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My girlfriend complains that I’m always mansplaining. She also complains that her brothers and father mansplain. We left her parents’ home after her family’s Thanksgiving dinner quarreling about mansplaining. Please explain. I think I need help.

–KW, Providence

Mansplaining is when a patronizing man explains something to a woman in a condescending manner.

It is a sign of gender inequality when a man mansplains. Because he’s demonstrating that he thinks he is smarter than the girl or woman.

Monitor your conversations and keep in mind to never, ever do the following:

1. Don’t interrupt or finish someone else’s sentence. Listen. The person who thinks he is the most powerful is more likely to interrupt the other person by showing off his social power and prowess.

• When someone interrupts another person, the interrupter assumes his intellectual abilities are superior.
• When mansplaining, the man voices the fact that he thinks he is more knowledgeable and intelligent than the woman; when in fact he may be mansplaining because she is the one with more intellectual abilities, and that makes him feel insecure.

Recognize when others interrupt conversations, for example:

September 25, 2016, on national TV, Donald Trump interrupted and talked over Hillary Clinton 25 times in the first 26 minutes of the debate.

2. Don’t respond with “I know” to the other person. It is a hard habit to break, but to many people it is really annoying.

• Instead say, “Right” or “Got it.”
• When you say, “I know” in response, you may think it means you’e agreeing with what she just said. However, more often than not, your tone probably sounds condescending.

Studies show that men dominate 75% of decision-making groups. When women are doing the talking they are more likely to be interrupted.

~Didi