‘Manterruption!’ Feminist App Detects When Men Interrupt Women Talking

Why do feminists continue to find more and more women unwilling to be included in their ranks? Because of obnoxious things like this: “Woman Interrupted,” an app that counts how many times a woman is “manterrupted.” Seriously. In fact, you can download it here.

The app was created by BETC Sao Paulo and released on International Women’s Day. It’s goal: to promote “equal rights” through “equal voices” by reducing “manterrupting.”

Here’s the app’s description on iTunes:

Equal rights start with equal voices.

Woman Interrupted App uses the smartphone to detect and help reduce Manterrupting – that is what we call when men interrupt women unnecessarily. This behaviour stops women from expressing their ideas at work, at home and in society as a whole.

Using the microphone on your device, the app detects whenever a male voice interrupts you (for female users) and whenever you interrupt a female voice (male users). Don’t worry. No audio is recorded: everything goes directly from sound to data.

Make your voice heard.

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AdWeek clearly loved the new app, which it celebrated for exposing “how pervasive the [manterrupting] problem is.”

“The agency created the app after coming across a 2014 George Washington University study that found women get interrupted more than men,” explains AdWeek‘s Katie Richards.

Richards quotes the BETC founder and co-CEO, Gal Barradas, who said the problem is “real and alarming.”

“At first glance, it may seem like a small problem, but it reflects deeper issues of gender inequality at work and in society. The app is a way of showing that in fact the interruption is real and alarming,” said Barradas.

“We women struggle every day to get our space in the workplace and the right to express ourselves,” Barradas added. “When we get there, Manterrupting reduces our participation. We want men to ask themselves: Am I doing this without even realizing it? After all, what’s the point of having more women in a meeting room if nobody hears what they have to say?”

Here’s BETC Sao Paolo’s promotional video:

BETC Sao Paulo’s marketing strategy included asking female artists around the world to produce feminist posters declaring “We Won’t Be Silenced.” Two examples above, two more below: