Sieghart draws together a remarkable wealth of research (the bibliography alone is 31 pages long) from academic studies and polling data to analyse and deconstruct this pervasive underestimation of women’s competence.

The book is enormously authoritative, knitting together academic studies with interviews of leading public figures.

... punchy and incisive.

... one of those books that takes something ubiquitous, something that perhaps many have become desensitised to, and slowly exposes its far-reaching implications.

Sieghart, a former Times columnist and senior editor, demonstrates through meticulous use of the research data that these manly sins are disproportionately likely to be directed by men against women, and that their cumulative effect can sometimes be enormous.

This is a deeply researched, comprehensive book – so comprehensive, in fact, it can at times read like an A-Z of gender studies, offering plenty of 'what' but little 'why'. It is odd, in a book about male privilege, that so little space is dedicated to examining the psychological roots of misogyny, even less to the problem of childcare and the division of unpaid labour. And, despite Sieghart’s pleas for optimism, it is hard not to leave this book feeling gloomy: girls, we’re told, internalise bias, are silenced, sapped of self-confidence and forced to battle to be heard. All of which is true, of course, but it hardly makes me feel like fighting..

Sieghart takes particular care to interview trans men and women about their experiences and how they were treated at work after transitioning. Sieghart argues that the first step in changing corporate culture is to admit that the authority gap exists.

Though she suggests that women lean in to likability, she acknowledges that the problem is so deeply seeded that only systemic change will close the gender authority gap. Fortunately, she ends with solutions that individuals, colleagues, teachers, and the media can implement. Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, The Authority Gap is a must-read for all genders..

Skillfully interweaving psychology, sociology, politics, and pop culture, this a persuasive introduction to the problem of gender bias..

To counteract this problem, [Sieghart] delivers meaningful and easily actionable suggestions for individuals and society.