Woman doing a ‘man’s’ job

[Sunshine9356]

I noticed that the driver of our bin lorry today was a young woman. I was surprised, although I know I shouldn’t be.

Are you a woman in a male dominated field? What reactions do you get and do you find it frustrating that it is still commented on?

Is it 1960?

Worked in engineering and construction for over 30 years. Rarely had comments.

Yep! I survey for an installation team - cabling, power etc. I was recently asked during a meeting by an older gentleman, when would the MAN would be arriving to do the survey. I just put my hand up and said, actually it’s me who will be doing it, no man required. Got a bit of a giggle from the rest of the meeting!

My dh is a tradesman and in their team are a few women. First time he has worked with a woman in the team.

First post. Journalist? Get off your ass and do a proper job.

I doubt the OP has a donkey to hand.

What's your job OP?

I'm a train driver. It's mostly men although there are more women now than when I first started.

I love hearing about women in male dominated careers!

Whenever I see a women builder or something that’s very male dominated it always makes me smile.

There are also many female dominated careers like nannies and beauticians.

Unix techy. "It's not often you see a woman in the datacentre." "Are you the secretary?"

The best was probably, "you can think logically because you don't have enough female hormones." I was very premenstrual at the time and felt I had rather too many female hormones, and pointed out the least logical person we both knew was a man. Plus I'm pretty certain he's never had any background in endocrinology, and even if he had, I don't think they use a patient's logical thinking abilities as a diagnostic tool...

I get fewer comments than used to be the case - either people are more used to it, or have gained a survival instinct or something. I do remember the shock I felt when we had a visiting field engineer to a datacentre who was a woman, because that's even more unusual than sys admins. But I didn't comment on it, because I know how annoying it is to have people point out you're unusual.

I drive a forklift, there are loads of women drivers where I work. It's about a 50/50 split.

I’m an accountant which I find is a very female dominated profession these days

I don’t usually post, just enjoy reading others posts whilst having a coffee. My reaction surprised me today especially as it’s no longer 1960 ( as someone rightly pointed out above)

Fair enough. Usually when a first poster starts a thread with the whole 'tell me about your experiences' it turns up in the daily mail a day later when a dumpster fire of a journalist who couldn't be bothered to do a modicum of research just got mnetters to create content for them.

I'm a tube driver, there are other women drivers but the majority at least on my line are men.

I have a few T-shirts from my military platoon / our missions. Whenever I wear them people will ask about my husbands military career instead of thinking they could be mine 🙄

I had a word with myself when I drove into the back of a Sky engineer and I was surprised when this tiny little woman got out of the driver's seat.

She obviously must have been capable of doing the job, but I wouldn't have been able to lift the ladders back onto the roof and I'm nearly a foot taller than she was.

My profession is probably quite evenly split but it takes me to some very male dominated workplaces like demolition and oil refineries.

One group of men told a few of us that they'd never worked directly with women before and they were worried we'd be offended by their swearing and general and literal hairy arsedness. They relaxed a little when they realised we weren't delicate little flowers and probably swore more than they did.

Another tube driver here. Mainly male in my depot but in the previous one we were about 80/20 as it was a younger depot. Don’t get any comments now but when I first started 15 years ago I had a few, I think because I still looked young in those days. I did once have a man stop me and make a suggestion about how I could drive my train to make the journey smoother as he ‘knows a bit about trains’. Not enough to know the train I was operating ran automatically apparently. I’d lay money that he wouldn’t have made the suggestion to another man.

I think what is sad, at my age of 60, is

1. I had my first female heating engineer visit last year to service my boiler


2. my first and only female boss was for the last 2 years of my career - a 38 year career


3. I have never worked for a company that had a female CEO


4. we never had a female leader of the Labour or liberal parties


5. I have never had a female builder working on my homes - ever


6. I have never had a female electrician working in my home.


7. nor a female financial advisor


8. i have never dealt with a female car salesperson - I would like to as the male ones are so bloody patronising


9. there is still a fucking gender pay gap


10. there is also a fucking gender pension gap

Funny you should post this today, OP because last weekend I spotted a woman refuse collector, not driving the bin lorry but lifting the bins onto the back. Maybe she also drives it, dunno.

Last year I met a female plumber for the first time. She was brilliant!

Well I’m an architect. But first trained as a software developer!!

Not much to say other than it is difficult to be taken seriously as a woman in construction. Especially when the client is usually the husband!

I was… I got bullied badly and HR did nothing and surprise surprise I get made redundant during lockdown.

wouldn’t encourage any females into the industry you just get used and abused

I work in a male dominated industry

I've enjoyed it over the years

I have received the odd strange comment, a good sense of humour & agreat work ethic helps.

I have been called "an honoury bloke" which is great, because it means that I've been accepted by the wider team.

However there is actually no reason why more women could not do my job role now or in the future.

Decades ago I worked in a job which was male-only until I was recruited. I was literally the first and the only woman in the post in the entire UK. A second woman joined about 2 years later.

It was hell at times. I was constantly told women weren't wanted, that we were inferior, that I would not last, that I would soon get married or pregnant so my training would be wasted. I was harassed, groped, and when I complained to my manager he told me if I could not stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. One man groped me and when I pushed him away he looked bewildered and said he'd assumed I had chosen to be a girl among hundreds of men "for one reason."

I was in the union but the union officials were just as bad if not worse than my colleagues. There was the occasional "woke" Communistic type of activist who did not treat me as an inferior.

I stayed because I refused to be bullied out of the job that I loved.

I did not realise at the time that this was a grave error because I believe that the long term bullying and constantly being insulted and belittled day after day, month after month, and year after year, damaged my self esteem permanently.

Sounds daft but I should have left as soon as I realised I was going to be mistreated by 75 percent of my colleagues and management.