AIBU to think lots of women are ridiculously sexist at work?

[missymayhemsmum]

For example, a display stand needed putting together.. the woman I spoke to immediately delegated the task to the young man beside her...
There's an IT problem and the solution requires diving under the desk with a screwdriver..How many of you would expect a man to do it?
Likewise anything anything remotely 'technical' or involving climbing a ladder, moving boxes etc?

I work in the NHS so this isn't really an option. There are about 60 women and 5 men in my department. We're a pretty capable lot as you could die of old age waiting for IT or Estates to turn up. Maybe it would be different if we had more men but we haven't so we manage.

If I can do stuff, I do it. If I can't, I find someone who can. I care not whether they are male or female.

I have had working at heights training, so I'm allowed up ladders. I've also spent time working under the dropped floor, and they changed the signs on the datacentre doors when I pointed out that it's just as much a hazard if I'm raising floor tiles as any "men working behind doors." Some of the engineers from our suppliers manage not to comment on how unusual it is to find a woman working in the datacentre (not all of them, though. )

I happily do everything the OP talks about. But today when moving equipment, did let the man I was working with lift the heavier equipment. But he is younger and stronger than me, so that was reasonable.

I've always done everything myself and it's a right pain (literally) that chronic arthritis has put paid to that.

I just ask the closest person to me no matter what gender they are.

Oh god yes. There's the 'strong man to lift' the 'i dont umderstand wires and things' the 'he thinks he's in charges he does' weirdness by women who think men are agressive and dominant just by existing, the 'could you look at my computer' types, the 'women plan the nice things like cake and birthday cards' type, and the 'men are lumbering/ clumsy/dirty/untidy types' ..eg 'oh men! that (communal) kitchen is disgusting' or 'what would ypu know, you probably dont even shower every day' comments, and the 'men are totally socially unaware' comments..

eg 'you wouldn't know if x was pregnamt wpuld ypu..you're a man' etc..

This thread is depressing. Nope, I don't do that and not do the women I work with. Though I did once knock a lighting panel out the ceiling after poking in with an umbrella to stop it flickering. I subsequently called the maintenance man/woman for assistance.

There's the 'strong man to lift'

But we're not meant to lift more than 25kg alone, even if we're capable (I am - I was proving a point.) We have electronic lifters to help get heavy servers into racks, and all sorts of trolleys and pallet trucks and so on, and a lot of jobs like racking servers are just massively quicker with two people, regardless of weight. And the really big kit usually comes on wheels, but then it's the dimensions of the doorways which tend to be a problem. So mostly you don't need really strong people, just averagely strong people and to be properly equipped, because otherwise you'll be breaking health and safety guidelines.

I often get asked to help out with people's issues with computers / programming queries etc and I do a fair bit of it. I don't work in IT and I'm a woman. (I'm also ethnically south Asian so not sure if that plays into a different stereotype, but most people I work with know I'm an electronics engineer so it's probably that more than any of the other stuff).

I don't think most women in the workplace are sexist the way you describe, but it depends on workplaces. I've been in some where the women just seem to simper and have "blonde moments".. but most of my workplaces have been fairly evenly balanced and most women I know are just as handy as their male colleagues with computers and screwdrivers.

I haven't found this. My team is mostly female, with a male manager. We all just get on with things when they need doing.

The only time I haven't been able to climb under a desk or (for example) lift somethinf heavy has been due to pregnancy. But I'd be just as likely to ask a female colleague to help as a male colleague.

No. I can sort out my own boxes/ technical issues, thanks. As can my colleagues.
But stereotyping working women as feigning helplessness and manipulating their male colleagues is sexist.