“Men are assumed to be competent until proven otherwise, whereas a woman is assumed to be incompetent until she proves otherwise.”

Mary Ann Sieghart is a fearless journalist, author, and public intellectual committed to dismantling the invisible yet powerful bias she calls “the authority gap.” A former Assistant Editor at The Times and BBC presenter, Sieghart now leads The Authority Gap Consultancy and serves as Visiting Professor at King’s College London, challenging societal norms about gender, credibility, and leadership.

Her breakthrough book, The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It, combines rigorous research with real-world stories—including voices like Baroness Hale and Mary Beard—to expose how women remain under‑validated despite equal or superior expertise. Sieghart outlines practical solutions to close this gap within our lifetime. A prominent voice in media and policy, she has chaired the Social Market Foundation, judged the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and is a trustee of high-profile organizations.

“Deeply researched, profoundly thoughtful and a book very much for the here and now...” — Andrew Marr, on The Authority Gap

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