Men interrupting women isn’t a problem confined just to debate stages—it also happens on the Supreme Court. According to the Harvard Business Review, 65.9% of all interruptions on the Supreme Court were directed at Justices Ginsberg, Kagan, and Sotomayor. And it’s not just the male justices who are at fault—male advocates do it as well. Female justices are also more likely to frame their questions more politely earlier in their tenure, which the HBR says “provides an opportunity for another justice to jump in before the speaker gets to the substance of her question.” Manterruption also happens in the workplace, in everyday conversations, even in class discussions.
So what can we, as a society, and as a campus, do about it? There’s the usual approach—that of telling women to simply assert themselves—but that’s simply not enough to restructure a sexist space into a more equal one. Part of the work must also be done by those in power. On campus, that means professors and TAs have to be a part of the solution themselves. Enforcing no-interruption policies in class discussions would be a great start—if figures of authority express public disapproval of a practice, that practice is, at least in some measure, delegitimized. Parents can teach their male children not to talk over the women in their lives, and their female children that they’re worth listening to. Employers can call out their male employees when they interrupt—and if those employers are male themselves, they must acknowledge their own complicity in the problem. Equality can’t be achieved via a single Women’s March or a single speech given by a leader—it requires a constant conversation, but that conversation can’t be had effectively if the people most affected by it are crowded out before it even starts. Manterruptions, as silly as they may sound, are a significant part of the larger problem, and they too must be addressed.
1 Comment
11/12/2018 05:24:18 pm
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