I'm just venting really.
I have a male colleague from another organisation who I work with very closely on a couple of projects. Over the years myself, and others, have noticed that his wife doesn't seem to treat him with much respect. She will shout at him and put him down in public, screams at him when talking to him on the phone so everyone can hear and just generally treats him like shit. They have 4 DDs but all have left home now.
I don't know his wife very well, we've only met a couple of times (in the 10 years or so I've worked with this chap). She's not someone I would ever have much in common with - different outlooks etc, but she was perfectly polite to me.
Whenever he talks to her (she frequently interrupts him by phoning him in the middle of meetings then ignores him when he says he can't talk) he seems very resigned and subdued and that is different to how he is normally. It is also embarrassing for everyone in the room because he never leaves the room or covers up what she's saying - so we all hear it and it kind of becomes the elephant in the room because we are all then aware of him being berated in this way. Whilst we all work closely with him, none of us are really close enough to him to say anything and, frankly, wouldn't know what to say. I know that if my DH phones when I'm in a meeting I don't take the call and he leaves a voicemail or texts if it is urgent. I do the same with him. We've also never argued in public. So I do find it very strange that this woman seems to have so little respect for her DH that she would embarrass him in public (she must know he's taking the call in public?) and he cares so little that he doesn't care who listens. Or maybe it is his way of telling people about his marriage problems? I don't know.
But I can't help thinking that if it was the other way around and it was a man who was doing this to a woman, then we would do something, or at least talk to her? I like to think I would.