Women have been subject to a lot of mansplaining over the years. What is mansplaining? Mansplaining is when a man tries to explain something to women in a child-like way. These are often things the women fully understand already. Basically, when a man tries to explain something to a woman that really didn’t need any explanation. Here are 35 times that women got mansplained while at work. Some of them may leave you in shock.
Explaining Someone’s Own Idea to Them
This young woman got the privileged opportunity of collaborating with her boss on a project. Unfortunately, they ran into a problem. No issue to this young lady, she came up with a solution all on her own and pitched it to her boss. It takes a motivated employee to take huge problems upon themselves and come up with solutions.
Her boss loved the idea and decided to push forward with it. But in a later meeting, he decided to explain the young woman’s idea to her, and proceeded to ask if she understood. Of course, she did, she was the one that came up with the idea. This is a wonderful example of how to mansplain, or rather how not to.
Explaining to an Expert How They Should Do Their Job
This woman worked as a watch advisor and had just made a sale to a young gentleman. Upon buying the product, he proceeded to tell her how to set it up. Strangely, it didn’t come to his mind that a watch expert might already know how to do that.
But she got her own back when he came in thinking his watch was faulty a few days later. It wouldn't work and he couldn’t understand why. She was able to put this man in his place and explain to him how to set up his watch correctly. We hope he walked out of the shop with his tail between his legs and learned an important lesson - there’s no need for mansplaining, especially when you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Maybe Society Is Out of Order
It’s funny how often when a woman says something, a man feels the need to confirm it for himself. In this case, the lady’s co-worker seemed to have little to no faith in the opinions of a woman, or at least in the opinions of this woman.
Apparently, even the sign she made was inadequate. Or did he simply not see it at all. Women often feel overlooked in society and this would be a prime example of why they sometimes feel that way. It’s almost as if this lady didn't exist, as the man was going to do her job for her anyway, even if she was able to make accurate deductions about the tumble dryer.
A Hard Fact to Grapple With
When your job is to create video games, whether you are a man or a woman, you get the opportunity to learn about many very interesting things. In this scenario, the lady knew a lot about the game she was making and had even developed parts of the game all by herself.
When her colleague persistently tried to show her how a grappling hook worked, she proceeded to continually tell him she knew how it worked. But in a way that every mansplainer does, this man explained to this woman how to do a job she’d already done. Congrats!
Important Documents Mansplained
This woman was asked to write the procedure manuals for her company, an honor for any employee. She spent quite some time speaking to the legal team and researching how she was going to tackle this task.
So you can imagine it came as quite a surprise when one of the men that had been newly hired at the company started mansplaining her the procedures and policies she had written herself. He had a lot less experience than she had and had done a lot less research. Some men’s ability to mansplain for no reason is absolutely baffling.
Mansplaining Without Any Experience
This woman was mansplained by someone who had a lot less experience than herself. In fact, it was someone that had no experience at all on the given topic. This is not only insulting to the woman in question, but to women everywhere.
The lady had two degrees, one from Germany and one from the US, as well as attending high school in both countries. So you can see how it was a little insulting when someone from the UK tried to educate her about the difference between US and German schooling.
Quizzing Someone Just Because They’re a Female
When someone is talented, you don’t need to quiz them about their work, assuming they have no idea what they’re doing. All you need to do is simply praise their work and move along. This man, like many others, had no idea how to do just that.
After insulting the artist by asking her if she even knew from where her artwork originated, he went on to make things even more awkward. Asking someone whether they know what a sketchpad is, is terribly insulting, especially when that person is clearly an artist. This guy needs to get a grip.
Generalizing Gender Roles
When this electrician visited a store to fix something, he wasn’t assuming he’d be working under the supervision of a female manager. Clearly, this was a problem for him. He then went on to belittle the manager by explaining what a light bulb was to her.
Her male co-worker saw this all happening and stepped in, sarcastically explaining to her what a light bulb was in an even funnier way. This upset the electrician who realized he’d been caught out in his sexist ways. It seems like he won’t be called around there anytime soon.
Being a Woman Working in a Male-Dominated Industry
Being a woman in a male-dominated industry can be incredibly hard. Especially when you become the victim of mansplaining, not alone, but in the middle of a company conference. As if being mansplained wasn’t humiliation enough!
As someone working in the industry for some time, it’s unbelievable that the boss thought this woman hadn’t come across acetone before. In fact, most women are aware of what acetone does no matter what industry they’re in. This man was just blatantly ignorant and decided to treat his employee like a child.
Another Unnecessary and Wrong Mansplaination
This is yet another example of someone that chose the wrong audience. Not only did he decide to try and prove a qualified professional wrong, but he told her that she didn’t know her own anatomy. Not a great way to make an impression.
This nurse may have a difficult job - teaching the future doctors of the world. But it must have been completely humiliating being told you’re wrong by someone that is not even qualified. Especially when they are clearly wrong. Let’s hope one of his fellow students decided to put him in his place.
Technical Difficulties Aren’t Gender Related
Some people might never understand this, but technical difficulties are not gender-related, although this one fine customer thought they might be. He thought he would lend an unhelpful hand when he saw that the computer was being slow.
Unfortunately for him, the computer does not discriminate. So when he tried exactly what the female teller had done to try and speed up the process, it did not respond. Surprise, surprise. This man needs to learn to stay in his lane.
Keep Your Eyes Open
When you’re mansplaining, remember to keep your eyes open and your ears peeled. Because someone might already be capable of doing the thing you are trying to explain to them, while you are talking to them.
Imagine having 15 years of experience in the pastry industry and having someone try to explain to you how to make a basic icing rose. It’s slightly insulting, to say the least. And then have that same person offer to teach you how to make bread, I mean, even the layman can make bread!
Trust the People You’ve Hired
If you hired someone with years of experience, you can rest assured that they know what they are doing, whether they are a male or a female. Nobody should have to tell you that there’s no need to explain the most basic principles of their job to them.
This man clearly had no faith in the education system or no faith in female accountants. The fact that he felt the need to mansplain debit and credit to an accountant is simply appalling. In fact, most people know the difference between debit and credit, whether they are an accountant or not.
Mansplained to the Mansplainer
Apart from being condescending, this boss was blatantly rude and had no faith in his employee’s ability to do their job. Clearly, this woman knew what she was talking about, but unfortunately, she was put through the torture of having something mansplained to her.
Although she got her revenge when she got the insurance company to call her boss and mansplain the situation back to him. What he was requesting was just not possible. His employee had told him this, but as he did not believe her, she had to go to great lengths to prove it to him.
Studying for Years to Have Your Job Mansplained
If there’s one thing we can all be certain of, it’s that people that study medicine know what they’re talking about when it comes to the human body. At least a hell of a lot more than the rest of us anyway.
This gentleman was having his blood taken, and felt the need to point out that his nurse needed to stick the needle in his vein. We’re not sure where he thought she was going to put it, but the imagination runs wild. Some people really don’t think before they speak, and this is a prime example of one such individual.
Don’t Think You Know Everything
You’d think this marketing team would have realized that they had untapped access to a prime example of their target audience. But did they take advantage of it? No sir! Instead, they thought they knew best, and mansplained their way through a marketing meeting.
Instead of taking a millennial woman’s ideas and points of view into account, they decided to completely ignore her. But it was to their own detriment. Instead of creating a successful marketing campaign, they lost their company thousands of dollars. Great work team!
Be Careful What You Give Advice About
We can’t all be experts at everything. But when giving advice, it’s best to consider how much you know about the topic before opening your mouth. This was certainly the case for this group of colleagues.
The man tried to make suggestions about feminine hygiene products, but when questioned about his comments, he knew nothing. It was clear that he never should have said anything in the first place. This discussion could have stayed between the two female colleagues, but instead, this man decided to butt in, and it wasn’t helpful at all.
Thank You for the Mansplanation
These two female co-workers were having a very simple conversation, but there was a man nearby that thought he knew best. He didn’t believe that this woman was doing a very good job at explaining her own dish, so he decided to break it down for their colleague.
What he actually did, was simply break down her explanation into an even simpler form. Which was completely unnecessary as most people know what “chili” is. Well, we hope his colleague putting him in his place sorted out his need to mansplain for a while, or at least bring to his attention how annoying it was for the people around him.
Give People the Credit They Deserve
If someone has studied and worked in their field for a while, you can be sure that they are an expert at what they do. They know better than the average man of the street, whether they are a man or woman.
This man clearly disregarded any accreditation this woman had simply because she was a female. He saw her as a douting housewife with no financial knowledge, even though she had a thriving career. This is completely unacceptable mansplaining.
Thinking You Know Best
This might come as a shock to some people, but just because you are a man, doesn’t mean you automatically know best. A degree is a degree and worth the same amount whether it was acquired by a man or a woman.
But it appears that not everyone is aware of this. This man decided to quiz a female chemist to simply check her knowledge. As it turns out, he was asking her a question he didn’t know the answer to and had to Google it to find out. We sure hope he felt like a fool.
Generalizations Can Be Frustrating
In centuries gone past, men have dominated the sports scene, partially because women were never given a chance to participate. But things have changed, women have been given the chance to tackle all kinds of sports and have become really good at them.
This lady became an expert in martial arts, not only getting a degree but becoming an instructor. But just because she is a female, men with little to no experience in the sport tried to show her how to kick properly. With all the experience this woman has, we’re sure she can handle a kick without advice from a white belt.
Don’t Be a Know It All
Sometimes when you’re the new guy on the block or new to a job, you need to go through a few formalities. One of those is showing you how the job is done. At this point, it’s best to just listen. After all, your new company could do things a little differently from your old one.
But this man didn’t take that into consideration. He simply decided he knew how to do this job and didn’t want to sit through an explanation. But that’s not really how you win friends and influence people. We can’t imagine this person made many friends amongst his colleagues, not quickly anyway.
If You Know How to Do It Right, Please Do It Right
This man had a way he liked things done. He liked the processes to be followed and decided to explain just how these processes worked to one of his colleagues. Unfortunately, he didn’t think this through all the way.
The woman he was explaining the process to, was the one who had called him to complain that he wasn’t following the process correctly. This man didn’t last too long at the company after overpaying a few employees by mistake, from not following the process. Interesting.
Gender Roles Are a Thing of the Past
Gender roles are a thing of the past. But it seems that many people aren’t aware of this. The man that visited the house seemed to like his women in the kitchen, leaving men to do what men do best - manly stuff.
But this lady was breaking gender stereotypes, modeling a great example for her children. She wanted them to grow up to become whatever they dreamed of becoming, instead of being stuck in the past. This woman was out to prove that home renovation is for everyone, not just the manly men.
Know When You Are Not Wanted in a Conversation
When two people are talking to one another in the workplace, it is not an invitation for everyone to become involved. Especially when involving yourself means speaking over those that were originally involved in the conversation.
This man thought he knew best, and instead of listening to what had just been said, he provided his own explanation. Which was EXACTLY the same as the one that had already been given. Thanks for that helpful input!
Some Women Know What They’re Talking About
This woman knows what she is talking about. She has worked in a sports store for a while, and she keeps up to date with knowledge of her latest stock. But men come into the store claiming they know better. Is it because the items are sports-related? Who knows?!
At least this lady gets satisfaction from proving these mansplainers wrong. And then watches them squirm as they pay for the items they fought so hard about, and leave the store with their tail between their legs.
Just Because You're Management, Doesn’t Mean You Know Best
This receptionist knew how to do her job. She could answer a phone for a couple of reasons. One - she had been doing it her whole life, and two - she had been working in her role for four months and she was doing just fine.
When a new man came into management, he decided to explain to the receptionist how to answer the phone. This is more than just a little insulting! If you want a great example of unnecessary mansplaining, this has got to take the cake.