Authority Gap

First of all, I think that Mary Ann Sieghart's book tackles an important issue not only in today's working environment but overall. Nevertheless, I found the execution somewhat lacking and the book could have been a lot better. I also don't agree with a lot of the author's ideas about how the authority gap could be closed.

The first few chapters were an interesting (albeit superficial) introduction to the topic. The following chapters were quite repetetive and featured a lot of interviewees who were mostly either conservative politicians or super capitalists. I would've liked it far better if she also discussed the authority gap within more liberal/socialist/progressive circles. I mean, is anyone really surprised that conservatives and men in the military don't care about women's opinions? I was also taken aback by the author's praise of Angela Merkel. Merkel surely isn't a feminist in any way that truly matters. Maybe she was helpful to other female political leaders but her policies certainly didn't do much for women in Germany. For example, she prevented women's quota, didn't abolish sexist tax law, had a cabinet with only few women, voted against the legalisation of same sex marriages, ... And she didn't even call herself a feminist until after her political career was over which was mostly perceived as lip service.

However, Mary Ann Sieghart also interviewed trans women and BIPOCs. Those were the more interesting bits. I found the chapter about the authority shift that trans people underwent extremely interesting. Whereas trans men discovered that they were taken more seriously after their transition, trans women experienced the opposite. She also touched on the subject of intersectional bias. Sadly, she didn't go into depth on that topic. I also enjoyed the chapters about women in the book industry and trolling on the internet.

Overall, I don't think that a reader who has already read about the topic beforehand or who already experienced the authority gap first hand will learn much from this book. To them I would recommend other books like "Invisible Women" or "Men Who Hate Women". Nevertheless, I think that a lot of men would benefit from reading Sieghart's book. Only last week, one of my colleagues told me that he was appalled by me, a young woman, calling him out on his racism because I wasn't his boss and didn't phrase my criticism in a more "reasonable manner". The other men in the room later accused me of spoiling the mood because said colleague surely didn't mean any harm and was a nice guy overall..

Which takes us to another point in Sieghart's book that I don't agree with at all. She says that men don't listen to "angry" women and therefore women should try to voice their opininion in a more "feminine" and non-threatening way. And I surely won't ever do that! I won't pretend I'm some submissive little thing just to make myself heard. I won't use a gentle voice that makes me sound more maternal to get my point across. If they won't listen to me when I'm as aggressive as they are, if they don't like me for the way I voice my opinion or call them out, then so be it! I'm certainly not on this world to make bigots like me or feel comfortable around me. If they don't like me, that's okay. I don't like them either. I refuse to change the way I behave in a discussion in order to stroke the egos of insecure men.. And I think that a lot of women feel the same way.