Business people, do men or women talk more in your work meetings? Or is it the same? (Re: Sexist Tokyo Olympic Comments)

I think it's just something that varies by place. In my classes (especially history) the girls always take over talking about politics and delaying us. They try to virtue signal how smart they are but actually end up being very annoying because their opinions are not that valuable and because they're eating up class time. Us guys just sit there, say nothing, and let the teacher do the talking.

Depends on the individual.

Close the thread.

This is actually an interesting phenomenon. I think both are right, but in different scenarios.

When there are relatively few women in a meeting (i.e. 25% women, 75% men), then I find women to be much quieter, and speak much less.

But, when women are the majority or close to it in a meeting (i.e. 45% women and up), the women tend to waste a lot of time with really dumb questions or irrelevant points, and really slow the meeting down. I do think they feed on each other when there is more of them.

Who talks the most is completely dependent on who is running the meeting. If it's a woman, she usually talks the most, unless she is delegating to a man who is at the meeting. If a man is running the meeting, he usually talks the most unless he is delegating to a woman who is at the meeting.

I've worked in Fortune 50 companies and startups and generally people in meetings talk in proportion to their status or position, not their gender. Unless someone is presenting something the most senior person in the meeting talks the most and the junior people talk the least.

When status is not a factor meeting leaders or SMEs talk the most. I've never noticed a pattern with gender specifically.

` wrote:

This is actually an interesting phenomenon. I think both are right, but in different scenarios.

When there are relatively few women in a meeting (i.e. 25% women, 75% men), then I find women to be much quieter, and speak much less.

But, when women are the majority or close to it in a meeting (i.e. 45% women and up), the women tend to waste a lot of time with really dumb questions or irrelevant points, and really slow the meeting down. I do think they feed on each other when there is more of them.

Probably because when the meetings are 75% male, they can't get a word in edge wise between all the guys asking dumb questions and trying to assert their authority. Nothing like sitting there while 2 department heads debate some meaningless point for 15 mins.

Seriously I bet if you actually studies this (i.e. find a way to some how get the rest of the room to answer if the questions are stupid or not), you would find very small gender differences. I bet things like work fields (sales and marketing people never shut up. Production engineers tend to be a lot more introverted) matter more than gender.

It seems to me that women are prone to asking dumb questions that everyone else knows the answer to and has already been stated but they were not listening or just tuning it out. Like when the prof says so and so will be on the test. Then a minute later she asks, so will so and so be on the test? The prof says, like I just said a minute ago, yes.

I lived in Japan for 6 years and the culture is very different. At the time, 96% of the management positions in Japanese were held by men so there weren't actually any women in the meeting room. It might be that the old guy doesn't like having women attending meetings and has minimal tolerance for it.

Everyone needs to shut their yappers more. People talk too much generally in really inefficient ways.

I agree with you about not being able to get a word in edge-wise. However, I do notice that mostly male meetings are significantly shorter than mostly female meetings.

JamieLanie wrote:

Depends on the individual.

Close the thread.

Definitely my experience at previous jobs. Some people just couldn't shut their mouths, others were able to keep on track and have meaningful discussions in meetings without a bunch of wasted time. I obviously didn't take a rigorous accounting of it, but anecdotally, it seemed a random distribution, didn't seem skewed to men or women. There were blowhards of both genders.

I haven’t found any administrator or upper manager who is really good at managing. Most are type A who played the game. They speak in a loud, commanding way but really no substance. They are usually good salesman though.

This guy is famous for being a tool, and getting attention with statements that shock. In Japan the highest ranking person in the room speaks last, and usually briefly. When decisions are being made that person sometimes just nods. Subordinates run the meeting and make reports. I think who speaks up depends more on how power is exercised in the company and the relative rank of participants than gender.

rojo wrote:

She replied, "At my work, it's the exact opposite of what he describes. The men are the one's always talking and trying to be super competitive and prove a point and delaying everything. The women only speak if they are adding something important."

With a few exceptions, this has also been my experience. Don't know if in Japan is different.

I don't find this maps to gender with any sort of precision. There just are some people who are always talking and some who sit there listening. Being one of the latter, it's kind of annoying when you have something kinda important you could add on topic and wait for the speaker to finish not to interrupt them and they keep talking and talking and talking and some of the contenders for attention instantly jump on nitpicking on every insignificant error. I just write down my point and message it later.

Depends on what gender is in the majority. More men and all the dudes talk over one another while the one lady sits back. More women and they all try to outdo each other.

In my department meetings (of multiple professors), I notice that old men talk more than the rest. Young men and women of all ages talk less.

I reject the idea that people should be treated differently based on their gender in a business setting, and I think it's unfortunate that Letsrun started this thread.

LRC Reply: For the record, we don't think people should be treated differently based on their gender. We just asked if there is a noticeable gender difference at you work.

I am sure cultural factors influence how much men vs women speak up in business, but again, that doesn't justify treating people differently solely based on gender.

Since you asked, I have in my career experienced plenty of people of both genders who love to hear themselves talk and blather on incessantly.

bleeper wrote:

I've worked in Fortune 50 companies and startups and generally people in meetings talk in proportion to their status or position, not their gender. Unless someone is presenting something the most senior person in the meeting talks the most and the junior people talk the least.

When status is not a factor meeting leaders or SMEs talk the most. I've never noticed a pattern with gender specifically.

That's been my experience too working at a big company. And I'd add that it depends a lot on how introverted/extraverted certain people are. Granted, the companies I've worked for have been big on their diversity and inclusion efforts, so there's a good gender mix and awareness of these issue, which might impact this. But in general, I've come across loudmouths of both genders who like to hear themselves talk, as well as quiet, authoritative people of both genders who get their point across with concise commentary.