Yet again a politician is making the news because of problems with ‘that woman’, in this case a Treasury civil servant who has upset Iain Duncan Smith.
Of course men (& women) say extremely rude things about male colleagues, but it is true to say that they are more likely to be very specifically aimed, rather than this generic cat calling, which makes the use of 'that woman' arguably misogynistic or sexist.
In the days when women were relatively rare in senior positions, dislike or dissatisfaction with one particular woman was always expressed in the kind of terms which implied that women are just not up to the responsibility. So that if you had two unsatisfactory people, equal in grade or responsibility, the man would always be complained of, & thought as being unsatisfactory, simlply as ‘Roger’ (for example); Joan’s shortcomings would always be identified as those of ‘women’.
Of course men (& women) say extremely rude things about male colleagues, but it is true to say that they are more likely to be very specifically aimed, rather than this generic cat calling, which makes the use of 'that woman' arguably misogynistic or sexist.
In the days when women were relatively rare in senior positions, dislike or dissatisfaction with one particular woman was always expressed in the kind of terms which implied that women are just not up to the responsibility. So that if you had two unsatisfactory people, equal in grade or responsibility, the man would always be complained of, & thought as being unsatisfactory, simlply as ‘Roger’ (for example); Joan’s shortcomings would always be identified as those of ‘women’.
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