Translating Feminist Analytical Concepts into Operational Tools to Sensitise Engineering Students on Powersplaining and Mansplaining

We designed a 20-minute interactive session on mansplaining and manterrupting reframed as powersplaining. This paper presents the format, the content and the feedback from 8 training sessions carried out in courses in civil engineering, environmental engineering and architecture. As an expression of entitlement to knowledge, powersplaining is presented as a commonplace behavior of competitive study climates typical of engineering studies. Powersplaining helps to explain self-depreciation, self-doubt, decreased engagement and efficacy. It seems that entitlement to knowledge embodies well the negative impact of powersplaining and mansplaining and successfully prepares participants to respond. We also share our experience, as subject experts outside engineering, in gaining access as well as in capturing engineering students' attention. Participants' feedback showed that the training succeeds in equipping them to react and identify powersplaining. This format seems adequate to address gender-biased communication in engineering education.