The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Taken Less Seriously

Have you ever felt that people don’t take you seriously? Maybe they frequently talk over you, or you feel like it’s harder for you to get your point across than it is for others. Maybe you even start to doubt your own ideas or how you presented them. If this sounds familiar, chances are you’re a woman, and you’re not alone. This phenomenon is often referred to as the "authority gap."

The authority gap isn’t just about individual experiences; it’s a deeply rooted societal reality that almost every woman recognizes. This gap starts to show itself early on in life, according to research cited in The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart. From a young age, we are conditioned to believe that boys will outperform girls. By the age of six, children begin to think that boys are more likely to be “truly smart” than girls. When parents are asked which child they think is the smartest or most capable, they often name their son over their daughter.

You might wonder: But are boys simply smarter? The answer is no. A study by Roberto Colom reveals that boys and girls are equally intelligent on average. What happens instead is that boys and men tend to overestimate their abilities, while girls and women often underestimate theirs. Since these expectations are ingrained from a young age, they become deeply embedded in our unconscious biases.

This results in women often having to work much harder to be taken seriously, and many women hesitating to position themselves in authoritative roles, fearing they’ll be labeled as a “bitch” or dismissed as “too bossy.” It's challenging to demonstrate confident leadership when women are judged more harshly for it – not to mention that women’s intersecting identities might compound harsh judgment. Young women and women of color, in particular, face this bias acutely.

Personally, I notice daily how the authority gap affects my confidence. In conversations, I often have to try twice as hard to be heard, and people seem surprised when I express an interest in topics like politics. They’ll often immediately start “testing” me to see if I actually know what I’m talking about. It’s not uncommon for me to propose an idea that only gets taken seriously after a male peer says, “Sara’s idea actually sounds pretty good.”

At first glance, experiences like these might seem minor. But they are far from insignificant. They have far-reaching consequences: valuable expertise is overlooked, women are unfairly made to feel less confident, and it becomes harder for women to advance in their careers. Women are taken less seriously and penalized more harshly for mistakes, while men are treated as the default standard, and women must fight just to approach that standard.

Ignoring women’s voices doesn’t just affect equality; it undermines societal safety. It helps explain why rape is still underreported and under-prosecuted. It’s why domestic violence has been dismissed for years as a private matter. And it’s why men have been able to get away with sexual harassment for decades.

This dismissal and underestimation of women can no longer continue. This inequality has profound consequences, and it’s time for us to collectively address it. Change begins with self-reflection: men and women alike must ask themselves whether they doubt a woman’s expertise or take a man’s word more seriously by default. Only by examining our own behaviors and unconscious biases can we drive real change. So, men, stop underestimating women. And women, stop doubting yourselves and other women!