What's On Your Corporate Sexist Bullsh*t Bingo Card?

How to beat the bias and earn like the Steves

TL;DR: The Authority Gap isn't about women lacking confidence—it's about systematic language patterns that make exclusion sound reasonable. This week: how to spot corporate sexist bullsh*t in real time and the power of calling "BINGO!" in the room where it happens.

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Hey there 👋

I once sat on a senior leadership team composed of three brilliant women and one man—our boss. While I sailed through meetings with zero conflict, my two colleagues were constantly at odds with him. Both eventually left under pressure.

My secret? I'd learned to make every idea sound like it came from him. "You know how you were saying we need better systems? What if we tried..." It worked like magic. He'd light up, claim ownership, and champion the solution.

When my colleagues came to me for advice, I'd evangelically share my strategy. "Just make him think it's his idea!"

Their response, every single time: "I can't do that."

I was baffled. Why choose conflict over results?

Now I understand what happened. There's something called the "Authority Gap"—a term coined by journalist Mary Ann Sieghart to describe the systematic way women are taken less seriously than men, regardless of our expertise or track record. I had neatly slid myself right into that gap, handing over my authority to avoid conflict. My colleagues rightly refused to erase themselves.

In this newsletter, I share weekly strategies for pushing back against these ingrained patriarchal systems and our own people-pleasing conditioning. While researching this topic, I stumbled on a game. One I'd never heard of. A game for women academics called Sexist Bullshit Bingo—where academic women check off squares during faculty meetings when they hear phrases like "She overlaps with us too much" or "The good women are all taken."

Like a lot of companies, mine is full of brilliant women—especially at the director and VP levels. But the C-suite? That still feels like a boys’ club. In too many orgs, talented women fill the layers just below the C-suite.

So I started wondering—what would it really take to move the needle in those rooms?

Original artwork for Still Ticking by Victoria Aronoff. Find her at @stupidslothcards & Etsy.

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The Problem Pattern: The C-Suite Glass Ceiling Disguised as Merit

The Authority Gap shows up most insidiously when organizations are full of talented women everywhere except the top. It's harder to spot because it's not about obvious exclusion—it's about subtle language that sounds reasonable but systematically works against women's advancement.

Here's what I imagine happens in those senior leadership meetings:

• "She's incredibly capable, but does she have the gravitas for the board?"

• "We need someone who can really own the room with investors"

• "Her expertise is phenomenal, but is she ready for that level of scrutiny?"

• "He just has that natural executive presence"

• "She might find the travel demands challenging with young kids"

Each phrase sounds thoughtful and careful. Together, they create an impenetrable barrier disguised as thorough evaluation.

How Most People Try to Solve It (and Why It Fails)

The Pipeline Approach:

• Focus on developing more women leaders

• Create succession planning programs

• Invest in executive coaching for high-potential women

The Metrics Approach:

• Set diversity targets for leadership

• Track promotion rates by gender

• Report on representation gaps

Both approaches assume the problem is women's readiness or organizational awareness. Neither addresses the real issue: the language patterns that make exclusion sound like prudent decision-making.

The Authority Gap research reveals something crucial: women are held to different standards that shift depending on the situation. When we're confident, we're "aggressive." When we're collaborative, we "lack leadership presence." When we're detail-oriented, we're "not strategic enough."

The pipeline approach fails because it assumes equal evaluation criteria. The metrics approach fails because it tracks outcomes without changing the decision-making process that creates those outcomes.

The real problem isn't women's qualifications—it's the invisible bingo card being played in every promotion conversation.

The Solution: Corporate C-Suite Sexist Bullshit Bingo

Let's create a board for those senior leadership meetings where all the "ready for C-suite" decisions get made:

Power Scripts for C-Suite Bingo Moments:

When they ask: "Does she have the gravitas?"

• Try: "What specific behaviors define gravitas? Let's make sure we're evaluating consistently across all candidates."

When they cite, "Board-ready presence"

• Try: "Help me understand what board-ready looks like. Are we talking about communication style, expertise, or something else?"

When they mention, "He's a natural leader"

• Try: "That's interesting. What leadership behaviors are you seeing that stand out?"

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The Power Practice for the Week

The Bingo Disruption: In your next leadership conversation about promotions or succession planning, try this:

1. Listen for pattern language - Notice when evaluation criteria sound different for men vs. women

2. Ask clarifying questions - "What does that look like specifically?" forces concrete examples

3. Document in real time - Keep your own mental bingo card

The Advanced Move: When you notice a clear double standard, try: "I'm curious about something I'm observing in our evaluation process..." and share one specific pattern. If saying it in the moment feels risky, try circling back in a 1:1: with, “I noticed something in our meeting that I wanted to reflect on...”

The Short of It ⚡️

• The Authority Gap isn't about individual women lacking executive presence.

• It's about systematic language patterns that make exclusion from the C-suite sound like careful evaluation.

• My colleagues were right to refuse my strategy of handing over authority. The solution isn't to make ourselves invisible to avoid conflict. It's to make the bias visible while it's happening.

• Sometimes the most powerful move is calling "BINGO!" in the room where it happens.

- With you all the way,
Kara

P.S. Next week: "How Did I Make It to Almost 59 Without Knowing About BATNA?" (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)—the foundational negotiation concept that men seem to absorb through osmosis while women miss entirely. I'll share why we're excluded from this insider knowledge and give you a practical BATNA worksheet to assess your true alternatives in any situation."