Jackie Weaver’s parish meeting exposes the belittling and sidelining of women everywhere

Handforth's very British viral video has been watched by millions – perhaps men faced with a woman asserting herself will now think twice about their conduct

There is no doubt the events of the Handforth Parish Council Zoom meeting in December, the edited highlights of which went viral this week, have provided comic respite for a nation in need of a giggle. The video shows the chief officer Jackie Weaver calmly admonishing the male officers who angrily question her role by sending them to a “virtual waiting room”, the online answer to the naughty step.

Their exchange is the kind of small-town set-piece you’d expect from The League of Gentleman’s Reece Shearsmith – a parody of very British traits, from the muttered expletives to the swivel-eyed obsessing over irrelevant points of order. Expect a yelp of “You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver!” to become the sign-off to every work meeting from this day onwards.

It’s also heartening to see Weaver emerge as a conquering hero through her ability to remain entirely zen in the face of apoplectic rudeness – something to which we can all aspire. As Rudyard Kipling almost said: Hers is the Earth and everything that’s in it. But there will be those for whom this situation is depressingly familiar. Because while petty squabbles and power grabs are par for the course in local politics, bullying, belittling and sidelining of women takes place in all manner of professional environments. This is not merely the stuff of small parishes. 

Scott Rudin, Philip Green and Rupert Murdoch are among the powerful men who have stood accused of creating a culture of fear at work, although male entitlement doesn’t always manifest in rage and intimidation. Last week, Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee and former Japanese prime minister, made headlines when he complained that meetings attended by women tended to “drag on” on account of their garrulousness. “If one [female member] raises her hand to speak, then all the others feel they have to do the same,” he carped. “So it ends up with everybody talking.” It’s worth noting that the JOC board has 25 members, only five of whom are women. 

In fact, research shows that it’s men who most delight in the sound of their own voices in meetings. A study by the Yale psychologist Victoria L Brescoll found a professional culture in which men are the dominant talkers while women, fearing damage to their reputation should they appear too assertive, prefer to remain shtum. 

In 2015, writing about workplace gender bias in the New York Times, Sheryl Sandberg recalled a conversation with the TV writer Glen Mazzara, who had noticed how two female scriptwriters were quiet during story meetings. When he asked them why, they suggested he watch what happened when they talked. In the next meeting, he observed how every time they spoke they were interrupted, or their pitches were rejected before they had finished making them. When they had a good idea, a man would pick it up and run with it, as if it had been his idea all along.

None of this is to say that women aren’t capable of workplace bullying, though it is men who continue to hold the most powerful positions in the working world – and, it turns out, in local government. Not for nothing did Sarah Cooper, best known for her TikTok videos where she lip-synched to Donald Trump, kickstart her comedy career with the manual How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings, based on her own corporate experience. Her advice to women includes “pepper[ing] your emails with exclamation marks and emojis so you don’t come across as too clear or direct. Your lack of efficient communication will make you seem more approachable”.

The Handforth video has already been seen by millions who have basked in Weaver’s quiet owning of the awful Basil Fawlty types on the committee. But there’s also something instructive about the entire world seeing the bubbling anger of men faced with a woman asserting her right to do her job. Perhaps they will think twice about their conduct in future, and learn that there can be value in keeping your mouth shut.