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Women remain underrepresented in cabinets, especially in high-prestige, “masculine” portfolios. Still, a growing number of states have appointed women to the finance ministry—a powerful position typically reserved for men. Drawing on the “glass cliff” phenomenon, we examine the relationship between financial crises and women’s ascension to, and survival in, this post. With an original dataset on appointments to finance ministries worldwide (1972–2017), we show that women are more likely to first come to power during a banking crisis. These results also hold for currency and inflation crises and even when accounting for the political and economic conditions that might otherwise explain this relationship. Subsequent examination of almost 3,000 finance ministers’ tenures shows that, once in office, crises shorten men’s (but not women’s) time in the post. Together, these results suggest that women can sometimes seize on crises as opportunities to access traditionally male-dominated positions. 

Corruption is sustained by powerful male networks, reinforcing women’s exclusion from politics. Yet, contrary to this conventional wisdom, we theorize that corruption can sometimes increase women’s access to power. Since women are often perceived as “cleaner” than men, where institutions allow heads of government to be held accountable on economic issues, chief executives may use women’s inclusion in high-profile posts to signal that they are curbing the abuse of public office for private gain. Examining upward of 150 countries over 16 years, we investigate whether and where corruption is linked to the presence of women finance ministers—a high-profile post capable of quelling economic malfeasance. We show that increases in corruption bolster women’s presence, particularly in countries with free and fair elections and presidential systems. That our results hold only in contexts of high accountability suggests this relationship is not endogenous but reflects chief executives’ efforts to preempt punishment.