I wish I could always give my business to women

The first rule of Lesbian Discount Club, is you don't talk about Lesbian Discount Club...

Why was it a bonus that she was a lesbian? Do lesbians give discounts on car purchases? In what part of the car buying process does somebody's sexuality come up? It's not odd to ask if they have a woman to help you purchase a car because women know about cars too but it's really odd that her being a lesbian has any relevance at all lol. I don't own a car but I'm gonna ask my sister and her wife later if they bought their cars from lesbians because it sounds like it comes with added extras lol

I wasn't good love. I was excellent.

When I went off work with tonsillitus for 3 weeks they replaced me with 3 fully grown qualified men. Who then got paid more than me obviously even though I was doing the work of 3 adult human men.

And the other reason is that I find it incredibly stressful having strange men in the house, no doubt because of a history of sexual assault. As such even if the woman were only average, it would be a significantly better experience for me.

Were the males taking the f piss? Overcharging because I have no man at home talking to them and clearly not very savvy on all this?*

Anyone ever experienced anything similar?

I have a friend who talks about this constantly, that as a single woman she's getting appalling behaviour from tradesmen. I'd hire a woman over a man for this kind of thing in a heartbeat, for all the things mentioned in this thread. Even if they don't meet the perceived wisdom that a good tradesperson is never available straight away.

Not dramatic at all.

@quantumbutterfly quite

Bit dramatic.

@AlisonDonut Mate, why you getting all pissy with me about it. I merely gave my opinion on CONTRACTORS BEING AVAILABLE... NOT SPECIFICALLY WOMEN ONES. Thought you might need to see in capitals to read it properly. No one is saying you're not good. Jesus.

I've had this for nearly 4 decades now. Why on earth did I bother?

I had one woman telling me I really shouldn't have as women don't like getting their hands dirty and it was a complete and utter waste of time.

Every single contractor that has not returned calls, booked in for a quote them been a no show, overcharged me and generally taken the piss, has been a man. And I'd say this behaviour I've experienced in over 50% of the cases.

At the start of this year I had a plumber come to refit sink taps on downstairs loo. After lots of WhatsApp convos I supplied the taps. He arrived circa 2pm, announced after 15 minutes he needed to get a washer from the wholesaler, went, came back just 3.30pm, changed it the charged me 2 hours labour

I'd be more than happy to start taking women on.

Her fees will be less because women notoriously undersell themselves.

I've never had a female tradesperson not turn up, disappear to pick up something from B&Q and not appear until days later, bang loads of extra costs on final invoice, take loads of phonecalls whilst working. I can only think of three times I've been able to find a female and every single time there's been a fab job done. (Plastering, landscaping, plumbing).

(Also through work I use a number of freelance copywriters. This will sound like a shocking generalisation but it's my experience that the women are always cheaper*, take time to understand what I want, and deliver a great job on time)

I would like to give more work to women but it's almost impossible to find women in skilled trades.

*I will always pay a fair rate.

@AlisonDonut 😂 bit dramatic.

Honestly I do wonder why I bothered when I see shit like this.

You think she hasn't had this since the day she walked onto a construction site?

I thought we were opening doors for women in construction but the shit never fucking ends. Even 35 years after I first walked onto mine.

I'd be really interested to hear how you get on.

Was cold called last week and the lad ignored my questions, talked over me, then said that all I'd need to do was make the contractor a cup of tea while he worked 😂
I have work that needs doing and a small fund to do it, I'm fed up of being patronised and fleeced.

Of course not. I do think that the women who stick around in that industry to tend to be better then average though and perhaps because of underdog syndrome they might charge less or work harder then male counterparts.

I once by complete coincidence, ended up sitting next to the head of architecture of a famous university at an event. I was only a young teen myself and interested in studying it at uni so we ended up chatting, he said some very interesting things that were very complimentary about women in design and construction, in particular that women tend to listen to the client more and that men were more likely to let their ego get in the way. This was 25 years ago and it's stuck with me. I did in fact do a degree in architecture and now work in design/construction. Thanks Peter!!

I don't think the data is available to compare male and female contractors, so every contractor must be assessed on their merits. But I do think there's a bias against female contractors, which I'd like to counteract by choosing them, all else being equal. Also, having men working in my home is potentially unsafer, and definitely more irritating.

Your strawman argument makes no sense, no.

There's an underlying point here. As ArabellaScott says, there are not enough women in trades and construction. All the talk about 'Women In Technology' is about the shiny-blinky-lights high tech, which is important of course, but at the level of established technologies like building, motor mechanics, plumbing etc, women are woefully under-represented.

I often hear men saying 'It's because girls don't like getting their hands dirty. they don't want to do jobs like plastering or fixing cars' - yeah, like looking after children or patients in hospital [= 'traditional female jobs'] never ever involves getting your hands dirty, right??

One of the reasons that I thrived as the only woman in a non-traditional job was because I had been given 'boys' toys' as well as dolls when I was little - the toy tool kits, the Meccano sets, the Airfix kits, so I developed confidence with tools, manual dexterity and the ability to read schematic plans as I grew up. It wasn't a big step up to applying those skills professionally.

But children's toys remain very stereotyped, even if the Argos catalogue has dropped the 'boys' toys'/ 'girls' toys' labels, it's obvious to children which are which from illustrations, packaging etc.

And MissingLesbianSpaces - I know exactly what you mean about the little buzz when you find yourself dealing with another lesbian -
sorry IDontHateRainbows, it's just a little recognition thing, don't take it too seriously!
It's like when I lived in London and the plumber who came to fix a dodgy tap turned out to be from the same village in the West of Ireland where my father grew up, just a little recognition buzz that makes you smile.
I assume it would be the same if the plumber was a lesbian but guess what? I never encountered a female plumber, ever.

She might not be booked up because there are so many misogynist dickheads who don’t want to hire a female contractor, meaning she’s not booked up, so the ambivalent rather than hostile then think she’s not popular or any good.

So automatically females are better than men and females do an actual better job then men 100% all the time?

The logic makes no sense

We had a similar situation with a female builder. Ended up paying her something in the middle of what she quoted Vs what the 4x men had quoted as I sincerely believe she was undercharging. She did a fab blooming job and also offered us advice based on her experience both as a builder but also just in life. Have had several companies just say 'whatever you want' when I ask their professional opinion so this was very refreshing!

Yes this absolutely

there are still a lot of ppl who think women who are plumbers or painters or plasterers or whatever just can’t possibly be any good at it. Certainly not as good as a man. They just won’t hire them

If it's a male dominated industry then I'm not necessarily surprised the woman is available for immediate start. I used to work as a technical advisor in a male dominated industry (within the last 10 years) and would regularly get "I want to speak to a specialist is John or Bob there?" If I told them I could help (because I had the same or more experience) they would say they'd call back later. Some people don't want to deal with a woman.

How the hell is her sexuality relevant to the purchase of a new car?