Ahead of delivering a consequential budget, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, told the Times she was “sick of people mansplaining how to be chancellor to me”. She added: “I recognise that I’ve got a target on me. You can see that in the media; they’re going for me all the time.”
The term “mansplaining” signals a gendered dimension to how Reeves is critiqued. The suggestion is that, as a woman in a highly visible role, she is subject to patronising explanation, implicitly from men, that would not be levelled at a male chancellor. The prime minister backed up this assertion, saying that women in public life are subject to “much more criticism and abuse” than men.
Critics accused her of “playing the sexist card” – using the claim of mansplaining to deflect from questions about her policy record, including tax rises, welfare decisions and budget choices.
