Lohra Miller| Women in Leadership

Forbes named her the fourth most powerful woman of 2015, and the sixth most powerful person in 2014. She made history last year when she was appointed the first female Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Janet Yellen,

economist, has a hefty, intimidating resume; after attending Brown and Yale, she taught at Harvard and UC Berkeley, served on the chair of economic advisors to President Bill Clinton, and served a president and vice president on both international and national economic associations, to name a few, before becoming Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve in 2010.

The Glass Cliff

A term coined by British professors Michelle K. Ryan and Alex Haslam, it explores the idea that women should be wary when appointed leadership positions, because dangers lurk in high places. It’s been found that female business leaders are more likely to be given a powerful position when the organization they’re working for is in crisis or high-risk circumstances. So when Janet Yellen was appointed head of the Federal Reserve in 2014, she was, in a way, set up for failure based on the state of the economy. But just as she shattered the glass ceiling, she’s diligently chipping away at the cliff.

The Fed, structured by Congress, serves as an independent agency whose monetary-policy decision are specifically exempted from congressional audits. When Yellen took over Ben Bernanke’s position, it was soon after the central bank started to unwind its recession era bond buying program. Since, Yellen has had to make some tough decisions, allocating budget cuts and hiking interest rates, but recently received praise in March of this year when she was able to change guidance of the economy without scaring off investors.

Power and Responsibility

A single word from Yellen can send asset prices exactly where you wouldn’t want them to go, and while she’s known to come to head with President Obama and Congress with differing opinions, she sticks firm to her economic philosophies, as she is a Keynesian economist and believes in the modern version of the Phillips curve.

At 63 years old, the Brooklyn, NY native doesn’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon and is known to be almost unusually optimistic for holding such a stressful position.

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