Are you ever the only woman at work?

[WinkyTinky]

That's my question. I work in a male dominated industry, and mostly get along really well with all of my male colleagues without even noticing that, at times, I'm the only woman here. But occasionally I feel a bit uncomfortable, especially as sometimes they can get a bit schoolboy-ish and show each other questionable videos on their phones, as they have done this afternoon when there's only me here and the other women have gone home. Anyway, just asking out of interest, how common is this?

I used to work in a very male dominated industry, connected to construction so was sent out to sites and was often the only woman at the meeting. Generally the men were overly polite, sometimes it was almost comical with older men as they didn't know how to engage with a young woman. There were a few old school guys, mostly small older builders who were patronising. My actual employer was predominantly male and there were some horrible men there, one who i felt was openly sexist towards me but mostly they were just assholes with big egos. I now work in a 100% female company and we have a lovely team, people have their issues of course but for the most part they are reasonable and co operative and not cliquey.

I work in IT security so yeah, currently only 17% of the U.K. cybersecurity roles are filled by women, if I go to any kind of industry event I'm in the minority and my current level of management is 8 men and me in the IT team.

I was a chef in restaurants for many years.
all other people BOH were male.
The banter was hilarious.

Yes frequently as I'm in IT in a tech sales role for a large multinational. I've honestly never found it to be a problem. We're pretty good at diversity stuff to the extent that I indulge in severe eye rolling at a colleague with a penchant for loveheart emojis on Teams. Like, no need mate.

Just realised I said 'mostly small older builders who were patronising', I didn't mean small men! I meant a small building firm like a self employed man who worked alone or with a small crew of 2 or 3.

Say it louder then. Tell them they are being utterly disrespectful, and you will not tolerate sexism and misogyny in the workplace.

Yes, almost daily. I work in tech. I've never experienced this, it would absolutely not be tolerated at my workplace, there would be serious consequences for anyone behaving in that way.

I work in a male dominated industry. In my first job there was quite a lot of sexism. Now thankfully the worst I have to put up with is loads of football banter that I couldn't care less about!
And because there are so few women there is never a queue for the loo!

I work in a primary school, so no, literally never!!

I am, also construction/built environment related.

Sometimes it feels a bit like being back in school, more like sixth form. Nothing inappropriate but not overly stiff and professional. Everyone gets a long and it's really nice.

Only once have I had to gently tell someone not to talk about something upsetting, but it wasn't to do with sexism.

Not currently (actually women only for me at the mo), but 4 years ago I spent a good decade working with men only, almost exclusively. I was a chef.
The things that stood out:

1. Only ever had 2 problems with sexism; 1st one was a male chef literally taking things from my hands to do it (will do the other one in the next point).

2. Working in male dominated kitchens they did not clean. They only cooked and left it to the KPs to clean. Annoyed me endlessly as I spent some time in a female only kitchen and we cleaned and cleaned. The place was spotless. (Other sexism was an older waitress said that men don't have the clean gene; I called her out immediately and said kitchen workers cook AND clean or they aren't doing their job, male or female).

3. The men treated me with respect. They joked and were serious with me, never treated me like an object or a lesser person, they valued my skill set for what it was. Apart from the odd occasion I worked with some talented, lovely people.

No, I work in an almost totally female workspace - same wherever in the country. There is sometimes a token man, who the general public will treat as the boss regardless of whether he is the most junior team member or not.

I do one day a week in a much more male workplace. The banter there is superb.

Used to work at a builders merchants and there were no other women working on that site… at all 🤣 to be honest it was never an issue. I adored some of my colleagues, liked some well enough and despised others, just like anywhere else. Yes they could get rowdy and silly etc sometimes but I enjoyed that side of it, nothing they ever did offended or upset me. They were certainly never disrespectful to me or around me anyway.
I’m sorry they’re making you feel uncomfortable, sounds a bit shit!

Often yes, very male dominated industry. They are generally lovely, happy to help if I need it and not patronising. Absolutely respect my capability.
I am confident to pull them up if anything was inappropriate, and it has only come up once or twice. Can't even remember what it was about now. Couldn't care less about swearing.
I prefer it to previous workplaces that have been mostly women.

A client came in the other day and was moaning about something and then was profusely apologetic to me for swearing. He might have said shit but I didn't actually notice!! (Not that we're swearing all the time)