Friday, 6 April 2018

No Glass Ceiling on lame Remarks

LibDem councillor Robin Ashby has got himself in the news with his comments on wage equality.  Using the rigorous statistical technique of "cherry-picking", he proves that, because Theresa May is Prime Minister, everything is fair and just in the world of opportunity.

Now I'm not so sure. My normal assumption is that a woman doing a job will be better than the average man doing a similar job. Because she's had to be to get it. The sort of male lack of self-awareness that allows a male councillor to stand up and speak drivel, means men are disproportionately likely to think they're pretty good at things they're not. The tendency of management to confuse confidence with competence means they then get promoted. For a woman to do as well means either being immensely more competent, or over-compensating with the confidence. And once they've got the job, they find out that where a man shows leadership, they are "bossy". Where a man is assertive, they are "shrill".

I commend Robin Ashby on giving the example of Her Majesty the Queen. I mean, she's Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Head of the Commonwealth, and Sovereign of the United  Kingdom.  But when she started out, she was  only a girl.

But let's go back to Theresa May. Is she proof, as Robin Ashby says, that there are no glass ceilings? Or does she prove my point, that a woman doing a job will  generally be better than a man doing a similar one?

Two words. Boris Johnson.




Want a good laugh? Want to laugh at the church? Want to be secretly suspicious that the author has been sitting in your church committee meetings taking notes? Then Writes of the Church: Gripes and grumbles of people in the pews is probably the book for you.

From Amazon, Sarum Bookshop, The Bible Readers Fellowship and other good Christian bookshops. An excellent book for your churchgoing friends, relatives or vicar. By the creator of the Beaker Folk.

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