“Women are taken less seriously than men”
If you have any doubts about the validity of this statement I point you to The Authority Gap written by author Mary Ann Seighart. An essential read packed with research and testimony about the ways we accord women less authority than men. Like Invisible Women it's a must read for women AND men.
Authored by M A Sieghart. Not Mary Ann Sieghart.
Why? Let’s look at some data.
Of the 10 best selling women authors. 19% are read by men. 81% are read by women.
The 10 best selling men authors enjoy a readership split of 51% read by men 45% read by women.
Women are prepared to read books by men. Men reading books by women? Not so much.
Want to be heard by men? Presenting yourselves as more masculine apparently is the way to go in publishing. How depressing.
All sounding a bit like a Margaret Thatcher model of female leadership isn’t it? As I read to myself in my deepest lowest Margaret Thatcher voice. (It’s actually quite an impressive imitation as it happens)
Pause for thought here fellas though, no?
Have a look at your book shelf and see what the sex of the last 10 authors you purchased were?
Don’t get me started on ‘Leadership’ books.
If you’ve listened to Dame Stephanie Shirley speak, or Steve Shirley as she used to be known - you will trace the sad reality of women playing with their names to swerve the bias associated with being a woman, back to 1962. Where founding her software company Stephanie adopted the pseudonym Steve to improve responsiveness.
Yet here we are in 2022 and Mary Ann Seighart is still making decisions about the best presentation of a name and cover choice to give The Authority Gap the greatest chance of hitting the people that need to hear it most. Men. Allies.
We all need to watch out for the assumptions we make about each other.We know we all have them. It is after all a function of the brain and why diversity and Inclusion programmes have poured endless amounts questionably effective money in to unconscious bias programmes - for more on this read Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. (Academic, HBR&Forbes Contributor so he has loads of authority).
Being conscious, socially aware, decision making being is a function of being human. It means that we have self determination. Agency. The opportunity to focus and notice what we pay attention to. To do more. Choose what difference we want to make and decide to act. The choice to be a changemaker.
So where I have landed this year with Break The Bias - is that the call to action needs heading most by allies. Not women. Let’s celebrate women and call for more allies.
For men to choose to Be Braver to Break The Bias.
If you want to know how applying a Be Braver mindset might help you, colleagues or teams….. we have a whole programme and a mindset that can help you learn how to Find Clarity, Know Confidence, Create Connection and Choose Courage in this space.
Or you could try some of these:-
Find Clarity
Be able to articulate why you believe you want to break the bias?
How does it align to your own personal values? The type of person you are becoming.
What’s your vision for the type of change you want to contribute to making?
Where do you want to make a difference?
Know Confidence
What knowledge or experience gaps do you have that stop you from taking action?
What character strengths do you have to draw upon?
Where can you build and develop your know how to change your bias and behaviour?
(HINT: Reading womens books on the topic is a great start)
Create Connection
What responses does taking action trigger in you that might prevent you doing so?
How can you leverage your networks, peers, processes, resources, people, data to inform your choices decidion and actions.
Find a tribe/create an allyship community
Choose Courage
Be honest - what risks do you perceive when you think about changing your actions?
What are the risks for yourself and others of NOT acting?
Whats the worst that could happen?
Identify 3 behaviour changes you can action (Noticing language you use when describing female colleagues, attending to share of voice in meetings, ask women to contribute first in meetings)
If you want to be truly brave as an organisation we have a programme for allies to understand how to Be Braver in tackling it. As leaders, businesses and teams.