On understanding why women are still taken less seriously than men, and what we can do about it. So I was kindly offered an advanced copy of the eBook last week, ahead of its publication tomorrow, and it’s truly one of the most fascinating books I’ve read this month. There have been multiple books on bias and gender studies, but this book takes it a level further by going though various contemporary statistics and interviews with some of the world’s most successful women to explain the extent of unseen biases and systemic sexism even these women are still facing today.⁣
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Within the book, Mary Ann Sieghart explains how unseen biases are an irrational and anachronistic product of social conditioning and outdated stereotypes. She also writes about how women, including those who strongly believe in gender equality, can still react negatively towards others because of these biases. Then I’ll let you read her own persuasive writing why bridging the authority gap is important. ⁣
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“Spotting our own biases is a start, but it’s not the end. We need to address the problem at a structural level too. As long as we see many more men than women in positions of authority, we will tend to associate men with authority and women with subordinate status. As long as we allow boys to grow up believing that they are superior to girls, we are instilling habits of mind that will be very hard to change in later life. As long as we keep women in the workplace down by punishing them for being as assertive or self-promoting as men, they will never advance in the same numbers. And as long as we make work patterns unfriendly for parents of both genders, we are going to prevent women from reaching the positions of authority they need to for society to rebalance its stereotypes.”⁣
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What a brilliant book. Read it, and you’ll learn about what’s wrong in this world, and ultimately, how we can all be better human beings.