The term “mansplaining” comes from English and has no equivalent in our language. The word is a combination of the English words for “man” and “explainer”. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary “attempts to explain something to a woman in a condescending way that suggests she has no knowledge of the subject.” According to the same source, the first use of the word in 2008.
The assumption that a woman is unfamiliar with the subject is associated with unconscious bias and sexism. Sexist assumptions about women and men manifest as gender stereotypes and place one gender as superior to another.
How does it affect people?
Explaining something to someone who knows the details of the subject is not just a waste of everyone’s time. Although not intending to do so, the mansplainer may give the appearance that he does not trust the competence or intelligence of the person to whom he is explaining.
In a 2023 study at the University of Michigan, researcher Caitlin Biggs found that women largely had negative outcomes as a result of mansplaining, while men were not affected as much.
Mansplaining also runs the risk of giving the impression that the person has an overestimated estimate of their own knowledge. This is also the Dunning-Kruger effect, in which people who overestimated their knowledge and skills were blinded by this prejudice and lacked the ability to realistically assess themselves.
How to establish mansplaining?
Author Kim Goodwin says that she often has a man explain to her the product design methods described in her own book that she is very familiar with. That’s why she made a diagram to easily determine whether a person practices mansplaining or not.
Question number one is “Was I asked to explain”, so if the answer is yes, then it certainly isn’t mansplaining. The second key question is “Did I ask if an explanation was needed?” If this question was not asked, or if the answer was “not necessary”, but an explanation was given on the subject, this is probably mansplaining.
An equally important question is “Do I have the relevant knowledge to provide an explanation?” If the interlocutor is more experienced or a proven expert in the field, then a categorical explanation is not necessary, but if it is given, it is mansplaining.
