To find this assumption about all-female workplaces irritating?

[PangolinPie]

I work for a small charity which up until a few weeks ago was an all-female office. We now have a male finance worker, to which the manager said "I think we need a man in the office" 🙄 Lo and behold, next thing was, he was exempt from the bloody tea-towel rota (yes we have such a thing where I work) under the proviso he worked less hours than the rest of us. Until it was pointed out another woman in the office worked exactly the same hours as him.

As an office we are not "bitchy" or "emotional" or all those other clichés applied to all-female workforces so why would the manager make such a stupid statement?

I think it's up to every individual member of staff to challenge, question and report every sexist utterance from managers like yours.

I personally wouldn't get worked up about the comments or the tea towel duty, l think from reading lots of similar posts on here it would be easy to think women have never been so oppressed, when in actual fact the next generation have everything to play for if only they aren't encouraged to constantly view themselves as helpless victims.
Since when has pointing out sexism, and expecting men to do take part in office duties, been encouraging women to be victims?

Damn right YANBU - some of the worst people I've worked with have been male - though it's pretty evenly balanced really and those who make the most noise about an all female place being bitchy often display the worst behaviour themselves.

I work for a charity in an all female environment.

It's fab! Positive, progressive, supportive and we all take turns with the tea towels.

Only negative is that my newly appointed assistant moaned that she was hoping to meet a bf or partner at work - online dating is apparently a pain in the arse and she's envious of all of us oldies who met our partners through work.

All-female work places are bitchy and cliquey. But then big DH says the same is true for all male work places

Manager 1 - female. Awful. Bitchy. Backstabber. Exceedingly emotional.
Manager 2 - female. None of the above. Trustworthy. Not dramatic, nor emotional. Very empathetic.
Manager 3 - male. Fucking whiney eeyore. Proper little drama queen.

In short, surely it depends on the people involved.

I have worked with mainly women previously. One time is a wonderfully supportive workplace. Another, you had to have your back to the wall at all times.

Seriously, what else could a tea towel rota be???

when in actual fact the next generation have everything to play for if only they aren't encouraged to constantly view themselves as helpless victims.

^

Helpless?? You mean women's subjugation throughout the centuries?

I've worked in several all female environments and all of them have been bitchy hostile environments. If a person was ever off for the day, they would be that day's topic. Then the next day it would be someone else. It's a different dynamic when you've got a couple of men there.

His comment was out of line, but I also don't like all-female environments, in general. Both of the ones I've worked in have been bitchy, and judging by the fact they talked about whoever left the office as soon as the door closed, I assume the same was done to me! I actually had to tell them, more than once, to stop involving me in the gossip (it was nasty, I wanted to work instead of constantly rip someone else to shreds and really didn't care if that fuelled them to talk about me 😁).
In an old team, a man did join at one point. For some reason they decided to slyly pick on his dress sense and whatever else they could find, they were quite aghast when his response was "oh f*ck off". 😁

The only bitchiness I have come across at work has been from men. I much prefer female work colleagues. Men are far worse at stirring up bad atmospheres and bullying behaviour in my experience.

My favourite ever boss was female and my second most hates boss was also female.
Both on (different) female only teams. I find the boss sets the culture. My shit was was a shit stirrer and bullshitter...and very bitchy. The sort who would call you for a private meeting and make you sit with her and eat treats/drink tea while she bitches about your colleagues. Tries to force wedges between friendships and will turn on you faster than anything.

My best boss was very open, understanding and trustworthy.

Unfortunately I think because so few women speak out when they have a great female only office compared to those who do when they have a shit one, 'men' are often only aware of the bad ones.

I've worked in all male and all female and mixed environments. By far my preferred jobs have been in all-female. My best bosses have been female. Now I run my own company these women are my role models - professional, expert, supportive.

I've never been bullied by a female co-worker whereas I have twice now been bullied out of jobs by males.

We have a department of 14 women and one man. A man from another department came in and remarked on how he was horrified to find the man making coffee for several of us, implying that we should be serving him

Our colleague grew up as the only boy with five sisters and works in a female dominated industry so he promptly told this other guy to get in the bin.

WE'RE ALL INDIVIDUALS.

I've had good female bosses and workplaces and terrible. Ditto for male.