Mansplaining is something that plagues the lives of all women. On the surface it may seem superficial and lacking importance, but beneath the surface it reinstates the very power hierarchy that weaves together today’s society, and playing it down only adds to the censorship of women globally. 

I think all of us can agree we’ve experienced some form of mansplaining throughout our lives, probably one too many times. It’s something etched into the collective experience of being a woman. In light of this let me ironically define the term mansplaining: ‘of a man: to explain something to a woman in a condescending way that assumes she has no knowledge about the topic’.

Image: Sally on site

Mansplaining: Sally’s experience

Having a man assume your knowledge just based on your gender can be infuriating and something which is almost omnipresent across male dominated fields. This is the case for Sally Lockwood, the founding partner of Generating Better, an offshore wind consultancy, who was invited to attend an event during COP26 in Glasgow about the de-carbonisation of offshore wind vessels due to her expertise and long history in the industry.  

These types of events are usually male dominated, but this one particularly, which in her words was “on steroids”. Sally was one of two women out of 60-70 people there. 

“I went up to the model [vessel] and there was a guy standing there, and I said: I can see that this is a hydrogen powered crew transfer vessel, can you tell me a little more about it? So I used all the right terminology,” she says

“He didn’t know that I’ve operated wind farms before, or that I’d actually worked with this company as a supplier and been on their vessels.”

“But he didn’t start by asking me who I was, instead he spoke really slowly, telling me it was a crew transfer vessel and so on, something I’d already said,” she adds.

Throughout the event Sally already felt like a minority, despite having more than the credentials needed to be there, 20 years to be exact.

“It was the speed at which he spoke, it was like he was talking to a small child, I felt really talked down to and belittled – I felt it in my body,” she continues.

“I don’t normally feel angry, but I felt really angry that his natural assumption was that I knew absolutely nothing, and yet I’d been invited along, I’d been on one of those boats and I’ve been in the industry probably as long as anyone.” 

“This particular event stands out because I found it massively offensive, but I’ve probably tolerated low grade mansplaining and assumptions my whole career.”

How does this erode democracy? 

Mansplaining has been identified as individually and epistemically harmful, with it also being extended to the erosion of democracy, and therefore a wider and shared societal harm beyond just the victim of such mansplaining. Democracy takes forms in many environments, political, the working world and education systems – underpinning the core of many nations globally. Democracy should be a culture of vibrancy, representation, equality and inclusion, yet mansplaining is still a tool fostered by elite males especially within the political sphere to dominate the narrative and silence the voice of women. 

On the global stage there is also a plethora of examples, a notable one being in 2022 when then British Conservative Leader Liz Truss was interrupted 20 times, within the first 12 minutes of the debate, something which sparked widespread public debate. She was routinely prevented from making her points even despite parliament increasing their gender representation, with the percentage of women above 30% at this time (still very far from equal).

By silencing and excluding a woman’s voice, the capacity of her knowledge and expertise is limited and unable to reach the wider public, which not only harms her by silencing her, it also harms the public. The knowledge and the experience in which she speaks from is censored from the conversation, which further embeds an injustice for the minority of women in which her experience may draw parallels to. An experience and positionality which is not heard.

Democracy which is known to be the ‘rule of the people’ and subsequently ‘owned by the people’ can therefore fall into an echo-chamber of the mansplainer within the political sphere and other male dominated environments. This is because the status and positionality of privileged men are naturally recognised, heard and celebrated by patriarchal and hegemonic structures. Not only is mansplaining a matter of womens censorship, it’s also a signifier and intensifier of democratic inequality.