The Authority Gap

I read this book in a single day and was captivated by the way in which Sieghart combined narrative storytelling with deep-rooted research and analysis.

To me, the book makes a crystal-clear case that many of the gender gaps we contend with today actually begin with the authority gap: the fact that women are trusted less than men and are considered less credible.

Sieghart does a fantastic job of making complex research accessible and digestible. 

Women are still held back at work, by prejudice, ignorance, and a lack of genuinely equal opportunities. There has been legislation in place in the UK since the 1970s, and yet still the equal pay gap exists and is closing only at an incredibly slow pace. Mary Ann Sieghart analyses why this is still happening and why women are still not getting an equal break. It is not a question of ability, clearly. It has to do with systemic unfairness and stupidity, which must be challenged and dismantled. Every manager, male and female, needs to read this book.

I have just finished reading The Authority Gap, and it's a stunning (in both senses of the word) collection of the facts, the relentless statistics, over and over, that support the anecdote that is This is what happens.  

Written by a journalist rather than an academic (Valian), it is comparatively easy-going, but still hard-hitting. I am recommending it to everyone (including, especially, men).