Most Inflential Woman. Really?

The press being disingenuous: surely not?

The Metro (a free daily newspaper, for non-UK residents) is trumpeting the headline that Leona Lewis has won the vote for London’s most influential woman. They then go on to add in the subtitle, “International Women's Day: Leona Lewis has been named by Metro readers as their most influential woman to live or work in London in the past century.”

If that were true, it would be rather depressing, given a list that includes Margaret Thatcher (like it or lump it, the UK’s only woman Prime Minister), Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette, Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons, or Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, former President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice, before listing other famous women from various branches of the political, sports, entertainment, arts and media worlds.

However, the poll that Ms Lewis won didn’t ask people to vote for the most influential woman on the list, it asked people to vote for their favourite on the list (my italics). That is a rather different thing. On that single criterion, it is not unreasonable that she would win, given her current popularity.

But whether she is actually that influential, or deserves to be on the list in the first place is another matter. Regardless, being voted ‘favourite influential woman’ does not equate with being ‘most influential woman’.

So the headline is just plain wrong. Misleading at best, and outright lie at worst.

International Women’s Day

Most Inflential Woman. Really?

The press being disingenuous: surely not?

The Metro (a free daily newspaper, for non-UK residents) is trumpeting the headline that Leona Lewis has won the vote for London’s most influential woman. They then go on to add in the subtitle, “International Women's Day: Leona Lewis has been named by Metro readers as their most influential woman to live or work in London in the past century.”

If that were true, it would be rather depressing, given a list that includes Margaret Thatcher (like it or lump it, the UK’s only woman Prime Minister), Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette, Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons, or Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, former President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice, before listing other famous women from various branches of the political, sports, entertainment, arts and media worlds.

However, the poll that Ms Lewis won didn’t ask people to vote for the most influential woman on the list, it asked people to vote for their favourite on the list (my italics). That is a rather different thing. On that single criterion, it is not unreasonable that she would win, given her current popularity.

But whether she is actually that influential, or deserves to be on the list in the first place is another matter. Regardless, being voted ‘favourite influential woman’ does not equate with being ‘most influential woman’.

So the headline is just plain wrong. Misleading at best, and outright lie at worst.

International Women’s Day