I am Woman - The glass ceiling shimmers brightly still

Today I was in a casual conversation with two male colleagues, one considerably older the other.

Man 1 - let's call him Hottie, because he is - told a story about some ridiculously athletic and energetic vacation activity. I began to tell the story of something related to that when Man 2 - let's call him Old Fart, because he is - interrupted me.

I got so mad I didn't say anything for the rest of the conversation, and just started to watch what was happening.

Hottie made eye contact with me and made reference to me when he spoke. Old Fart did the opposite. After the interruption, he did not glance my way at all for the rest of the ten or so minutes we were together.

Men interrupt women more than the other way round in mixed-sex conversations. Women ask almost three times as many questions in mixed-sex conversations as men. If a man and a women are talking, men talk longer than women.

Think I am spouting a bunch of crap? Sorry ol' chum, there's research to back me up:

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=286

 

Zimmerman & West (1975) and West & Fenstermaker (1993) investigated mixed-gender conversations and linguistic inequality in gender-specific styles. Thirty-one conversations were taped in public places such as libraries, coffee shops, drug stores and the University of California. The data were composed of eleven mixed-gender conversations, ten male-only and ten female-only conversations.

The findings indicated significant differences between same-gender pairs and mixed-gender pairs regarding the use of overlaps and interruptions.

Overlaps were defined as an act of anticipating the end of a sentence spoken by an interlocutor while articulating it with a topic-related response. An interruption, on the other hand, was considered as a violation of turn-taking rules whereby topical disarticulation is flagrant.

Results showed that all the overlaps were caused by male speakers and that 96% of the interruptions resulted from men interrupting women. Interestingly, men rarely interrupted each other, primarily using interruptions when speaking to women. Women used fewer overlaps with men than with women due to the fact that men tended to perceive overlaps as interruptions: "Male interruptions of women bring less social punishment than female interruptions of men" (Steinem, 1991).

Zimmerman & West (1975) and West & Fenstermaker (1993) observed that in mixed-gender conversations men tended to infringe on women's right to speak. As a result of male interruptions, the same study indicated that women tended to be more silent than men. Silence periods in single-gender pairs averaged 1.35 seconds, while they averaged 3.21 seconds in mixed-gender groups. Interestingly, the illocutionary act of silence was also defined as clearly gender-specific.

Females have been observed to fall silent after male interruptions, indicating their powerlessness, while males primarily used silence preceding minimal responses such as yeah, indicating, according to Zimmerman & West (1975) and West & Fenstermaker (1993), a lack of interest in the interlocutor's topic, denying women the right to control the topic of conversation.

West (1984) has shown that male interruptions apply even when females have a higher social status. Her study was conducted among male and female doctors interacting with patients: "Whereas male physicians (as a group) initiated 67% of all interruptions relative to their patients' 33%, female physicians (as a group) initiated only 32% of interruptions relative to their patients' 68%" (West, 1984, p. 92)

I heard of one writer who theorized that an organization was a collection of conversations. If women are constantly interrupted and subordinated in conversation, what chance do we have within the organization? The Glass Ceiling isn't just salaries and bonuses, it's not making ourselves heard every day, in all those little conversations, discussions, meetings.

Unfortunately for me I did a little side course in Women's Studies led by an ardent feminist back when I was at university, and it opened my eyes to things which, were I still in blissful ignorance, probably wouldn't bother me.

So, not only did I let Old Fart interrupt me, and then fall silent like a willing subordinate, but I knew I was doing it.

WTF?!?!?!?

I am going to go to my room and flagellate myself now.