Overview

• Evelyn Palla, previously head of DB Regio, was appointed by Deutsche Bahn’s supervisory board to lead the company during a prolonged operational and financial crisis.
• Scholars cite Palla’s selection as consistent with the glass-cliff pattern in which women are more likely to be elevated when organizations face turbulence or scandal.
• Max Reinwald’s analysis of 26,156 U.S. leadership changes (2000–2016) reports women’s appointment probability rising from roughly 5% to 7.6% in financial crises, a ~50% relative increase from a low baseline.
• Experts say firms choose women in high-visibility crises to signal a break with the past, and governance advocates add that women may be viewed as less tied to incumbent networks and thus freer to push restructuring.
• Countervoices note context matters, with the Allbright Foundation pointing to crisis periods like 2020 when executive hiring skewed back toward traditional male profiles and studies showing shorter average tenures for women in such posts.