Speaking at Stylist Live LUXE, Day admits on stage that in the first series of her podcast (before its reputation had reached the dizzy heights that it has today), she started out by asking contacts and friends if they would like to be podcast guests, some of whom were male.

Their response? Well, Day explains that many of the men she approached to speak about their failures said they “didn’t think they were right for the podcast” because they “didn’t think they had failed at anything.”

Day remarks that the contrast in reactions between the men and the women, were huge: “The women I asked said, ‘Oh my god I’ve failed so much.’ It was fascinating.” Witnessing this led her to see a pattern in how men and women interpret failure, and how we let it change our perceptions of ourselves.

“Of course, when some of those men came on the podcast, they had failed at stuff, they just hadn’t seen it like that. It was a category error. I think what that told me, to speak in very binary and general terms for a minute, was that if you are born a white, middle-class male, then the earth is still generally made in your image. You inherit the earth,” she says.

Elizabeth Day nails the big difference between how men and women view failure