&gt;there is a well-known societal problem of women being underappreciated, especially leaders &#x2F;&#x2F;<p>This approach begs the question [assumes the conclusion it supposedly seeks to find]: it seems as likely that a certain type of person is underappreciated. That a lot of women are of that type may be true but that doesn&#x27;t make it an issue of sex <i>per se</i>. Reading between the lines of the essay Mr Graham hints that he feels one reason his wife is underappreciated is because she shies away from vocal conflict. That at least leaves a hypothesis that this is not really about the sex of the person but about character traits that are more often found in one sex than the other.<p>You might for example say there is a societal problem of women being forced to use stepladders when in fact it is short people that use stepladders and it happens that women on average are shorter than men.<p>The topic has a little interest to me in understanding attitudes of those in one area of work I&#x27;m in (loosely &quot;craft as a leisure activity&quot;). Other workers - almost all the people in this sector are women running their own businesses - always assume that I&#x27;m just there to carry the heavy boxes [which I usually can&#x27;t due to a back injury] rather than actually function as an integral part of the company. In short they read me as the minion and her, my co-worker, as the boss. Basically we&#x27;re in the sex-opposite position of Mr Graham and Ms Livingston wrt our roles in the business we&#x27;re in.<p>From the public side of things I&#x27;ve been asked more than once if there was a woman available to do my job instead of me. Which I find particularly hilarious if then my female co-worker has to ask me what to do.