Harriet Harman has been thoroughly embarrassed by her own party. By merely doing her job as acting Labour leader and attempting to set out the party’s official position – hardly an outrageous thing to do as its head – she has attracted an ire not normally seen within parties. Her backbenchers and fellow shadow cabinet members alike have piled in to pour scorn on her decision.

More importantly, they’ve questioned her very authority to make that decision; telling her, implicitly, that she should just shut up and let her party flail aimlessly until a new leader is elected, because she has no right to be speaking for the party. They neglect to remember that she was elected specifically do so if and when a leader stepped down.

Disagree all you like with her stance, but don’t deny her right to take it.

Throughout the events of the last few days, I’ve wondered if Labour MPs would be so happy to override Harman if she weren’t a woman. It seems likely that loyalty to a man would be stronger.

The whole situation resembles the classic scene of a woman being interrupted or ignored in a meeting dominated by white men in suits.

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Have you ever seen a male leader so undermined? Even the Tories manage to keep their wrangling about Europe mostly behind closed doors, and the protagonists are mostly men. At the height of the tuition fee saga, only 21 Lib Dems broke ranks; yesterday 48 Labour MPs defied the whip. And even when it became clear that Ed Miliband’s unpopularity could lose Labour the election, loyalty remained paramount.

Maybe politicians are less worried about embarrassing a woman. They certainly lost no time in doing so; Andy Burnham quickly revealed that he had spoken against Harman in a meeting of the shadow cabinet. And no one seemed concerned that forcing Harman into a climbdown would weaken her position within the party or when facing down the government; apparently, she’s weak anyway. Never mind that, more than ever someone with a firm hand is needed to steady the ship and put up a good fight.

None of this bodes well. I sincerely hope that Labour elects a female leader in September, because for the country’s progressive party, it really is about time, and maybe then there will finally be someone putting forward a feminist agenda. But in a week when Liz Kendall had to rebuff a reporter for asking about her weight, the question of how any female leader will be treated looms large. I can only hope that MPs will learn from this episode and show real respect for her authority, rather than undermining it as they have Harman’s. Whether Kendall or Yvette Cooper, she will have earned that right.