Bravo, supreme court: we do need rules to stop men interrupting women | Eleanor Margolis

The US is trying to stop female judges and attorneys being interrupted by male counterparts. Sounds all too familiar

Along with various inalienable rights and governing principles, the tendency for men to talk over women has now been officially recognised by the US supreme court. Newly introduced rules to the structure of oral arguments are in place to address the issue of male justices and attorneys (extremely regularly) interrupting their female colleagues.

These measures were discussed last week by Sonia Sotomayor, who had the honour of being the most interrupted supreme court justice in the 2019 term. And they show that, far from being a mere everyday annoyance, mansplaining" (or the ideologically adjacent manterrupting") can interfere with democracy. And the fact that, as a woman, you can be a literal supreme court justice and still get shouted down like someone's little sister isn't exactly encouraging.

Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva