Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee Allabest.

Today we're going to start with a riddle.

A father and son get in a severe car accident and both are badly hurt.

An ambulance arrives and takes them to separate hospitals.

When the boy is taken in for emergency surgery, the surgeon says, I can't operate on him because this boy is my son.

How is this possible?

The answer is the surgeon is the boy's mother.

Had you heard that riddle before?

I remember hearing it as a kid, and my mind was blown when I heard the punchline. And the fact that that

joke is still in circulation and that it still flummoxes people is a commentary on how we view

or don't view women in positions of power in our society. Our author today is famed Cambridge

University professor Mary Beard.

And in her book, Women in Power, a Manifesto, she writes that despite the fact that there are more women in leadership positions than there used to be, quote, our mental cultural template for a powerful person remains resolutely male. If we close our eyes and try to conjure up

the image of a president or to move into the knowledge economy, a professor, what most of us see is not a woman.

And that is just as true even if you are a woman professor. The cultural stereotype is so strong that at the

level of those close your eyes fantasies, it is still hard for me to imagine me or someone like me

in my role. End quote. So we are going to discuss women in power a manifesto today, and I am so excited to dig into this amazing book.

But before we begin, I want to introduce my reading partner today, Louisa Gillette.

Welcome, Louisa.

Thank you. I'm so happy and excited to be here.

I'm so happy and excited to have you here.

Louisa and I are both in the Masters of

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