Imagine you’re sitting around a conference table discussing a topic you know inside and out, only to be interrupted by a male colleague who then takes over the conversation using essentially the same information you were in the middle of presenting in the first place.
In many workplaces, this condescending behavior is common. It’s become so common, in fact, that it has a name: Mansplaining. The term, first popularized by Rebecca Solnit in her 2008 essay, Men Explain Things to Me, is a portmanteau blending “man” and “explain” that refers to a man providing an unrequested explanation to a woman, often in a condescending tone or interruption.
And new research shows it has a profound impact on women in the workplace, and often leads to stunted career opportunities.
“Results demonstrated that when faced with condescending explanation, voice nonrecognition or interruption, women reacted more negatively and were more likely to see the behavior as indicative of gender bias when the communicator was a man,” the study found.
For the study, Michigan State and Colorado State University researchers Caitlin Briggs, Danielle Gardner and Ann Marie Ryan conducted three studies to determine how men and women react differently to condescending communication.
In the first study, 128 participants were asked to entertain a hypothetical situation in which they had been appointed to a committee charged with allocating bonus funds to deserving employees. Participants then each entered a meeting with two actors, one of whom questioned each participant on whether they understood the task by mansplaining the task at hand.
Women were found to be less likely to work with a mansplainer again than men, who were found to be relatively unmoved by interruptions and condescending conversations. Women were found to have negative reactions like discomfort to mansplaining, sometimes even questioning their own competency.
Even in high-performing women, this can lead to lowering their own self-evaluations on tasks, thus affecting their chances to earn more money. It can also lead to being passed up for promotions, since women are less likely to promote their successes.
Meanwhile, according to the study, women are actively avoiding certain male co-workers in order to avoid mansplaining, which in itself may “impact productively, limit professional networks and inhibit career progression.”
According to a recent article in The HR Digest, a trade publication for human resource professionals, the best way to deal with a mansplainer in the office is to speak up. Most of the time, the article states, these male co-workers have no idea what they’re doing wrong.
“You can start by telling them what they are doing,” the article suggests. “You can say, ‘Mr. A., you are mansplaining to me.’ Then, from this point, we are pretty sure he might not have an idea of the meaning of what you just said. Go ahead and educate him.”