Programme

IWD 22 | The Authority Gap with Mary Ann Sieghart (Online)

Fora

Mary Ann Sieghart - The Authority Gap: Taking women from the margins to the centre

Imagine living in a world in which you were routinely patronised by women.
Imagine having your views ignored or your expertise frequently challenged by them.
Imagine trying to speak up in a meeting, only to be talked over by female colleagues.
Imagine subordinates resisting you as a boss, merely because you're a man.
Imagine being trolled by women on social media for daring to express an opinion.
Imagine people always addressing the woman you are with, before you.

Now imagine a world in which the reverse of this is true.

Join journalist and broadcaster Mary Ann Sieghart as she shares ideas from her recent book, The Authority Gap; a body of work containing research and case studies, which show that despite the progress society has made, there are still many ways in which women are prevented from achieving equality.

A Message from Oaklin:

"We are thrilled to be co-hosting this event with Fora to recognise International Women's Day (IWD). Oaklin’s Women's Network (OWN) aims to empower and support our women to reach their fullest potential, whilst also empowering our men to act as allies. As a network, we want to achieve these aims through knowledge sharing, events, and networking sessions just like this.

Mary-Ann’s event on building authority in the workplace is particularly important as one of OWN’s pillars is to encourage our women to 'amplify' their profiles. The ideas which Mary-Ann will share will equip our audience with some practical ways to accomplish this.

Oaklin values inclusivity so being able to extend our reach across industries and connect with guests through the Fora network is sure to create a supportive community amongst fellow Residents."

The Experience:

• Hear a startling perspective on the unseen bias at work in our everyday lives, revealing the scale of the gap that still exists between men and women.

• A breakdown of all the ways in which an “authority gap” is manifested between men and women, and how its cumulative results amount to de facto informal laws prohibiting women from taking certain jobs.

• Providing a wealth of data with precision and insight, featuring the experience and perspective of pioneering women, such as Baroness Hale, Mary Beard and Bernadine Evaristo.

• Mary Ann exposes unconscious bias, with a fresh feminist take on how to address and counteract systemic sexism in ways that benefit us all.

About Mary Ann Sieghart

Mary Ann Sieghart leads a portfolio life. She currently works creating programmes for BBC Radio 4, and as a visiting professor at King’s College London. She spent 2018-19 as a visiting fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where she researched her book, The Authority Gap, on why women are taken less seriously than men. She is also Chair of the judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022.

Mary Ann is a Non-Executive Director of the Guardian Media Group and Chair of the Investment Committee of The Scott Trust (owner of The Guardian and The Observer), Senior Independent Director of Pantheon International, Non-Executive Director of The Merchants Trust and Senior Independent Trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust. Until recently, she was Chair of the Social Market Foundation, a non-party-political Think Tank, Senior Independent Director of Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust and sat on the Content Board of Ofcom and the Council of Tate Modern.

She spent 19 years as Assistant Editor of The Times, including as Acting Editor of the Monday edition, Op-Ed Editor, Arts Editor, Chief Political Leader-Writer and political and social affairs columnist both on the Op-Ed page and in Times2.

She has also written a weekly column in The Independent about politics, economics and social affairs, and presented Newshour, the BBC World Service’s flagship news and current affairs programme.

Mary Ann has extensive TV and radio experience, including presenting Start the Week, Analysis, Profile, One to One, Fallout, The Inquiry, Beyond Westminster, Newshour, Powerhouse, The Brains Trust, The Week in Westminster, Taking Issue, The Big Picture, No Illusions and The World This Week. She has regularly appeared as a guest on Question Time, Any Questions, Today, Newsnight, The World Tonight, Channel 4 News, PM, The Andrew Marr Show, The World at One, Woman’s Hour and The Daily Politics.

Before joining The Times, Mary Ann was political correspondent of The Economist, City Editor of Today newspaper and a Lex columnist and Eurobond correspondent at the Financial Times.

She has also sat on numerous boards, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the North Fulham New Deal for Communities, New Europe, the No Campaign, the Radcliffe Trust, the Social Studies Faculty of Oxford University, Women in Journalism and the National Council for One-Parent Families.

She won the Laurence Stern Fellowship to work on The Washington Post. She also captained The Times’s University Challenge: The Professionals team, which reached the semi-final.

*A WATERSTONES 'BEST POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR'*

*A TIMES 'BEST PHILOSOPHY AND IDEAS' BOOK OF 2021*

*A GUARDIAN 'BEST POLITICS BOOKS OF THE YEAR'*

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