Feingold, L. et al.
Speaking at a symposium on Gender and Social Psychology, sociology graduate student Evan Fanshaw shared findings from his recent research paper, Men Much More Likely To Explain Things That Are Obvious, Especially When Speaking To Women, to an audience comprised entirely of female researchers.
“That is to say, men often spell things out even when they are very clear,” he continued, as women in the audience yawned and checked the time.
Fanshaw continued to illustrate his point by saying, “for example, a man may explain jargon women are likely already familiar with based on their educational background – jargon is specific language that is used in a particular field,” he told the assembly of graduate-level educated women.
“It seems that many men tend to underestimate the experience level of women, possibly due to an implicit bias against them,” lectured Fanshaw. “An implicit bias is an unconscious belief someone might hold against a particular group,” he explained Fanshaw, defining a basic concept of social psychology to the group of women who had gathered together because of their shared specialization in the field.
“Does anyone have any questions? I know that sometimes I am not always clear enough, and these ideas aren’t easy to understand,” he asked as many audience members screamed quietly into their symposium schedules.
Fanshaw’s next talk is tomorrow at the panel Misogyny in STEM; The Lived Experience.
