I don’t dislike Bernie Sanders. I think of him the way I think of a great many politicians. That is to say, I think he does some things I believe are good (such as highlighting the wealth disparity in America) and some things I believe are bad (like voting against the Brady Bill five times). That’s the extent of my feelings about him.

But even if Bernie Sanders was my all-time favorite politician, I still wouldn’t be thrilled to see him delivering the opening night speech of the Women’s Convention on October 27. Because it’s a Women’s Convention.

I wasn’t thrilled to see Bill Clinton headlining Emily’s List galas, either. And I’m especially not thrilled now to see a man dominating the discussion of an event whose slogan is “reclaiming our time”. What I would prefer to do with my reclaimed time is not hand it over to a man so he can offer up his thoughts on my lived experience.

The reason this is so infuriating—and why I believe it has upset others as well as myself—is because we live in a time when it can be very, very difficult for women to have their voices heard. A Harvard study reported by CNBC revealed that, “high-powered women incurred backlash" if they spoke more than others in a group. A separate experiment within the same study found that high-powered women who speak longer than others in a group other are viewed as "incompetent and unsuitable for leadership." That may be a reason why men do 75 percent of the talking at meetings. And when women do try to talk, there’s a good chance that men will talk over them. PBS cites a typical example from a managing director, who remarked , “I had a meeting with a [female] sales manager and three of my [male] directors once…it took about two hours. She only spoke once and one of my fellow directors cut across her and said ‘What Anne is trying to say Roger is…’ and I think that about sums it up. He knew better than Anne what she was trying to say, and she never got anything said.”

Should Anne yell louder? Maybe so, but, as the Harvard study concluded, she’ll likely incur backlash for it. That’s true even at the highest levels. Role Reboot noted that “one study of U.S. senators shows that men who spoke more often than their peers are rated 10 percent higher for competence. Women who do the same, however, are rated 14 percent lower.”

Women are living in a world where it is difficult for them to speak out because they will be penalized for it.

Suffice to say, women on the whole do not have to seek out spaces to hear men speak. We really, really do not need to pay $259 (the fee to attend the Women’s Convention) to find a stage where a man is willing to lecture to us. That stage is called “planet Earth.”

"We do not need to pay $259 to find a stage where a man is willing to lecture to us. That stage is called 'planet Earth.'"

Now, I understand that some men genuinely want to help women. I love and respect male allies of the feminist movement. They have a role in creating a better, safer world for women. However, in a movement where the people you are trying to help are routinely silenced, one of the best things you can do is take a seat, listen respectfully, and let them take center stage and share their story. Being a good ally doesn’t always mean getting a spotlight shone on you so everyone can see what a good person you are. Sometimes it means insuring that other people are in the spotlight.

This is a role that women so often have to take on. We are always taking on roles where we stand behind powerful men and help insure that they take the stage looking their best. In a convention ostensibly for women, I so hoped that, on the opening night, the spotlight would be for a woman. That at this special event, it might be our time to speak, not 25 percent of the time, not 75 percent of the time, but, at least on the opening night, 100 percent of the time.

If for some reason every single woman—and I mean every single one: Samantha Bee, Whoopi Goldberg, My Mom, Your Mom—declined to speak on the opening night of the Women’s Convention I would at least hope they could find a man who had an unusually stellar record on women’s issues.

"In a movement where the people you are trying to help are routinely silenced, one of the best things you can do is take a seat, listen respectfully, and let them take center stage."

Bernie’s record, politically, is good. He’s supported legislation that helps provide birth control, family planning services and much more. That said, he’s also campaigned with an anti-choice democrat who, in 2009, introduced a bill for transvaginal ultrasounds for pregnant women, which was a goal of anti-abortion groups. Hearing that we’re supposed to compromise on abortion from a man who refuses to compromise on minimum wage seems to imply that he thinks that, well, women should be the ones to compromise before everyone else does.

He’s stated that compromise is desirable because “Once you get off the social issues—abortion, gay rights, guns—and into the economic issues, there is a lot more agreement than the pundits understand.” Brushing off these issues—and abortion is an economic issue—as “identity politics” is only easy to do if your identity is that of a straight white man.

Furthermore, while I have no doubt that the vast majority of Bernie supporters—male and female—are good people, a portion of his base is associated with some very real misogyny. That was evident as early as The Nevada Democratic Convention in May of 2016 where the Democratic Party chairwoman Roberta Lange received messages at her home from Sanders supporters calling her a “corrupt bitch.” And it never really got better. Female reporters, or just women who disagreed with them, always seemed disproportionately targeted by a certain group of Sanders supporters.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Have some of those in my inbox as well. What is wrong with people?????? — Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) June 7, 2016

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

I won't be answering calls from unknown numbers today, after third call from Bernie supporters telling me they'd hunt me down in the streets — Amy Chozick (@amychozick) June 7, 2016

When Bernie’s supporters claimed that the misogyny associated with them was fictitious, the reporter Janelle Moss responded:

“The emails, Twitter messages and comments I have received tell a different story. They use a variety of curse words and insults typically reserved for women. More than one has suggested that I deserve to become the victim of a sex crime.”

If you are operating from a place where you believe women—a rallying cry with more strength than ever on the left, in light of recent revelations—then you have to believe that these things happened to women at the hands of some of Bernie’s supporters.

I don’t know if it has occurred to the organizers of the Women’s Convention that having Bernie speak might draw some of his most impassioned supporters. And some of them may be men who, while they are fans of Bernie, are not gentle allies to women.

Which seems to go against the intent of the conference. USA Today talked to the conference founders, who remarked:

"The overall message is that this conference is really designed as a way to empower voices in exactly the way that you see women coming forward with their stories about Harvey Weinstein,’ Mallory said, whether those stories involve sexual violence, harassment, domestic violence, police brutality or any other form of mistreatment in their lives.”

That’s a lovely idea.

I personally wouldn’t feel safe sharing my most intimate and painful stories of mistreatment with an audience that might be comprised of Bernie’s supporters who had behaved this way with the women listed above. I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about mistreatment at all in audience that I suspected contained members who thought that rape was a reasonable threat to direct towards women with whom they disagreed politically.

I would be inclined to keep very quiet indeed.

But that would be fine. After all, if I was talking too loud, how would people hear the man speaking?

Jennifer Wright Jennifer Wright is BAZAAR.com's Political Editor at Large.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io