‘Mansplaining’ is different from other criticism – and Rachel Reeves is right to call it out

By Louise Ashley, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Work, Queen Mary University of London
Elena Doldor, Professor of Leadership & Diversity, Queen Mary University of London

Ahead of delivering a consequential budget, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, told the Times she was “sick of people mansplaining how to be chancellor to me”. She added: “I recognise that I’ve got a target on me. You can see that in the media; they’re going for me all the time.”

The term “mansplaining” signals a gendered dimension to how Reeves is critiqued. The suggestion is that, as a woman in a highly visible role, she is subject to patronising explanation, implicitly from men, that would not be levelled at a male chancellor. The prime minister backed…

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