5 stars

One of the best books I’ve read in 2022! I learned so much about unconscious biases, how they harm marginalized groups, & how we can each help to change things. Additionally, I feel validated, seen, & empowered! I highly recommend this book to everyone!

[What I liked:]

•I learned so much from this well researched book! While I was already well aware of how sexism disadvantages women in academia & the tech industry in my own country, I knew less about sexism & the feminist movements in other countries, & how unconscious biases (including internalized sexism!) affects so many different areas of our lives! The chapter on how reading habits, book sales, critical reviews of published writing, & genre perception are all significantly shaped & impacted by sexism was extremely surprising & intriguing for me!

•The book is well written & engaging. There are discussions of academic studies, interviews with women in authority positions in various fields, stories from the lives of the writer & her acquaintances, & more, used to illustrate points. While jam packed with interesting & relevant facts that taught me so much, I never felt bored or overwhelmed by data.

•I appreciate that the writer acknowledges intersectionality, & how women of color, disabled women, non-binary people, & trans women uniquely face additional discrimination that compounds the effects of misogyny/sexism. While this isn’t the focus of the book, there is a very interesting & informative chapter on these issues.

•The book ends with several suggestions of how anyone of any gender can take simple yet concrete steps to start addressing their own unconscious biases (as well as those of others) to help change society for the better. I loved this part!

[What I didn’t like as much:]

•I pretty much liked everything!

CW: sexism, homophobia, racism

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

THE AUTHORITY GAP by Mary Ann Sieghart explains "Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It." Sieghart, who spent 20 years as Assistant Editor and columnist at The Times [of London], talked to roughly one hundred women, "half of them extremely notable, the other help from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences." Although, her examples (and the book is filled with anecdotes) do tend to be European-centric, she does include comments from current and former US officials such as Elaine Chao. Sieghart explains that she wants the book "to examine our biases in detail and map out the measures we can take, as individuals and as a society, to spot them, counteract them and see them for what they are: an irrational and anachronistic product of social conditioning and outdated stereotypes." The concluding section offers numerous potential actions in separate lists that respond to questions about what we can do as individuals, as partners, as parents, as colleagues, as employers, as teachers in places of learning, as members of the media, and as government representatives. I know that student researchers will have interest in this text and will eagerly build upon some of her assertions (e.g., "having more women in positions of decision-making power, with people listening to them, would help to reduce global warming").

Sieghart defines authority with two definitions: "the first is the influence people have as a result of their knowledge and expertise – in other words, being considered authoritative on the subject. The second is the exertion of power and leadership – in other words, having authority as a result of being in charge." Her work is highly relevant and timely -- it was fascinating to read about the experiences and career impacts of two transgender professors who were transitioning at the same time. Another one of the Sieghart's references is to work done by Kim Parker for Pew Research Center; here is an updated report that a student just shared with me that highlights how "Americans say society places a higher premium on masculinity than on femininity." Sieghart includes a long bibliography, extensive notes, and a helpful index. THE AUTHORITY GAP received a starred review from Library Journal.

Pew Research link:
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/12/05/on-gender-differences-no-consensus-on-nature-vs-nurture/

As I was reading The Authority Gap, I was making a mental list of those to whom I will send a copy once it is published in the U.S. It is a long list. The book is validating, instructive, and infuriating. Validating to women who have experienced exactly the kind of skepticism and dismissal of their expertise described (these women include Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde, Janet Yellen, and of course, Hillary Clinton). Instructive and infuriating because I learned of new ways and means by which gender discrimination is inculcated and enacted—the former in terms of what parents and teachers ingrain and perpetuate from childhood (in one study, parents estimate their male children’s IQ at 115 and their female children’s at 107, even when the girls are obviously smarter, in another, boys receive eight times as much classroom attention as girls), the latter mostly about losers who have nothing better to do than attack women on the internet solely because they express an opinion (as Laurie Penny observed, an opinion “is the short skirt of the internet”).

The book hits the bullseye over and over and over again. I was amused, gratified, and exasperated by the exquisitely accurate descriptions of male overconfidence (men overestimated “how interesting they were, how intelligent they were, [and] how much people liked them”) and how overconfident men—and sadly, others—confuse that confidence with actual competence.

The book is adroitly written and thoroughly researched, invoking studies of bias from every angle. Sieghart also undertook extensive interviews of women ranging from authorities in various academic and scientific disciplines to world leaders (who are authorities on many things, but who have nevertheless encountered breathtaking sexism from peers and underlings). Sieghart herself is an authority on politics and economics in the UK (a former columnist and assistant editor at the Times), and does not lack for examples from her own career of instances in which her expertise was seemingly incomprehensible to men.

The end of the book, though not the strongest part, is a list of things we all can do to improve the situation. The book is unlikely to convert internet trolls or the other vast swaths of men who perpetuate discrimination solely because they know (consciously or unconsciously) that they cannot maintain their privilege if they must compete with women who are their equals, let alone the many women who are more talented, accomplished, intelligent, and expert. Those men “want to silence women so that the world hears only from men.” But Sieghart gallops right past them and will inspire others to do so as well.