{"id":20393,"date":"2014-10-08T03:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T01:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=20393"},"modified":"2014-10-08T03:00:36","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T01:00:36","slug":"20393","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/20393\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Don’t Men Listen to Women?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amanda Bennett writes:\u00a0 <\/strong>What happens when a man\u2019s casually assumptive, visceral reflex that nothing said by the woman sitting next to him could possibly be as interesting as anything said by the man sitting across the table extends \u2014 as it still does \u2014 to the absence of women\u2019s voices in decision-making?<\/p>\n

What do we lose?<\/p>\n

Well, at the very least, I think the guys seated next to me lost a chance to have a more interesting evening. I\u2019m not famous. I\u2019m not important. But I do have ideas about things, and I am cheerfully willing to banter. And just imagine what was lost to the guys who years ago droned on to a certain woman who later novelized the experience of being \u201cseated forever, trapped between two immensely powerful men who think it\u2019s your function as their dinner partner to draw them out. You ask them about the SALT talks. You ask them about the firearms lobby. You ask them about their constituencies. You ask them about the next election.\u201d Uh, that was Nora Ephron, guys. \u201cSleepless in Seattle\u201d Nora Ephron. \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally\u201d Nora Ephron.<\/p>\n

The SALT talks? Really?<\/p>\n

What if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had thought well enough of the voices of women when it counted? Would a woman have said: Hey, hold on a minute. Let\u2019s think about the 45 percent of our fans who are women and might be able to picture how they would feel if they were cold-cocked in an elevator?<\/p>\n

Well, he\u2019s hearing those opinions now. And he\u2019s hearing them because women are telling them. Only he\u2019s having to hear it on places like ESPN, from women such as Hannah Storm, who spoke recently of the effect of the Ray Rice video on her three daughters: \u201cI spent this week answering seemingly impossible questions about the league\u2019s biggest stars,\u201d she said last month. \u201cMom, why did he do that? Why isn\u2019t he in jail? Why didn\u2019t he get fired?\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing new about the fact that a woman like Storm is a sports anchor with a powerful platform. There\u2019s nothing new about the fact that women take issue with the decisions of men in power. What is new is that many more women like Storm are becoming increasingly confident and, yes, feeling entitled to say: You didn\u2019t ask for my opinion, but I have one. And it\u2019s worth something. Would it save some anguish if we skipped some steps and moved them a bit further up the decision-making chain?<\/p>\n

In any case, I\u2019m grateful to Storm for showing me something. At the end of another D.C. event, I turned to my table-mate in mild exasperation and said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been at dinner for two hours, and I know everything about you. I know where you went to school, how you got into business. I know your views on the nonferrous metals industry (not his real business) that is your passion. But you don\u2019t know one single thing about me. Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

His matter-of-fact answer: \u201cI talked. You listened.\u201d He didn\u2019t deny he wasn\u2019t listening. But neither was I speaking. I had a voice. I just wasn\u2019t using it.<\/p>\n

\"Do<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Bennett writes:\u00a0 What happens when a man\u2019s casually assumptive, visceral reflex that nothing said by the woman sitting next to him could possibly be as interesting as anything said by the man sitting across the table extends \u2014 as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t