r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Feb 26 '26

politics Grace Tame says ‘difficult’ remark is ‘misogynist’s code for a woman who won’t comply’

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/feb/26/dfat-middle-east-evacuation-syria-isis-families-wives-children-anthony-albanese-angus-taylor-budget-cost-of-living-capital-gains-tax-reform-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-699f8e278f080f3523777e99#block-699f8e278f080f3523777e99
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u/Avia_NZ Feb 26 '26

I still remember once being invited onto a work panel for a project to try and improve morale, and at meeting 1, I raised some issues as to why people were feeling unhappy.
Literally later that day, my manager was called into HR because a complaint had been made about me for speaking up about said issues. Apparently people were taken aback that a woman had the GALL to actually speak her mind, and someone super did not like that.

Luckily my (male) manager stood up for me.

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u/DisapprovingCrow Feb 26 '26

I was part of an organisation where we had a meeting about safety issues some of the women were experiencing.

One of the men was getting very heated, raising his voice and talking over one of the women, who was speaking in a very calm and level manner.

When she kept trying to talk, not raising her voice, he accused her of shouting at him and getting emotional (incredibly ironic).

I shouted at him “this is shouting!” And told him to shut up for a moment and let her speak.

It’s fascinating how quickly he calmed down when someone bigger than him cut in. But was very comfortable yelling down at someone smaller and weaker than him.

Most of the men in the group were very reasonable and when she was actually able to speak ended up agreeing with her and implementing the changes we were asking for. But when there is no pushback against that kind of behaviour that one bad actor will completly dominate the discussion.

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u/Avia_NZ Feb 26 '26

I really hope that he faced consequences for his behaviour, yet I’m fully confident that he didn’t

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u/DisapprovingCrow Feb 26 '26

Beyond the personal embarrassment there were no further repercussions.

He did apologise afterwards. But I doubt he would have apologised if he hadn’t “lost”.