Machine learning study of 1,700 economic seminars finds female speakers are interrupted earlier and more frequently than their male counterparts on.ft.com/3HfIFRS - ThreadSky

hetanshah.bsky.social • 8 days ago

Machine learning study of 1,700 economic seminars finds female speakers are interrupted earlier and more frequently than their male counterparts
https://on.ft.com/3HfIFRS

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socialworkteacher.bsky.social•7 days ago

Digging into results. Women received about 1.36 more interruptions (adjusted for covariates) than men & the mean number of interruptions was "11". I wonder how that compares to other fields... (seems high). Also, all presentations were online. Paper link: https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/57001/652587d0-210f-43fd-8843-4e6252bef019.pdf#page=7.59

evetoomey.bsky.social•8 days ago

Any woman could have told us that without the study! 😁

hetanshah.bsky.social•8 days ago

The hope that comes from this @sarahoconnorft.ft.com piece is that the public understands how hard it is for a woman to become an expert and thus must be more impressive. I hope so
https://on.ft.com/3HfIFRS

nicolesykes.bsky.social•8 days ago

Ah, but can we be credible AND likeable?

johnbone.bsky.social•8 days ago

How does that compare with physic seminars?

paulwgoldberg.bsky.social•8 days ago

If anyone cares, I myself am happy to be interrupted by anything relevant. It shows the audience (some of it) are listening. Anyway, if you're not to be interrupted, why even bother with a live performance? You might as well make the audience watch a recording.

techlatest.bsky.social•6 days ago

This highlights a real issue. It's important to be aware of these biases and work towards making sure everyone gets a fair chance to speak.

charlierad.bsky.social•8 days ago

I didn’t realise I assumed the interrupters would mostly be male, until the article continued to say the opposite

Damned assumptions, yet again! 😂🤦‍♂️

juliedoughty.bsky.social•8 days ago

however safe to assume men make statements rather than ask questions 😉

charlierad.bsky.social•8 days ago

I do not know what you’re talking about… 😝

social-liberal.bsky.social•8 days ago

I can understand that - years back my farther who used to go to a lot of public lectures always complained to me that he was fed up of people
- mostly men insisting on making statements (he used to say ‘too fond of his own voice’)- I he Tod me he would to shout out ‘what’s your question?’

loreandordure.com•8 days ago

kissingersghost.bsky.social•7 days ago

bc women won't stfu. Men say 2 words and move on. except Tr*mp

jackaidley.bsky.social•7 days ago

Did anyone check whether this is actually true, or whether the machine learning just made up the answer?

zetkin.bsky.social•7 days ago

What a surprise

rhiggitt.bsky.social•8 days ago

Worth clarifying here that "interruptions" here includes asking questions, and the suggestion is that having women speakers encourages women to participate more in a seminar, which is a good thing. (The "this is a comment and not a question" thing stands, of course)

ryanshirlow.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yes I agree with you, I feel the quote says something rather different to what the OP implied. Here we have a potentially good piece of news about encouraging female engagement in academia recast with an entirely different light.

kathmarval.bsky.social•7 days ago

📌

svendesai.bsky.social•7 days ago

This chimes with socio-linguistic data on gender differences in communication.

Men normally organise into a hierarchy of speakers with speakers and listeners and women talk both to and across/within the group.

Men make statements. Research suggests

dueledge.bsky.social•7 days ago

I've certainly noticed some men think the purpose of a conversation is for them to hold court, and they're surprised and angry if other people talk.

svendesai.bsky.social•6 days ago

talking over a higher status individual is taken as offensive.

people have their own idea of their own status.

windfola.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yeah but they were interrupted by other women, so it doesn't show what you think it shows

cathere.bsky.social•7 days ago

Of course the men had 'more of a comment than a question'.
Would like to know the definition of an interruption here as opposed to conversational overlap signalling agreement. West and Zimmerman might have analyzed differently, but: machine learning. 🤷

jakwash.bsky.social•8 days ago

So women find it easier to interrupt their own gender, and men mansplain is tread of question.

Huh.

So do men interrupt men *at the same rate* as women interrupting women, and do men mansplain men *at the same rate* as the study found for women?

gdeejay.bsky.social•8 days ago

Probably by the same guy too.

Rude.

mattrobb.bsky.social•8 days ago

It says that the interruptions are more by female audience members

gdeejay.bsky.social•8 days ago

I was being facetious, but I clearly missed that.

Interesting!
🤔

jametc.bsky.social•7 days ago

women having conversations and guys just making comments and not engaging lol

alherix.bsky.social•7 days ago

Great to have such large study but it is no news to female academics as we have encountered this pattern of behaviour for decades.

Question is what (if anything) will be done about it?

Some moderators have policy of every other question from female attendee. Also stoping those who make statements

kmcelheran.bsky.social•7 days ago

Need to condition on gender composition in the room. Possibly field. So much hinges on details of the context. I bet this swamps the gender-specific dynamics a lot of the time!

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