Just Finished Reading: Women and Power – A Manifesto by Mary Beard (FP: 2017)

There’s a lot of it about at the moment. Not women in power but books and general talk about the subject most of whom saying that not enough women have enough power – which is true enough, but….

Whilst the author makes some good and interesting points – the first half of this tiny book (at a mere 97 small pages) relates how women have been silenced down the centuries by authors, playwrights and politicians while the second half considers women in power and the harsh price they seemed to pay for it – but offers little in the way of solutions short of musing on the nature of power itself and the thought of women redefining power to more suit themselves. It was more than a little woolly to be honest. It wasn’t helped by her repeatedly pointing out how she had been attacked by Tweeters who called her rather nasty names for merely suggesting or defending the idea of historically significant women appearing on our banknotes. I also found some of her complaints or observations to be rather disingenuous – for instance that the UK has never had a female Chancellor of the Exchequer (true) and yet has had at least two Home Secretaries responsible for national security and, of course, two Prime Minister’s. Women are also at their highest level of representation in Parliament ever. So at least some progress has been made and is continuing to be made. It’s most certainly not all doom and gloom.

I do agree on many of her points though: Women have a much harder time gaining and keeping power. They are held to higher standards and are criticised much more harshly when they fail. They are expected to be representatives of their entire gender unlike men who are seen as merely representing themselves. Women are criticised for being too feminine and too masculine. They are accused of using their sex as well as hiding it. They are judged as much on their appearance as on their ability and judged even more when their appearance is seen as both important and unimportant. In many ways they simply cannot win – and not all of the criticism comes from men.

So, the author is right in pointing out the disparity in power between the sexes, how that power is exercised and criticised, and how that power is constrained or encouraged. However, I really don’t think this manifesto really addresses any of those problems. Unfortunately I found it all rather disappointing – but maybe that’s because I’m a man? More on power and power relationships – and leadership – to come.