“When men stuff up, it’s explained away as a steep learning curve or circumstances beyond anyone’s control. When women stuff up, it’s seen as (further) proof that women are not up to the job.” Photo: Stocksy

When my husband recently joined a school committee, several mothers I spoke to sighed with relief.

Partly it was because a parent of the male persuasion was putting his hand up to do some of the unpaid and often invisible work behind the scenes to keep schools running, but a large part of it was the hope that he’d sort all the women out.

I was told that a few years ago two men led 30 female committee members. The men made the decisions and, apparently, things ran much smoother with men in charge.

The idea that women believe that male leadership is more effective than their own is utterly depressing. But it’s not at all surprising.

Every day, in every way, we’re fed the message that men are more capable, courageous and smarter than us. We saw it in our parents. Dad left the house each day to do important things, while Mum ironed his shirts and packed his lunch.

Even if both parents were working outside the home, more likely than not, the man’s job was considered more important and the woman did most of the domestic work.

We had few female role models in politics. And even then, Margaret Thatcher was considered effective because she acted like a man.

And as for Julia Gillard, it was so difficult to get past the noise about her vocal tone, childlessness, marital status, dress sense and body shape to realise that she was able to pass more legislation through parliament than any of her male predecessors. And she did it without a parliamentary majority, requiring careful and constant negotiation with independents.

Our popular culture was – and still is — full of stories and images reinforcing the belief that women are emotional, bitchy, and talk too much to be effective.

Our daughters are receiving the same messages. Recently, I had the misfortune of watching a Barbie animated show on TV. Barbie and her three friends were trying to redecorate Barbie’s mansion, but they had to wait for Ken to come over to hang up a painting. Hell, even Computer Engineer Barbie needs a bloke to tell her OS from her BIOS.

And after years of cultural inculcation, the assumption that women can’t lead appears ‘natural’ and is then continually ‘confirmed’ by selection bias: we only see the evidence that confirms our own ingrained biases.

When men stuff up in leadership positions, it’s explained away as a steep learning curve, circumstances beyond anyone’s control or he’s a good bloke who’s stepped up to do a hard job. It’s a blip on an otherwise impressive record of achievement.

When women stuff up, it’s seen as (further) proof that women are not up to the job. Forget about all the things that they might have gotten right.

But we owe it to ourselves to challenge our programming. The idea that men are more capable in leadership than women is simply not founded on fact. The evidence is clear: women are excellent leaders and managers, and in many cases, not only are they as good as men, they are better.

Farms run by women are more profitable. So too are female-led firms and investment portfolios. Companies with female board members perform better, and increasingly aid organisations and governments are realising that women and girls hold the key to ending global poverty and extremism.

Given this evidence, it’s ridiculous for us to persist with the belief that we can’t run cake stalls and raffles without blokes to co-ordinate the whole thing.

And neither does it fit with any logic. Most leadership positions require communications skills, empathy, the capacity to multi-task, and the willingness to make a decision and commit to it. These are all qualities which, in other spheres of life — personal relationships or mothering, for example — women are claimed to possess by virtue of their ‘nature’.

I know exactly where the comments from the school mothers are coming from, because I have internalised bias against women too. I spent a fair part of my earlier years wishing I was a boy because I wanted to be clever, funny and worth listening to.

Eventually I realised that those qualities weren’t dictated by gender. But thirty years later and despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I still have thoughts that devalue the capabilities of women.

But it’s more important than ever to challenge those outdated and incorrect beliefs. Because if I don’t, I will perpetuate inequality by inadvertently teaching my daughters what was taught to me.

This article was originally published on Daily Life 12th May. Read the original article here.