How Men Unwittingly Display Disrespect to Female Colleagues at Work — And Some Suggestions on How to Fix This Problem

By Charles Huddleston

Charles has more than 40 years of experience trying cases in federal and state courts and has helped clients win multimillion-dollar jury verdicts and has obtained defense verdicts or summary judgments when defending clients. He has been recognized by Georgia Super Lawyers and Georgia Legal Elite and litigates commercial, employment, election, and zoning disputes, drafts employment agreements and restrictive covenants, and conducts training on preventing discrimination and harassment and managing diversity. In addition, Charles has experience representing companies before governmental agencies.

Most men, including most male lawyers and judges, suffer from a hidden disease (assumed male dominance) that manifests itself in three ways during group conversations that are blatantly sexist and often make their female colleagues feel disrespected and relegated to a secondary status. But, sadly, most men are not even aware that this disease has infected them, so here is a checklist to see if you may suffer from any of the three symptomatic behaviors of this disease, plus some suggested “cures” for this widespread disease.

Manterruptions

This is when a man cannot stop himself from constantly interrupting women when they are talking. It has been found to thrive at even the highest and most formal levels of our own legal profession. In a 2017 empirical study of 15 years of transcripts of U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments, it was determined that male justices interrupted female justices three times as often as they interrupted their male colleagues on the Court during oral arguments. And despite rules mandating that advocates should stop speaking immediately when a justice starts to speak, some male advocates did interrupt justices from time to time (usually a female justice), but no female advocates did so.

Possible Cures: Men need to learn to check themselves and try to focus on listening and waiting for a female speaker to fully complete her statement before responding or adding their own thoughts. In addition, men who are aware of this spread of unwanted manterruptions can become a true “ally” with their female colleagues by calling out male colleagues who interrupt their female colleagues with comments like, “Joe, let’s let Susan finish her thought.” Our female colleagues should also feel empowered and respected enough to say “Excuse me, Joe, but I was not finished.” But, that is harder to do if the male interrupter is of higher rank or perceived to be more powerful than the female speaker. In addition, if the meeting or conversation has someone serving in the role of its chair, moderator, or convenor, that person should exercise their power by stopping the interruption, gently, and saying, “Joe, let’s let Sue finish what she was saying, as I don’t think she was done.”

In regard to the empirical study of the manterruptions that were prevalent at the Supreme Court over a 15-year period, observers have reported that after the study was discussed in publications like the Harvard Business Review, the male justices must have taken note, because the number of times they interrupted a female justice dropped considerably. In addition, over time, the female justices learned to not begin their questions with prefatory words like “May I ask,” “Can I ask,” “Excuse me,” or by first stating the advocate’s name, as these lead-in comments seemed to provide an opportunity for another justice, typically a male, to jump in before the female justice got to the actual substance of her question. Maybe our female colleagues could also benefit from not being polite in the beginning of their comments, if they often use such prefatory remarks, and instead speak with substance from the beginning of their comments.

Mansplanations

This is when a man feels like he must explain what a female colleague just said, even though she is fully capable of answering any questions that others may have herself, and no one has yet asked her for any clarification. Men, if you think a comment by a female colleague was unclear as stated, maybe you need simply ask the female speaker a question as opposed to taking control over the meaning of what she said by volunteering to explain it.

Cures: Men should not assume they are the only person who understood what a female colleague just said because they believe she did not state her thoughts clearly enough. Men should either wait to see if the additional discussion indicates some lack of understanding. And, if it does, men can then ask the female speaker a question to clarify because asking her the question leaves her in control of her statement and its further clarification and prevents you, as a male, from adding your own interpretation of her statement, which could deviate from her intended meaning.

Bropropriations

This is the worst of the three symptoms, and it occurs when a woman states an idea early in the group’s conversation, but no one seems to want to support her idea so it gets dropped. But later in the group discussion, a man basically repeats the same idea, and his mention of the same idea generates immediate positive feedback. And then he begins to receive, and he gladly accepts, the sole credit for generating the idea, even though it was first floated by his female colleague.

When this occurs, the man who repeats the woman’s original idea should immediately correct anyone’s attempt to credit him as the sole generator by saying something like: “Let’s remember I was not the person who first thought of this solution, it was Sue. I just brought it up again for further discussion.” But if the Bropropriator himself appears to be totally willing to take the sole credit for the idea even though it was previously expressed by a female colleague, other participants (regardless of gender) in the conversation should jump in to remind him and the group of that fact by saying, “Joe, I am sure you remember that that idea was first put on the table by Sue, so let’s not forget the source.”

Be an Ally: Help Level the Playing Field for Our Female Colleagues

These three male habits of often unconscious male dominance, namely Manterruptions, Mansplanations, and Bropropriations, have been with us for a long time, and most men don’t realize when they are guilty of these sexist traits. So, men, let’s try to be more aware and stop committing these three habits at the expense of our female colleagues. And, when called for, let’s also be willing to step up and become a true ally for our female colleagues by correcting our male colleagues when these problems happen in front of us. 

International Files continued from page 19

UNIDROIT is the Cape Town Convention System, one of the most successful commercial law systems. It is set up to enhance security for acquiring and financing high-value equipment. It presently has over 80 contracting states and the European Union. The Cape Town Convention is probably the most important commercial treaty law of the past 50 years.

Law & Technology11

With the increasing impact of technology in international commerce, the advent of block chain, and the inheritance of digital properties, UNIDROIT has been under pressure by member states to develop a model law for these issues. Furthermore, several UNIDROIT member states have sent proposals for developing a model law. However, this is a work in progress. 

Endnotes

1UNIDROIT website/home/instrument, https://www.unidroit. org/instruments/, Depository Function of Unidroit, MAC Protocol, https://www.unidroit.org/instruments/security-interests/macprotocol/depositary/

2UNIDROIT website/Overview/working Methods, https://www. unidroit.org/about-unidroit/overview/.

32012 Annual Meeting of the American Association Of Private International Law (LIMA, 8-10 November 2012) https://www.unidroit. org/?s=cooperation+with+other+international+organization.

4UNIDROIT Law International Fund for Agricultural Development Rome, 2021, https://www.unidroit.org/wp-content/ uploads/2021/10/ALICGuidehy.pdf , UNIDROIT, FAO, and IFAD. 2015. UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming. https://www.unidroit.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Contractfarming-legal-guide.pdf.

5Geneva Convention UNIDROIT Convention on Substantive Rules for Intermediated Securities, https://www.unidroit.org/

Thought Sponsor continued from page 21

15Id.

16Id.

17Id. at § 6.

18Id. at § 3.

19Tex. Ins. Code § 221.002(a).

20Id.

21Tex. Ins. Code § 221.002(b).

22Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Accession No. 202202021H, SOAH Docket Nos. 304-21-3340.72, 304-21-3341.71, CPA Hearing Nos. 117,378, 117,379 (Feb. 25, 2022). 23 instruments/capital-markets/geneva-convention/, UNIDROIT Legislative Guide on Intermediated Securities, Implementing the Principles and Rules of the Geneva Securities Convention, https:// www.unidroit.org/instruments/capital-markets/legislative-guide/ 6ALI/UNIDROIT Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure, © 2006 The American Law Institute and UNIDROIT, https://www. unidroit.org/instruments/civil-procedure/ali-unidroit-principles/. 7Tripartite Legal Guide to Uniform Legal Instruments in the Area of International Commercial Contracts (With a Focus on Sales), 2016, https://www.unidroit.org/instruments/commercial-contracts/ tripartite-legal-guide/; Unidroit Principles of International, Commercial Contracts, 2016, https://www.unidroit.org/ instruments/commercial-contracts/unidroit-principles-2016/;

UPICC Model Clauses, Model Clauses for the Use of the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2021, https:// www.unidroit.org/instruments/commercial-contracts/upicc-modelclauses/; Principles on Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts, (approved on Mar. 19, 2015), https://www.hcch.net/de/ instruments/conventions/full-text/?cid=135

8Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (Rome, June 24, 1995) https://www.unidroit.org/ instruments/cultural-property/1995-convention/; Texts - Unesco - Unidroit Model Legislative Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects (2011), https://www.unidroit.org/ instruments/cultural-property/2012-model-provisions/.

9Unidroit Convention on International Factoring (Ottawa, May 28, 1988), https://www.unidroit.org/instruments/factoring/.

10Secured Transactions, Unidroit Work and Instruments in the Area of Secured Transactions 2021, https://www.unidroit.org/securedtransactions/.

11Unidroit Work and Instruments in the Area of Law & Technology, 2015-2018, https://www.unidroit.org/law-technology/; Digital Assets and Private Law, https://www.unidroit.org/work-inprogress/digital-assets-and-private-law/.

47th Annual Tax Law Conference

March 3, 2023 • Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, D.C.

March 6–7, 2023 • Virtual Broadcast www.fedbar.org/event/taxlaw23

Join the Section on Taxation for the 47th Annual Tax Law Conference in March. This newly formatted two-day program will offer the same great content in-person and online. Programming will be held exclusively in-person on March 3 and exclusively virtually on March 6–7.

Examine important tax developments and emerging policy issues in over 15 educational sessions featuring notable speakers from the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury Department, and Congress. Programming will include a keynote address and awards presentation for the prestigious Kenneth H. Liles Award for Distinguished Service to an eminent tax practitioner.

Registration

FULL PACKAGE

Includes access to Friday (In-Person), Monday (Virtual), Tuesday (Virtual)

$400 Sustaining Member

$425 Member

IN-PERSON PACKAGE

Includes access to Friday (In-Person) $285 Sustaining Member

Daily Preview

Friday

5 General Sessions

Including Legislative Update and Ethics Panel

Monday

Hot Topic Track

International Track

Tuesday

Corporate Track

Practice & Procedure Track

More panel information posted online!

VIRTUAL PACKAGE

Includes access to Monday (Virtual), Tuesday (Virtual)

Member