MARY ANN SIEGHART: Smash the authority gap!

There is a massive “authority gap” that exists in the world today, where women are taken way less seriously than men and still treated as less competent. They are interrupted four times as often as men and are overlooked for not being as confident as a bloke (while studies show that men’s perceived additional confidence is mostly “bullshitting”). And, yet, as my guest London-based journalist and broadcaster Mary Ann Sieghart explains, there are only wins to be had by closing this authority gap.

Mary Ann both coined the term and wrote the book by the same name and she shares with me that when gender parity is achieved men experience less divorce, less suicide, less addiction, their chances of dying a violent death are almost halved and their happiness increases; while nations with female leaders have less corruption, better health outcomes and experience a spike in GDP. I find this chat wild in its dispelling of the misconception that making the world more balanced is a zero-sum game (that as women achieve gains, men lose out). Quite the opposite!

Our chat comes on the 10-year anniversary of former Australian PM Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech…Mary Ann leaves us with a super interesting insight on this, too.

Grab Mary Ann’s book, The Authority Gap

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Here’s the data on the gender gap in Australia that I refer to.

And here’s Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech in full.

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