#66 “The female SME was continually interrupted by some of the more outspoken, male engineers.”

“As a PM, I hold of a lot of meetings with a wide variety of people, making sure all the right stakeholders are involved. In one particular meeting, regarding one specific topic, the female SME was continually interrupted by some of the more outspoken, male engineers.

She is not necessarily quiet or timid, so the fact that they were discrediting her input (based on their own assumptions, not any history of expertise on the matter) or downright ignoring the fact that they were cutting her off and not letting her provide input was very obvious to me. As a female myself, I was the only one who finally ignored their conversation, physically turned my body, looked her straight in the eye, and asked her to continue so that I could hear from her.“