He became former on February 12 when he was forced to resign following an international outcry over his remarks. A week later in the nearly 65-year-old ruling Liberal Democratic Party LDP, general secretary Toshikiro Nikai, in response to criticism that his administration was dominated by men, - 2 women in the 12-member Politburo and 3 in the 25-member National Council - agreed to attend the meetings 5 more women but without the right to speak!

But is this really true? Research has shown that women do speak more but not in formal conversations. Female friends talk more than male friends, they talk more often, for longer and about more personal topics. But this is about private conversations. In public speaking, things are very different, men are the ones who speak more.The fact that women speak less publicly is the verbal counterpart of the physical space they have learned to occupy in public. We prefer to sit next to a woman on the plane or in the theater because usually she will put her arms and legs together so that she does not take up space from the person next to her. Accordingly, when speaking at official events, many women try not to take up verbal space by being more inclusive, by having a lower and hesitant tone in their voice in order not to be criticized for adopting a "male speaking style".

Many times, of course, they speak less, not by choice, but because they are not given the floor as often as men, or when they are, they are interrupted more.

A typical example of repeated interruptions was the pre-election debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence in the USA, which went viral. Within minutes of Pence's first interruption, Twitter was flooded with messages from women who identified with the image of a man speaking over their own voice.