Have you ever ... ? (Things women have to deal with, that men don't)

Being knocked back for jobs (after interviewing brilliantly) when they discover I’ve had a few years of SAHM. Interesting how often they mention that they are ‘worried about’ my ‘availability’, and try to commiserate with me about ‘how much I have on my plate’.

It being the assumption that you'll take the minutes in any meeting that you attend, despite not being a PA or secretary.

Being hyper-vigilant when out at night, or when walking in broad daylight but on a quiet path.

Checking your backseat before you get in the car.

Being told that I wasn't successful in an internal interview as I was of the age group where I'd go off and have a family.

Actually making an unconscious decision to let myself get fatter to avoid unwanted attention from, and awkward situations with, men.

Crossing the road when walking to check if I'm being followed.

Total aside, but boohoo - you drive a train!!! Starry-eyed envy.

Former female manager telling us we don’t look professional without heels and lipstick

Having your hand shoved down a mans pants in a nightclub. Having them trying to put there hands in yours. People being surprised I’m intelligent. Being expected by other people to be grateful to my husband for parenting his own children

Give birth
Breastfeed
Be in excruciating pain, rolling around in agony type pain, because of my period
Been told I shouldn't wear heels because I'm too tall
Been told I could wear men's clothes when they don't do women's trousers long enough for me
Be confused for a man ....

Being told how to drive my train better by a man on a platform. Incidentally he was very wrong and had no clue what he was taking about but that didn’t stop him. Not one of my male colleagues has experienced similar, but all of the female ones have.

Spent money on a taxi home from an evening out even though it’s only 15 minutes walk home, then talked on the phone to your mate throughout the taxi journey because you know the company has a really bad reputation for their drivers sexually assaulting women.

Had to watch your drink like a hawk/take your drink to the toilet with you/keep your hand over your drink so it doesn’t get spiked.

Been unable to just sit and chat with your female friend/s on an evening out without having men trying to butt in/come and sit with you, then being sworn at and called names when you politely ask to be left alone.

Had a man grab you around the waiste and move you out of his way.

I could go on, obviously. On, and on, and on...

Being told if you want to get on at work you need to wear more lipstick.

Oh and being told by a boyfriend not to wear a short skirt because you look like you’re on the pull.

Having a random man grab your breasts on Oxford Street on a busy Saturday lunch time.
Being surrounded by a group of men on the tube who harass you so you are scared to get off.
Calling someone to talk to you on the way home from the tube when it’s late at night.
Having a male nurse tell you that you won’t faint if he takes blood from you and refusing to let you lie down (guess what sunshine I always faint having blood taken unless lying down) and then complaining when you do faint.
Having another male nurse ignore you when you say he won’t find a vein in your arm and will need to use a hand vein - several botched attempts in the arm later and massive bruises he finally tries the vein you told him would work all along. Women nurses trust that you know your own body and are helping them (in my experience).
All the shit (night sweats, not sleeping, weight gain) that comes with the menopause.

Choosing clothes carefully, to take into consideration ...
period mishaps, looking ‘tarty’ looking ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ looking ‘appropriate’ for the work situation, dressing too old or too young, being worried about wether the ‘boob’ situation is appropriate etc etc

Can you imagine men having to care that much about their appearance and how they will be judged by it?

That's just vile and shit, really.

Been told by your boss your nipples were visible. In a lift full of male colleagues and visitors with whom you were about to attend a meeting.

Had someone masturbate “at” you while you were revising for an exam in a library.

Had someone show you his cock while you were on a tube train.
Not say anything because you didn’t want to alarm your mother, who was facing in the opposite direction.

At work, on the floor stocking lower shelves, and having men say “while you’re down there” and thinking they’re funny and original.
They’re not.

Entering a relationship on an equal financial footing but, after having children, your DH out earns you by a factor of 10.
Felt/been trapped in an unhappy/ abusive relationship because you have children and gave up your financial security to do so.
Because, when discussing with your partner how you’ll care for those babies when you have them, the fact is that his career prospects/potential earnings long term are always going to be better than yours.
When the relationship ends (on his terms/timetable), being beholden to him and unable to fully express your feelings (even/especially when he’s treated you appallingly) in case he leaves you and your children destitute and homeless.

When I wanted to be sterilised due to two horrific pregnancies and being asked well
What if you split up (with my husband) and marry again? What do you not understand about ‘I never want to be pregnant again?’ It’s not the mans choice whether I have another fucking baby.

Knowing that, in a professional setting, you consistently have to work twice as hard as any man at the same level, in order to gain the same amount of respect.
That every time you walk into a boardroom, there are people who expect you to fail and so you have to prove yourself over and over again no matter how long you have held a position and how many qualifications you have.
That your male counterpart can say that he hasn't had time to prepare a presentation and everyone will accept that as face value and as evidence that he is a very busy man. When you say the same thing, it is evidence that you are scatty, ditzy and not focused, or not cut out for, the job. In fact, because you know this will be the response, you have never, ever, got to a point where you are unprepared - even if it means working through the night.

Listen to someone raving about how my husband is ‘such a great father’ for doing the things that I do and have done since my children were born. He’s just being a dad, he’s not great for cooking their tea ffs.

I am considering writing a book about this. One afternoon, I decided to write down every experience that had happened to me where I was physically in danger.

In one year - ONE - there were eight separate incidents.

Had your DP (male) expect you to give up work if you were to ever have children (that he expected you to have despite saying you’re not sure you want children); despite you earning 5x what he does and training for 15 years to get there. ‘But men can’t stay at home with children and no child of mine is going to be raised by a working mother’.

Needless to say it didn’t work out.

Being picked up and spun round by a stranger in a pub because England scored a goal

oh god yes this! im short and (was very) petite and men seemed to think that was a green light to treat me like some kind of living doll - physically picked up in bars, swimming pools and at concerts, bodily moved out of the way

going to cricket with my sisters and having the game explained to me earnestly by men without asking if we actually understood the game.

hiding in the toilets at train stations when groups of drunk men turn up

Been terrified in my own home after the (young) male next door neighbour tells me -through the hedge- that he’s been watching me in the garden for ages... then I find a note with his number, pushed through my door overnight😱
He eventually moved...
A Christmas card is sent to me for the next 3 years....

Being taken home by the children’s Dad after babysitting and tutoring them (part of a school project) ... and being offered his penis (exposed) outside my house in broad daylight...
I was 15....

Yes to the changing my routes home when younger - so happy when I learnt to drive!!

I don’t really walk anywhere alone anymore, I always have my German Shepherd with me.

Being recorded on video by a man on the beach while l was in swimwear last summer. I looked up the law, apparently, we don't have a right to privacy in public. A guy approached me in the water snorkeling, like a shark! It's a big beach and he made a bee line towards me for about 30 metres. I know that l sound crazy, now. The guy who stands on top of a large rock at the beach, everyday, and stares at women changing. Men drying just their penis at the beach for long, long minutes. Yep, it kind of ruined my lockdown summer last year. There's also a whole theme of public transport ones, but l can't right now