Ted Audio Collective.

Audio Collective.

You're listening to Ted Talks Daily.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Here's a wild stat that's still true in 2023.

Men are three times more likely to be quoted in news stories

than women, and twice as likely to be the protagonist in movies.

In her 2023 talk from Ted Women, author and journalist Mary Ann Seacart lays out why these wildly

imbalance numbers create a gaping authority gap in our culture.

And what needs to be done about it after the break.

Like TED Talks, you should check out the TED Radio Hour with NPR.

Stay tuned after this talk to hear a sneak peek of this week's episode.

At a conference a few years ago, a man asked me what I did and I led a portfolio life so I just rattled off a list and I said well I write a political column for the independent newspaper I make radio programs for the BBC

I chair a think tank I sit on a couple of commercial boards I'm on the Council of Tate Modern and I am on the content board of Offcom our Broadcasting

Regulator. To which she replied,

wow you're a busy little girl.

I was about 50 older than our Prime Minister.

Now, this is a classic example of what I call the authority gap,

the way we still take women less seriously than men. We're still more seriously than men.

We're still more reluctant to accord authority to women.

We still assume a man knows what he's talking about

until he proves otherwise. While for a woman it's all too often the other

...