Yes it is infuriating: A long time ago, women simply could not get credit, a tenancy, or even hire anything, without a real person i.e. a male, signing for them. A woman solicitor had her own thriving business, but her dad, a retired manual worker, had to hire some household gadget on her behalf.
A woman had two properties, one held outright, bought for cash, with unencumered freehold deeds to hand over as security. She proposed leaving the deeds against borrowing a fairly trivial sum. It would fund merely moving a door, to improve the layout of the other house, and thereby increase value by creating an extra room.
(Normally, she would save up first for everything, but the correct builder had a 'window', and the weather was right, and the extra room would soon provide extra income from a lodger, so just for once, she was willing to go into a tiny amount of temporary debt) The bank sneered "we aren't pawnbrokers" and "we don't lend to women, they might get pregnant".
The only tiny comfort is when using weakness as strength: Pestered at the door, or by a salesman, (notably in Arab countries) it can be a game-winner, bringing slightly baffled, but instant, respite, to cite a 'husband', who "won't allow" buying anything, deciding anything, carrying cash, etc.
Incidentally, a cheap fake wedding ring and fleeting mention of a 'husband' is a pretty good anti-grope, anti-approach- and- pester device, at work, on holiday, or anywhere else.
A safety ruse at the door can be holding a finger to the mouth, and speaking barely above a whisper, because the "husband is sleeping, because he's worked a night shift".
A similar trick was a woman living alone in an isolated cottage, who obtained a set of giant sized wellies, slippers, raincoat, dressing gown, and a hall stand to display them, in sight of anyone approaching the front door. Men don't respect women, but they do fear the 'owners' of women.
Especially if they might be big and strong: One policeman pushed his way into the flat of a woman, full of confidence, presumably because she had returned home alone late at night, therefore was fair game and unprotected, and she couldn't threaten to call the police, since he WAS 'the police'
His opening gambit was that they were both out late, and he was desperate for a cup of tea, which, he insisted, nobody could possibly refuse him. She began to boil the kettle, observing his gaze as he surveyed the kitchen.....
Hanging on the back of the kitchen door was a truly enormous Karate suit, (belonging to her lodger). Suddenly, the policeman remembered he didn't have time for tea, and almost ran out of the flat..!