Berit Ås (1928-2024) was a professor of social psychology and a former politician in the Norwegian parliament.

When she worked in a male-dominated work environment in the 1970s, she constantly experienced being ignored and undermined. She was interrupted, she did not feel heard and she eventually felt stupid. Then she began to study what the men around her said and did. How did they present themselves during meetings, how did they behave towards female colleagues.

Eventually, she decided to copy the way the men around her behaved. While the men talked during meetings, she would get up to get coffee, or she would grab a pen and begin to scribble, or read something, and quite simply not pay attention. And it worked. In her experience, the worse she behaved towards her male colleagues, the more she was taken seriously.

Instead of continuing to be rude at work, Berit Ås chose to use her experiences constructively. She wrote a book about the experiences and the techniques she had observed. "Women in All Countries, Handbook of Liberation" was published in 1981. Here she introduces the concept of hersketeknikker.

Berit Ås presented five categories of hersketeknikker

1. Make invisible
2. Ridicule
3. Withholding information
4. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
5. Blame and shame

Make invisible

Being ignored in meetings, not being listened to, people not answering you by email, or not responding to what you say, not being involved or asked in decision-making processes. It can also happen by someone underscoring your abilities or your competence, and by being underestimated and patronized.

Ridicule

When your suggestions and contributions are met with laughter and jokes. It can be about joking at your expense, for example through derogatory nicknames. Ridicule can also take the form of intentionally exposing lack of knowledge.

Berit Ås shares an experience from the environment she worked in:

She had been to a conference and when she returned to the office she wanted to report about what she had learned. She says that there were 150 women at the conference. "What a hen house" her colleague says, while laughing and imitating cackling hens.

In today's ears, this is completely unheard of. Nevertheless, we know that ridicule still occurs in many workplaces.

Withholding information

When important information is given and obtained in informal networks that are not equally accessible to everyone. For example, when a group of people in the workplace go to the pub after work, or when important information is shared in the locker room or around a lunch table that not everyone is invited to.

Damned if you do, damned if you do not.

Whatever you do, you face condemnation. In the book, Berit Ås uses motherhood as an example: Mothers who work overtime are criticized for not being with their children. When they leave work early to pick up at the daycare center, they face criticism for not contributing enough at work.

Shame and blame

When your efforts or suggestions are criticized in a way that causes shame, or if you are blamed for something in an unfair way.

Berit Ås tells an anecdote: She found it difficult to speak at formal meetings at her workplace, and suggested that they could have a more informal meeting. She offered to bring cake. This was met with indignation. "We are not here to chat and eat cake. If you do not dare to speak, you must pull yourself together. This is not a kindergarten».

There is a difference between constructive criticism and humiliation.

Berit Ås named five techniques: one for each finger on the hand. The techniques were later used strategically to communicate among women in the workplace. If a woman was exposed to any of the five techniques, other women could discreetly point a number of fingers to let her know they see what’s happening. If someone was subjected to ridicule, the others would discreetly hold up two fingers to warn her of what is taking place.

Over the years, hersketeknikker has become a common concept in the Norwegian language, and is now used as a collective term for a number of techniques and behaviors, beyond the original five categories.

Here are some additions or subcategories to the original five:

Trivialization

«Oh, dear. Calm down, you’re overreacting.»

Strawman arguments

When you are ascribed opinions you do not have. When the other party twists and turns what you say or interpret you in the worst sense.

False premises

When someone debates or argues with you based on a false premise and you have to discuss something other than what you wanted to talk about.

Objectification

To be treated as an object rather than as a person. For example, getting attention for looks and not for abilities and contributions.

Playing on emotions

When the other party claims to be hurt or upset on unreasonable grounds, they makes themselves unassailable. The use of care can also be experienced as a hersketeknikk . "I just want what's best for you."

Using names and nicknames

Using people's names can, in some cases, create a condescending tone. "The thing is, Kaja…" "But Kaja….".

Using the wrong name or deliberately not learning a name is also an effective way to communicate disrespect.