Researchers at the Sociology department at Emory University presented an analysis of the first presidential debate of 2020 revealing that Vice President Joe Biden was interrupted almost as much as an average woman in a meeting.
“It’s quite shocking that a man of such privilege would be treated almost as badly as a regular woman on national TV,” says lead researcher Ida Leonard. “This is something we rarely get to see on live television.”
The analysis revealed that the former Vice President was interrupted approximately once every 45 seconds, which comes close to the average for women in professional settings, which is once ever 35. This close of an interruption rate to women rarely occurs for white men with power.
“Joe Biden was able to talk over the President after being interrupted; this type of retaliation is typically deemed ‘shrill’ or ‘bossy’ for the average woman,” researcher Oliver Brown explained. “In that way, Biden didn’t get to enjoy the full experience of being treated like a woman, and nowhere near the experience of a woman of color in the workplace.”
The report additionally detailed that Joe Biden had Christopher Wallace step in and prevent Trump from interrupting him and that this instance of a third-party sticking up for the interrupted speaker is something that rarely happens for the average woman.
“As I was watching the debate, I was like that happens to me every week during our project meetings,” viewer Vera Nguyen recalled. “But I guess Biden had it better because I usually don’t end up getting any ideas in at all. ”
Principal Researcher Ida Leonard finished summarizing the report with, “The biggest takeaway is though Joe Biden was clearly interrupted a lot an-“
“Well, there’s actually a little more to that,” her male colleague interrupted.
