Mary Beard at Cheltenham - Theresa May set up to fail by men

[MinecraftHolmes]

Interesting short article in the Sunday Times this morning - Mary beard is at the Cheltenham literature festival and discussed the use of Medusa imagery against powerful women.
“There is a pattern in which women are useful to men temporarily in positions of power so they can make a mess of it and men can come in on their white chargers.”

Share token below for those who are interested.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mary-beard-at-the-cheltenham-literature-festival-pm-set-up-to-fail-by-men-s2st0l7rl?shareToken=5bd34faa707259275ccc77089cf9d8c6

I've thought this for a long time.

There is no way that the senior me lake figures in the Tory party would have let TM take the role if they thought it would leave her showered in glory. If they thought Brexit would be a success and the PM who steered the country through it would forever be remembered as a great leader, they'd have a man in her position. They all know it's going to be a disastrous shits shitshow which is why they're allowing a woman to take the fallout for it all.

Senior MALE figures not me lake idiot phone

Yep. Margaret Thatcher was the same. A woman that men expected to be able to use as a puppet. In her case it backfired!

^

Yes! She’s a great example of the “glass cliff.”

It’s a measurable phenomenon- companies appoint more women to their boards of directors when they’ve been struggling.

Second try

There is no way that the senior me lake figures in the Tory party would have let TM take the role if they thought it would leave her showered in glory.

I completely agree. In fact, I thought it was entirely telling (and unsurprising) how all the Tory men championing Leave took a collective step back when it looked line they might get stink on their hands. This is a recognised phenomenon, that women get a chance at CEO-type jobs when companies are failing - its called the “glass cliff” and academic researchers including Michelle Ryan at Exeter Uni have looked into it pretty exhaustively. I’ll see if I can find a good link & post shortly.

I see HomeStar got to the point quicker than me.

I once read an article laying out that women usually have great chances to get a leadership position, when the situation is so difficult, men don‘t want to risk being damaged by the highly likely failure.
It makes sense that a woman was ordained to preside over Brexit. Pretty much impossible to see that through undamaged.
(Doesn‘t change the fact TM gives a shit about average working people, so, I don‘t have particular sympathy for her).

I've been saying "glass cliff" ever since she got the job (I saw Michelle Ryan lecture not long back - I think she has some TED talks up if you Google).

I actually think David Cameron is the one who cops most of the blame for Brexit. If there is an avenue of sexism to analyse here look no further than the last election where a mediocre man (Corbyn), actually loses the election but is somehow heralded and trumpeted as a victor/hero in popular imagination, and the woman who actually won the damn thing is derided, criticised and hated.

Don't forget women have a 100% success rate for leading a party to a win in general elections in this country, and thus far no woman has ever lost one. Also one of the most uniformly liked/respected potential future next leaders of the Conservative party is Ruth Davidson. A woman who has almost single handedly turned around the party's fortunes in Scotland.

I don't doubt there are some misogynists within the Tory party, but no more so than any other party, and certainly not enough to hamstring the political fortunes of women to quite the same degree as in other parties.