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If I had a dollar for every time I was interrupted, I’d be retired by now. Then add to that “mansplaining,” and I’d be retired and supporting all my friends and family. My friends and I have had this conversation for years. And it still happens. Every. Single. Day.

According to Merriam-Webster: “Mansplaining is, at its core, a very specific thing. It’s what occurs when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he’s talking to does.”

One of my favorite mansplaining stories is from a panel I was on. (We could talk for days about the underrepresentation of women on panels and as speakers at conferences, but I digress..) I was on this panel, the only woman, representing a topic that I’m an expert on. I was there as the expert, and the other panelists were all experts, too – albeit in other topics.

I was asked a question by the moderator, which I answered. I tried to be brief, as I always try to ensure that all panelists get their respective air time. One of my fellow panelists, however, decided that he needed to add on to my comments.

I’ll reiterate: although an expert in his field, he is not an expert in my field.

In an exceptionally condescending tone, he corrected my comments about the “right” way to approach a problem, droning on using phrases like “I’m sure Ingrid meant to say.” and “In my vast experience, I’ve approached this problem this way..”

That strong person inside of me just couldn’t let it go. I allowed him to finish and then proceeded to challenge and correct every statement he had made, using facts, not opinions. When I finished, the audience burst into spontaneous applause. At our next break, I was surrounded by both men and women, congratulating me on stopping the mansplaining from someone who clearly wasn’t an expert but clearly did like to hear himself speak.