The Double Standard Undermining Women - No Change in 9 Centuries!

 “One of the hardest parts of this is all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years. That’s going to be hard,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren as she ended her bid to gain the US Democratic presidential nomination. 

There could not be more perfect proof of the unacknowledged ‘beast’ any and all pioneering women are up against - despite our supposed equal opportunities. Namely, women’s lack of ‘Power Foundation’.

What do I mean by this? 

Well, every man seeking political office has his right to authority supported by generations of precedent, assumption, law, attitude, the boys’ club, patriarchal ancestral patterns and beliefs. When voters look at a man, they see not only his achievements, record and promises, but also the layers of history supporting his right to be there. This creates a subtle familiarity and entitlement –  quite simply, he looks and feels right for the position.  

A woman, instead of being supported by history, is undermined by it.  Within the subconscious layers of our minds sit the hidden beliefs and attitudes of the past, and these deprive a woman of power.  These subtle levels of the mind do not update quickly, as my twenty years of research have shown.  For a woman there is simply no precedent, ancestral beliefs, legacy of law or generations of entitlement supporting her.

On the surface women’s rights and entitlements have, of course, changed beyond recognition in the last hundred years, yet the underlying structures of our minds and society just haven’t had time to catch up.  The result – a knee-jerk subconscious reaction to a woman in power that she shouldn’t be there. She doesn't look and feel right.

Of course, most people have no idea that their subconscious minds are using the benchmark of history to colour their opinion.  Instead, they might call it her ‘likeability’ or ‘electability’.  They might find themselves subtly attacking her decisions and judging her record with far more aggression than they would for a man with an identical record. Yet the root of this behaviour is simply that when measured against the hidden benchmark, she is the wrong shape.  As the BBC North America Reporter, Anthony Zurcher, rightly points out in the case of Elizabeth Warren, the media coverage she received considerably more criticism than was given to Pete Buttigieg and other male candidates.  

Nothing new here! England saw the same phenomenon during the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda in the year 1141.  Empress Matilda was forced to retreat from London by crowds angered by her ‘arrogant behaviour’ – behaviour that was totally acceptable, and indeed expected, for a male king.  One might have hoped that things would have changed in the intervening 879 years, but alas no.

This is beyond country, beyond politics and policies, beyond industry and profession, and beyond personal record. This is a universal phenomenon.

This is the gender power foundation disparity in action. A subtle discrimination. A perpetuation of the status quo male hierarchical power structure simply because that is what came before.  Every woman, regardless of her intelligence, beliefs, abilities and dedication will be at a huge disadvantage because the subconscious takes one look at her, and decides she doesn’t look and feel right.  The hidden default is male, and no woman can measure up to this benchmark.

Let’s be clear about one thing - this is not conscious discrimination. No, it is a far more subtle and insidious phenomenon because it acts without us knowing it.  It pulls the rug out from under women, simply because they are not what came before.

If all we needed was equal opportunity laws and policies, then with the number of motivated, talented women trying to change the status quo, we would have 50% female world leaders by now.  Clearly this is not the case.

How sadly appropriate that the last women leaves the US presidential race just as the UN Development Programme (UNDP) published data showing that shocking prejudice and bias against women is still deeply entrenched in nearly all countries.  In both developed and developing countries, the figures show that bias has actually got worse.  This backlash effect is evidence that we are trying to pull against deep-seated mental patterns, and are being dragged back.  Note that in this report the data shows that women as well as men were biased, but this isn't surprising when you understand that we are all still plugged into that old operating system. While this continues, women attempting to step into the highest levels of power and influence will continue to hit a brick wall more often than not.

As Pedro Concei??o, director of the UNPD’s human development report office said, “We all know we live in a male-dominated world, but with this report we are able to put some numbers behind these biases, and the numbers, I consider them shocking.”

These ingrained, and deep-seated prejudices will not simply dissolve by themselves. The first step towards forcing change is to acknowledge the enormous effect the lack of power foundation, and the historical legacy of the disempowerment of women, still has here and now. Not until this is out in the open, and acknowledged for how poisonous it truly is, will this power foundation disadvantage finally begin to shift.