The Universal Phenomenon of Men Interrupting Women

By SUSAN CHIRAJUNE 14, 2017

For women in business and beyond, it was an I-told-you-so day.

The twin spectacles Tuesday — an Uber board member’s wisecrack about women talking too much, and Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, being interrupted for the second time in a week by her male colleagues — triggered an outpouring of recognition and what has become almost ritual social-media outrage.

Academic studies and countless anecdotes make it clear that being interrupted, talked over, shut down or penalized for speaking out is nearly a universal experience for women when they are outnumbered by men.

After Arianna Huffington, an Uber director, spoke of how important it was to increase the number of women on the board, David Bonderman said that would mean more talking. He soon resigned from the board. Even in companies without notorious bro-cultures, however, women have had to struggle to feel heard and, as the numbers make clear, to advance to the top.

“I think every woman who has any degree of power and those who don’t knows how it feels to experience what Kamala Harris experienced yesterday,” said Laura R. Walker, the president and chief executive of New York Public Radio. “To be in a situation where you’re trying to do your job and you’re either cut off or ignored.”

Senator Harris, a former prosecutor, assertively questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, interrupted and chided her to let Mr. Sessions answer her questions. Soon after that, Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the committee chairman, cut her off, saying her time had elapsed.

Women in a wide range of industries, at all levels, offered hundreds of such examples in response to an invitation from The New York Times for people to share their personal experiences on Facebook. “I can’t even count the number of times I’ve witnessed a woman being interrupted and talked over by a man, only to hear him later repeat the same ideas she was trying to put forward,” wrote one respondent, Grace Ellis. “I’d say I see this happen … two to three times a week? At least?”

Joyce Lionarons wrote, “My female boss told me she needed to allow each man to interrupt her four times before protesting in a meeting. If she protested more often, there were problems.”

Erica Brown wrote that she has worked for three months as a distiller. Virtually every time she goes to pick up supplies, she said, the staff asked her husband what she needed.

Photo credits: Sylvia and Katharine C

AWG held its annual AG at the palatial conference
room on the ground floor of our clubhouse building.

But before the meeting started, we had lunch!

Noel, Leslie, Orla, Katharine C, Rachel

Mary-Catherine, outgoing AWG President, welcomed everyone, thanked them for their presence, and thanked Rachel for organizing the appetizing lunch of sandwiches (thank you, Orla!) and desserts (thanks to several people) including brownies, cookies and fresh cherries.

M-C thanked Jill and Maquita for their management of the voting desk, which was enhanced by the plaque that honors past presidents.

M-C commented on the spacious room, and requested that in future, we enter the room from the courtyard of the building (not from the entry with the electronic buzz-in by the elevators) - this is a request from the building administrators. The photos submitted by AWG members for the photo greeting-card contest were playing on the big screen behind the voting desk, in a continuous loop, and they were a splendid accompaniment to the presentations. Maggie has developed a slideshow that was planned to be shown, but unfortunately technology defeated us on that score; Maggie will put the slideshow (of key events throughout the AWG year) into a Dropbox file.

M-C welcomed the executives of two of the charities that AWG has supported during 2016-17, as well as Sylvia (ambassador for the Director of Resto Bébés). Each of the three charities receives 250euros. (Resto Bébés has already received baby supplies, sourced by Sylvia who solicited lowest bids from suppliers in the amount of 170 euros). M-C reported that our funds raised for local charities come from the Soup Supper (held at Denise's in February, and supplemented by the sales of the soup recipe booklets from the evening that Maggie has sold so successfully at FAWCO events). Maria's exquisitely-packaged finishing salts were also sold to raise funds. Many thanks for these productive and remunerative fundraising activities.

The Director from La Clé thanked AWG, and told us about the charity, that assists the children (and their families) suffering from cancer and leukaemia; the charity was founded in 1988. M-C presented a check for 250 euros.

The Director from L'Arche thanked AWG for their support, and gave us a brief background on l'Arche, which offers family life to people in 3 different houses, each one housing 8 handicapped people. M-C presented a check for 250 euros.

M-C thanked both Directors for coming and also for their speeches in english, which was very considerate of them - and a first!

Sylvia then spoke on behalf of Resto
Bébés, founded by the comedian Coluche in the 1980s. AWG has supported Resto B for several years, by giving baby supplies and Pampers (for babies up to the age of 18 months). Sylvia can be seen in the photo below (under the middle flag). M-C presented Sylvia with a check for 80 euros, adding to the 170 euros of supplies already purchased. Sylvia's activities, along with Maquita's, have been unfailing and many mothers and babies in our community have been helped by their staunch presence in their lives.
AWG thanks you!

M-C continued her report on the year, and spoke about our fine new office space, enhanced by the availability of a meeting-room adjacent to it, along with the conference room used at this meeting. Another Executive Board retreat took place in 2017, and the Processes & Procedures (P's & P's) that were first developed in 2006, updated in 2011, were again updated in 2017, to reflect the way that AWG operates. These P's&P's, along with the regular activity report, are helpful for future boards and nominating committees.

Mariannick, Treasurer, will give the financial report later in the meeting, but M-C reported that while it had been hard to balance the books in 2016, in this program year we have returned to the black. We have a balanced budget this year, and have been able to increase donations from 400 euros to 750 euros this year.

AWG has entered into a collaboration with the group at the Chateau in Castries, who plan to honor American military personnel involved in WW1, many of whom gave their lives. We are honored guests at the celebrations over the weekend of July 1st/2nd, and we have a dedicated hospitality space at the Chateau for our customary July 4th celebrations on July 2nd, at which we're honored guests. M-C hopes for very strong support for these weekend celebrations (which include a concert by the US Army Jazz combo on Saturday July 1st in the evening). Responses re attendance for these festivities are required by Friday June 23.

M-C thanked the Board for their dedication and service this year - it has been a solid group, and much has been accomplished. This year, rather than presenting gifts to the Board, the President and Board wished to thank every member of AWG for their participation. Maria, Club Secretary, brought gifts for everyone - a herb bouquet comprising lavender, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves - because the Board loves everyone who participates in the club, and that's what makes it work.

M-C then called on Rachel to discuss her year as VP of AWG. Rachel thanked everyone for being so supportive, helping with different activities. Everything fell into place.

Cerese was responsible for external activities. She thanked M-C, and said that we owe her much appreciation, and that our club numbers have gone up by 7 or 8 this year. She noted that in addition to our major AWG events (Thanksgiving, Christmas, July 4th) there were other club-wide events including the rugby tailgate party in november, Kristin D's visit in January at Nelson Mandela-MRI, the x-cultural conference in April and the Golf Challenge in June, which was a big success. These events demonstrated our presence in the community.

Bernadette and Cerese

Cerese also talked about the forthcoming event over July 1/2 at the Chateau in
Castries and Bernadette added to her commentary. A flyer was
distributed.

Maria

Maria said a brief thank you for her time as Secretary to the Board. Maria is responsible for
the finishing salts that we like so much, and also for the herbal gifts to AWG members.

Mariannick gave her Treasurer's Report, with a suitable amount of detail - not too much, not too little, just right! Mariannick, the club thanks you for your service, for your brief report and for making it easy to comprehend. AWG's income minus expenses was 739 euros for the year June 1 through May 31 2017, and funds of 922 euros are earmarked for next year. Mariannick listed the specific and general fundraising activities.

Mariannick delivering the Treasurer's report, while Jill and Maquita managed the voting station. M-C is standing by AWG's spectacular new banner

Activity Chairs spoke about their various activities:
Book Group: Katharine J spoke on Karen's behalf, and also noted that recent meetings have been held at Rosie's home.
Coffee Chat: normally about 6 people present, we have a nice visit together, and this will continue at the Mercure (Cerese). Added to which, we now have Afternoon Tea at the clubhouse (managed by Genette and Sue Rou) on a monthly basis.

M-C announced that Denise has retired as editor of our monthly Flamingo Forum (with some issues edited by Jane) and the June edition is her last.
In Denise's absence, Orla discussed Cook&Eat over this year; there have been 5 meetings, with a vegetarian theme for four of them at Denise's, the last one being an Indonesian feast; one was at Orla's. Denise would like to continue as Chair,and thinks of Mexican and Lebanese themes. Both Michael Elizabeth and Bernadette have offered to host a C&E session (Bernadette would focus on food from La Réunion). These offers of additional hosts are welcome, since it is a big effort to manage C&E (shop,prep, cook, clean one's house).

Membership chair Sue Rey and Garden & Nature Chair Sue Rich

Garden and Nature: Sue Rich spoke about the 4 events, the most successful was the outing to the Pont du Gard. Four to five events/year are about right. Sue also made the suggestion that Garden and Nature group could work in some time on the finishing salts fundraising efforts.
Outings: Jan has resigned as coordinator, and hopes someone will take the lead on this. Her travel schedule disallows her from continuing as coordinator.
Walking: Mariannick leads this activity, a small and friendly group, enhanced by members from BCA and FOAL. She is happy to lead walks in response to members' suggestions, and the date can be changed (even to saturdays) if that is requested.
Writers' Bloc: Jan reported on Pam's behalf (Pam is the coordinator). The group is happy to include new people (currently about 8 - 10 people). Each member writes on a given subject each month and there is no criticism as part of this activity. Contact Pam for further information.
Scriveners: Katharine C has resigned as Editor, after managing Scriveners for 8 years. A search is on for a new Editor.
MOOCs: Katharine C is the coordinator of this group, which meets to discuss the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). The group is not a study group, but draws on individual members' experiences with their chosen courses. Contact her for further information

FAWCO: Orla has been delighted to be our FAWCO Rep for the last year, and stepped in after Maggie's very successful term of office over the prior three years. Her goals have been to highlight FAWCO, provide links to FAWCO's website to drive AWG member traffic to the site (which she reinforced again today). Fundraising activities have included the Thanksgiving raffle (which raised 350 euros). Normally, raffle funds raised go toward sending AWG's Rep to the conference, but given the expense of the Mumbai conference (2000euro+), Orla advised the Board that in lieu of her participation at the Mumbai conference, the funds raised should be rolled over to 2018 (by adding in subs, this amounts to 922 euros). Two AWG members - Linda and Maggie - were in Mumbai, and all the conference proceeds were online. Next year's conference will be in the Hague, and it may be possible for the club to send two AWG members. Orla held a quiz evening in aid of the FAWCO Target Project that focuses on education and girls, and the amount of 425 euros was raised.

Voting: Maquita announced the results of the voting for our new President and Board, and kept us all in suspense as she recounted the votes for each individual - 36 votes for every one. Our new Board is: President: Rachel; Vice President: Noel; Secretary: Gretchen; Treasurer: Mariannick.

Mary-Catherine passed the baton to Rachel, along with the P's&P's binder, as well as the pewter jewelry box given to the AWG President by the US Ambassador to France in 2007, which is handed down from President to President.

And here's our new Board:

Rachel, Noel, Mariannick, Gretchen

Those present for the AG were:

Jill, Sylvia, Mariannick, Maria, Michael Elizabeth, Maquita, Noel, Rachel, Mary-Catherine, Orla, Leslie dPF, Katharine J, Sonya, Bernadette, Jane, Gretchen, Michael Elizabeth, Susan Rey, Sue Rich, Jan, Maria, Dora, Maggie, Cerese, Katharine C.