This just happened to me at work.

I am a woman and work in the paint department at a Lowes store. This older lady (around 70) came in and asked a lot of questions about what would be best to paint her house, both inside and out. I answered all of her questions, helped her make a final decision, mixed two 5 gallon buckets and put them both in her shopping cart (she had left to look at something else and came back after I was finished). About 20 minutes later there is a page for a customer who needs help loading paint into her car, since I was free I answered the page. Sure enough it was the same lady. She mentioned that she thought a man would have answered the call. I told her that I was the only one available at the moment and that I would be more than happy to put the paint in her car for her. After I loaded it into her car and closed the door, she turned to me lifted her leg, grabbed her crotch (she is wearing a skirt), and told me to be sure that I did not let them drop. She said this with a straight face, got in her car and left. I was left standing in the parking lot with my mouth hanging open wondering if that really just happened.

Has any other female out there experienced sex discrimination from another female? Or is it just my area?

I don't know if this have something to do with what happened to you, but here I go:

Well, something like this happened to me once. I was at school, and was helping some boys to carry the books we were going to use on class. Then a woman (I suppose it was the mother of someone) on her 50's, told me that this was a job for males only, and also said that we (women) were made to only carry their child, take care of the house, that I should leave this job for them, and other things I don't remember. I was 10 years old.

*Forgive me if there was any mistake.

This definitely happens a lot here where I live. I used to work at Home Depot and it was the same. If a woman answers the call for a carry out the customer would protest asking if anyone else was going to help, or if I would jump on the forklift to get the merchandise and take it out so I could load it onto their truck they would complain "on my behalf" the whole time saying it wasn't fair I was being made to do that. I've never had one outright make such a rude gesture like that lady did to you did but plenty of times I've had a woman request a second opinion from a male employee on a project or whatnot saying they honestly trusted their opinion over mine.

I see that around here too. I actually got into a discussion with my grandmother once when she told my son that he should never hit a girl. Nooooo.... any female wants to hit like a guy, she should expect to get hit and not try to hide behind her ovaries to avoid it. Our mothers and grandmothers fought for equal rights and that means equal responsibility. Grandma just couldn't wrap her mind around that thought and couldn't see why I would 'talk that way'. It ended up being one of those agree to disagree things.

Oh, boy have I had many older women talk down to me, though thankfully none of them had been sexually vulgar as your instance.

For years, ever since I was a young child, I have helped my father in all manners of construction and labor and you'd think only the men would look down on me considering I have always been short and extremely thin (I'm 5''2', 104lbs and have never been bigger), but there have also been older women looking down on me. They'd sneer or feel bad for a small girl doing 'a man's job' even when I proved I could move my own weight. I enjoy building homes, especially destroying them when the job was to level it to the ground. You haven't LIVED until you've taken a sledge hammer to support beams and walls lol I'm physically incapable of doing this kind of physical activity, but I was always good at my job.
You'd think a hard working woman doing 'a man's job' would be appreciated, to show others that women CAN do jobs considered mostly for men, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I was beginning to think it was just my area. I hate to say this but I am glad that it is not just me. Ever since I moved to this area, about 10 years ago, I have had all kinds of things like that happen to me; from men and women.

At another job I had about 5 years ago, there was a man who thought I did not know anything about anything. I worked for a Hastings Entertainment store in their book department as the book manager. One day a man came in and asked for a certain book. It was not in or systems so I went on-line to see if I could find a store that may have had it. Unfortunately, I could not find a store that carried it, so I checked the publishers web site. The site said that the book had been out of print since 1972. I informed the customer about what I found and suggested that he try to order it from amazon or ebay. He then proceeded to inform me that I was wrong and did not know what I was talking about. He told me to get a man to help him since he would know how to get the book for him.

I called the male store manager over and just explained that the customer wanted his help finding a book. (I did not go into detail about what was going on and why since the customer was right there.) After the man told the manager what he was looking for the manager then turned to me and asked me how to find what the book. With the customer standing right there in front of us, I proceeded to walk the manager through the systems and steps while explaining what he was seeing. Needless to say that the same conclusion was drawn about the status of the book. But, when the manager explained what was found to the customer the man shook the managers hand, thanked him for his help, gave me a dirty look and then left.

The manager then turned to me and asked why was he needed to help that customer. When I explained what had transpired, he looked at me and said that I should "get use to it since it happens a lot around here." Why are we always viewed as being less intelligent than a man and unable to comprehend simple things? I know I sound like I am ranting, but sometimes you just have enough and need to vent.

Those who have posted earlier would you mind telling me what state those experiences happened in. I am majoring in Social Science and think that this topic of same sex discrimination may be worth researching for my major research paper. It would be interesting to see if these things happen mostly in certain areas or are equally dispersed. These experiences of mine happened while living in East Texas.

Male on male discrimination, female on male discrimination, and female on female discrimination are all more common than many people think.

Unfortunately you are right.

I once had a lecturer at Uni ask me if I was intimidated by the fact that the I.T industry is usually a Man's workplace. My answer was 'No. I honestly don't care'. He gave me a funny look after that, almost as if to say 'Why aren't you bothered by it?'.

Why should I be bothered by it?

>.>.

I still don't understand his comment even now, years later.

~ Pyre

I live in southern Missouri. Our population consists of a majority of farmers or retired workers. I live in an old factory/farming town so it's normal to see guys walking through Wal-Mart in overalls and the busiest restaurants are the small mom and pop diners which you'll see tables full of just coffee drinkers telling old stories and gossiping. The belief of men work and women run the household is very much the norm here.

I live in Utah and it's rampant here. I'm an office assistant in a cabinetry and counter top shop. Most of the contractor men are awesome about it and there is no discrimination. Bring in the random people off the street or the wives of the contractors and it's a completely different story. My female designers are not taken as seriously as the males when it comes to designing. I hear "I need a male to help me, no offense." or "Are you sure she's qualified to help me?" way too much. (Also, since I'm married and above the age of 20 I should be home with my kids, not working. Never mind the fact that I don't have kids...)

I've helped load cabinets, counter tops, tile, granite, you name it only to be told, "Can't you find a man to load this for you?"

Sadly, it's just something that I have to let roll off my back, as I'm not in a position to dispute it.

I am thirty-two, but I look much younger than what I am. Many people are shocked to find out I am not dating, married, or have children when they find out my age. I have had a few people ask me as rudely as you please, "Why not?!" There are even more that want to ask, but they don't.

I'm in Western Maryland, and it's mainly my mother's generation and older that seem to be of the opinion that women need a man to complete them... and Lord help any couple that is married but decides to hold off on having kids right away or at all. I mainly hear this from older females... though I get the impression that the older men question it, but figure they'll hear about it from their wives.
I've sold things on Craigslist like furniture and such, and when I go to help load the piece, people will be "Can your husband help lift this?"
I make sure my face is blank when I say "Why?"
I mean really, I like to be treated like a lady, but there's a time and place.

I live in Ohio and I left a job I had because of something like this. I believe in equal rights for all sexs. I say it this way because I have had more problems with the gay couminty here than anything else. Please try to understand I m not a bigot I don't care if your gay or strait. But I had this one gay guy that I worked with that would not let me do my job. He kept telling me that it wasn't my place to work and that I should be home tending my "womanly duities". He said it just like that too. Needless to say I told him where he could put my "duities" and how he could do it on his way there. I quit my job and filed a complant with the manager.

My own aunts and cousins have always been leery of me for not following the social norm of settling down, having kids, and a family too. I went to Uni instead. Plenty of peeps do it, Dokugans included. It's perfectly acceptable. An aunt of mine, however, is still convinced that I'm going to end up a spinster with fifty cats.



No offense to cat-lovers, but I actually prefer dogs like Sesshy .

~ Pyre

silentsoliloquy82 wrote:
I am thirty-two, but I look much younger than what I am. Many people are shocked to find out I am not dating, married, or have children when they find out my age. I have had a few people ask me as rudely as you please, "Why not?!" There are even more that want to ask, but they don't.

I get that a lot too. I am 32 also, for some reason I guess people think that if you are not married before 30 something is wrong with you. What if I am just trying to get my own life situated and settled before taking on a bigger responsibility of having a family, if I want one? Oh well, life is life, and I am who I am.

I'm totally with you, Pyreite and Lady of Jupiter. To the day she died, one of my mother's favorite nicknames for me was "the old maid". And it was NOT intended in an affectionate manner. In a family where the norm is to be married and pregnant at 16, with a new man every year or so, my life plan of having a job (and keeping the same one for a significant length of time), going to college, practicing birth control, and waiting until the advanced age of 20 to get married was considered justification for scorn. It always boggled my mind, that my mother and sisters felt they were depriving me of something valuable, when they made it clear I was not worthy to be a member of their "club". Obiously, to them, no man wanted me! Otherwise, I would be special, like them! Here's how I see it: people who disapprove of your life choices are just bitter, because their own life does not make them happy. So they have to try to undermine the self-confidence of others. This is the case, even with people they don't know, and will likely never see again, as is the case with the vulgar old lady in Lady of Jupiter's original post. I'm sure the woman saw L of J as being young, strong, and self-actualizing, and it just killed her.