The Number One Thing Women Hate About Men

Every year, more and more surveys confirm the number one pet peeve women have regarding male company.The scientific community has unilaterally confirmed that the thing women hate the most is being interrupted. Whether it’s in their business or personal life, women find that most of their conversations are dominated by men.

A recent Princeton study, which you can read here, led by Chris Karpowitz found that in an evenly mixed group of business men and women, men will dominate the discussions, taking up 75 percent of the speaking time.

These deliberations deal with the entirety of the company, yet the voice of women accounts for only 25 percent. Though women are making strides towards equality in the private sector, the Princeton study demonstrates that while some inequalities like the wage gap and CEO representation can be easily seen and tracked, small yet equally important issues like agency during meetings is difficult to account for and battle. If the female voice is underrepresented in the modern workforce, that leads to business models built in line with male ideals, so while interrupting a female coworker may not seem like a major concern, the larger ramifications are worrisome.

The discrepancy between male/female representation is also present in the classroom.

A 2004 study on students at Harvard Law found that men are 144 percent more likely to voluntarily speak three times during a class session and 50 percent more likely to raise their hand. Often this behavior is attributed to the ideal of politeness that is disproportionately applied to women. The “virtues” of sitting quietly and not speaking out of turn lead to a generation of female students who are unwilling to voice their opinions, even when it would help the class discussion. In contrast, men relish the opportunity to demonstrate their speaking and thinking skills, and thus fill the silence with their own thoughts.

In social media, although women make up 62% of the user base, men are retweeted twice as often. This means that a disproportionate amount of male voices are heard on twitter, despite women’s clear majority. Social media is where opinions and observances are shared with the world, so if twice as many men’s are being circulated, that means that popular opinion will have a noticeable slant towards the male point of view.

All this goes to show a real issue in the current state of women’s disenfranchisement. Whether it’s at work, school, or even home on twitter, men dominate the conversation. Ask any female friend about mansplaining and you’ll hear many anecdotes about being interrupted, cut-off or straight up ignored so that a nearby man could inject a fact or even worse, tell the same story his way (“You weren’t telling it fast enough!”).

So how do we eliminate this annoyance and save countless women from making silent (or audible) groans several times a day. Well, it’s not hard since the same rules that stop mansplaining happen to be the basic instructions to being a good listener.

1. Listen to what the women around you are saying, don’t thing of what you’re going to say next.
2. Let her discuss a topic without interjecting unless it’s absolutely necessary, and even if it is necessary, you can still wait until she’s done.
3. Actively strive towards making sure the conversation is balanced and you’re not just speaking to the other guys in the group.
4. Never start a sentence with “Actually…”

These four tips can do wonders for not only the mental health of your female coworkers and friends, but may actually help you hear a perspective (the female one) that all too often is left at the wayside. Although it may be tough at first, a little silence might be just the thing to impress the women around you and fight a major injustice in the world today.