New Leeson Life

If you've ever studied psychology at any level you will have come across the Stanford Prison Experiment . In which a group of students were randomly chosen to act the role of either prisoner or prison officer, and given certain rules and artefacts that reinforced their role. The upshot of the experiment was that ordinary students did some pretty crappy things to fellow students after not long at all, influenced solely by the culture that had been created around them, many elements of which in isolation could look pretty benign. I'm reminded of it as I try to explain my take on women in the workplace to various people.  The Presidents' Club dinner for example. The media's take on this is to focus on examples of poor/lewd/shitty behaviour from some of the men in attendance. Because of course, sex sells and the topic du jour is sex scandals of varying forms.  That isn't my primary issue with the Presidents' Club. Imagine for a moment we are talking about the ...

Wimmin. We're in the news a lot recently. Making a fuss. Being angry. The BBC's China Editor has resigned her post in protest at being paid significantly less than her male counterparts. Not the first to do so, probably not the last. Female celebrities are using the Golden Globes as a platform to launch the 'Time's Up' initiative - talking about pay equality, sexual harassment and the right to an equal seat at the table across all industries. I've seen my MP proudly tell us what will happen to MP's if they sexually harass colleagues, while one of her colleagues gives a job to a man who has tweeted more times about tits than Chris Packham. A conversation about the gender pay gap is taking place. Again. I'm listening to people (often men, mostly men) chiming in to the conversation about that gender pay gap... "We need more women in STEM, that will raise their rates of pay" (Yes, why is it these male-dominated industries are higher paid, exact...