"Mansplaining is a pejorative term meaning (usually a man) to explain something to a (usually) a woman in a condescending, overconfident, and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner without regard to her own expertise."

From LinkedIn




Oh dear!

Please feel free - on the Coffee Shop, or in my various posts on Facebook, to explain things. Sure, I may know already, but I may not. And your answers are not just for me - they are for the other members and guests too, and further clarification can help those other readers so much, as well as giving me an opportunity to clarify.

On the "Gender" thing - I was in the computer science / IT business when it was predominantly a male preserve.  My course of about 50 undergrads included only 4 women, and on industrial and work placements, the women were the "punch girls" who did the data prep from coding sheets into punched cards and paper tape. I joined Tektronix after Uni, taking the role of software support for the British Isles, supporting 12 salesmen and perhaps the same number of hardware engineers who helped with installations; the hardware engineers were all men too.

I recall being asked by one of our salesmen to phone David Jennings, the technical director of a startup in Cambridge to go through his graphic terminal requirement and re-assure him that our product was an excellent fit for him.  Phone rang, and answered by a female voice; I asked for David - "sorry, he's not in the office - can I help".  "I've been specifically asked to speak with David, but maybe" and the lady was very clearly aware of the project and its technical needs, even if she was (wo)manning the phones.  Conversation concluded with the me knowing this lady understood how our product fitted in.  To conclude - report back to our salesman, I ask "Can I tell Brian who I've spoke to".  "Oh - I'm Julie Blackwell". "And what's your position?".  "I'm the Managing Director".

It was very much that way - the few women who were around / made it into the normally-male roles were breathtakingly good - they had to be to get there.  When Lorraine joined the sales team, her colleagues were scoffing and suggesting she wouldn't last. Whenever I went on site to support her, I got ribald comments from certain other salesmen about her needing help, even though I spent just as much time with many of her male colleagues.

The software support role was unique in that it was both pre- and post-sales, and also it was regarded as not being totally a man's preserve.  Indeed, my predecessor who was promoted to support other products was a lady. And, my goodness, going out on site - often to help a crusty old professor researching at ab university, I got a sad look and "where's the nice Canadian Girl?" to which the answer was "sorry -  you've got me" and I could see there disappointment.  I suspect that at I was about the same age as some of their students, they had no faith that I had the experience to do the job, but I don't recall any problems left unfixed on first visit.  It's not age, it's not gender, and I didn't mind having thing manspalined to me based on my age.  The very act of mansplaining helps the person being explained to come learn about the explainers - what they're thinking, and often helped point to the solution to the problem.

 
Throughout my long and varied career, my best boss ever was a lady called Liesl. She was an engineer, not a geologist, and deferred to my knowledge on that subject - but what a boss! She managed the team - Both up and down (the former being the most important!) and all worked like a well oiled machine.  Great boss - RIP Liesl.

Sadly, she died doing the one, and only, thing unique to her sex - childbirth. A real tragedy for everyone, especially her family.