue dipped 6% and operating profit fell 22% in Q1, signs the economy may be slowing, CEO Carole Tomé says. Upcoming negotiations with the Teamsters Union could also be to blame, as some business is moving to other carriers ahead of a potential strike. CNN
- Slow and steady. Citigroup Inc. chief executive officer Jane Fraser told shareholders that the company's divestiture in parts of a Mexican retail bank institution, known as Banamex, is taking longer than expected due to market turmoil. Separately, Fraser says the company has benefited from turmoil in regional banks over the last month, though "the outflows from stressed banks [have] eased significantly." Bloomberg
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Allison Yazdian is the new senior vice president of creator growth and success at LTK. Serena Saitto will be the new managing director at TrailRunner International.
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- 'Too little too late.' An investigation into U.K. lobby group the Confederation of British Industry showed that a toxic culture allowed a few key players to get away with sexual harassment against women. Members including Virgin Media O2, Mastercard, and BMW have left the organization en masse. A top City fund manager Helena Morrissey said that the organization is done for after failing to act on behalf of the survivors. BBC
- Strike the record. Italy's conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is walking back the precedent that allowed local jurisdictions to decide whether to include both same-sex parents on birth certificates. Instead, she is pushing for non-biological gay parents to be struck retroactively from birth certificates as part of a campaign against the LGBTQ community. She alleges they subvert traditional Christian values. Wall Street Journal
- Keys to campus culture. Male athletes are more likely than non-athlete students to be associated with sexual violence, but information and training aimed at reducing sexual violence on campus are not reaching the key demographic. A recent survey showed that 41% of male athletes were unaware of their school's "policies, procedures, and resources for survivors," and respondents indicated they do not trust the school's disciplinary or law enforcement processes. ESPN
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