The idea is that women are welcomed into the C-suite when things aren't going well in the business, when their risk of failure is greater and, even more, expected. Conversations around the glass cliff resurfaced when J.C. Penney Co. Inc. named Jill Soltau CEO in 2018, as Marvin Ellison exited as sales continued to slide and debt ballooned. Soltau, on the heels of the department store's Chapter 11 exit late last year, left the company and its new owners are searching for someone to fill the role.