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In 1969 an American academic, Professor Laurence J Peter, wrote a book called The Peter Principle. His principle argued that people always rise to their level of incompetence. They’re promoted until they get to the stage where they’re so useless at the job they can’t progress any further. He referred only to men. A new book, The Paula Principle, is the mirror image of that idea. It applies to women and argues that women work below their level of competence. In other words they’re never promoted to a position which their abilities merit and don’t fulfil their potential. The author is Professor Tom Schuller, a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, who joins Jenni Murray to discuss why this is.