Would you like to play "It's like Feminisim never happened" with me?

[Marchpane]

I have a gem: I'm sorting out the home insurance renewal but since the last policy I have taken redundancy and I'm going back to do a postgraduate course. Which I told them.

They now have my occupation listed as "housewife" which is pretty yuk, but under employer's business it say "domestic service".

Presumably my husband is my employer and I spend my time in servitude to him?

Any one more?

We all went on holiday together as a family. After dinner on day, I asked DH which job he would like - Cleaning DD's face and hands or wiping the highchair and picking up all the dropped food off the floor. MIL piped up with "say neither" as obviously both jobs were mine!

Luckily, DH replied with "I am quite capable of wiping a highchair Mum" I love him :)

Once worked in a law firm where one male paralegal thought it was perfectly reasonable to cry off 'all hands on deck' emergency overtime typing duty (huge deadline the next day) because he couldn't type, and he wasn't fired on the spot.

I have never had any doubt that a woman making the same excuse would have got her walking papers for something like that -- even the junior lawyers were rolling up their sleeves. Secretaries with babies in childcare were calling relatives and friends to pick up their children throughout the late afternoon and scrambling to make arrangements...

Ugh grapeandlemon you have reminded me of when I worked in a large office with about 30 other women, and one day had to listen to at least ten of them discussing how women and girls were just asking for it, going out the way they dressed, they should take a bit more care and have more common sense. At least half of these women had young daughters. Eventually I chipped in with a suggestion that they think about how they would feel if someone applied that to their own children, and pointed out that if we start policing clothing they were all likely to end up wearing something burka-esque.

DD is 21 and just returned from a holiday with her boyfriend and was fuming how the restaurant staff always gave him the drinks receipts to sign so they could be added to the hotel bill.
"If I knew the spanish for 'fat chance he'll be paying the sodding bill' I'd have used it mum"

I get a lot of the driving comments, and mechanics addressing questions to OH.
Who doesn't drive and has no idea how to fill 'er up. Let alone what the correct whojamaflip is.

lol that reminds me of another Grandad one
Saying "Drive carefully" after a family do to my DH who is three sheets to the wind, and standing next to me, jingling the car keys

With reference to my 'man and wife' rant earlier, I have just been out to buy a wedding card and was appalled at the number of variations of 'Enjoy your first day as man and wife'. It's not his first day as a man you idiots, it's his first day as a husband.

I've just remembered another one- my car insurance came through in the name of Mrs [My Maiden Name], because gocompare don't let you be Miss once you divulge that you're married. Twats.

On a lighter note novicemama what is the name of that restaurant where the "ladies" get handed the menu with no prices!!!????

sorry but absolutely PMSL at that one!

Hi, I'm normally a lurker on this section, but have taken to reading it avidly.

A couple of examples that immediately spring to mind are -

From an Ex-BF (thank goodness!) when asking him to help round the house....

Him: You're better at it than I am. Me: What? Why's that then? Him: Because you're a woman and woman have a housework gene.

From a work colleague, a woman a few years older than me, with children. Out of a team of 14, 2 of us work p/time (and we are the senior members of the team).

Colleague: Well, if women choose to have babies, then why should they be able to return to work part time? It's their choice and their responsibility and they should stay home to look after them, until they can return to work properly.

'"If I knew the spanish for 'fat chance he'll be paying the sodding bill' I'd have used it mum"'

I love this. Wish I'd had the balls at that age!

I particularly love that people constantly tell me how lucky I am to have DH supporting me through my studies. I find it annoying, as my money comes to more than his, but assumed it was to do with people not knowing that you get money for postgrad studies. Not so: my (male) mate on the same course just revealed that people always tell his girlfriend she must be proud of him - no mention of her 'keeping' him! And (and this is especially crap since she has a first in law), they always assume she must be significantly less well-qualified than him.

Bloody hell tippy. Words fail.

Years and years ago I used to work shifts, and there was a "joke" about "it's the one with the tits makes the tea". Um that would have been me then. I use to tell them to fuck off and tea making duties were generally equitable.

One morning however, after a night shift, I received a phone call from a colleague's MOTHER to inform me that "Steve has just left and he asked me to ring you to get the kettle on!" It was a most illuminating phone conversation, that ended with both of us laughing at the crapness of particular males. And no, I did NOT put the kettle on.

oh, i have one, the disclosure scotland website (like CRB) wouldn't let me select Ms if i couldn't also give an answer to 'other surnames you have been known by'!!!!!

The worse thing at that particular company though: there was a guy known as Fuckwit Frank. He joined the company not long before there was a big wind down and we were all to be made redundant.

Even the bosses laughed at his uselessness, but because of the situation, they wanted to hang on to as many staff as possible for the time still remaining.

Then there was the day that I found out that he earnt vastly more than me for doing exactly the same job...

It was a long time ago now, but my first ever driving lesson began with an explanation of everything on the dashboard:

'This light comes on when you've left the handbrake on. Women do that sometimes.

This light is for when you are low on oil.'

If this light comes on, head to the nearest garage and say 'help, help, I'm a poor helpless woman!' and they will fix it for you.

Seriously.

CSA was v sexist. DH's son chose to live with us. (What, a child wanting to live with his father?) DH and I also had a DC together - the child benefit was paid in my name.
When DH tried to make a claim about his ex-W, was told I had to make the claim as the child benefit was paid to me.
When I tried to make a claim, the "computer said no" as apparently a woman can't make a claim against another woman.

That's quite interesting because two women I know who have children together (ie both names on the birth certificate and CPd) have been told that if they split up, the CSA will apply as if they were a heterosexual couple - and quite right too, they fully agreed.

MrNC and I went to the same university. So after we moved in together I filled in the form sent with each copy of the uni magazine to say we only need one copy between us.

Since then every issue has been addressed to Dr HisInitals and Ms My Initials HisSurname, despite three times my emailing or returning the form point8ing out I have never used his name. When I got my PhD they 'corrected' it to Dr HisInits and Dr MyInits Hisname.

I contact them a couple times a year to point out that I won't donate any money to a uni that can't get my name right.

Yesterday we got two identical appeals for dosh - one to Dr HisInits and Dr MyInits Hisname, and one to Ms MyInitials MyName... well I suppose it's a 800-year history and they haven't been giving PhDs to women for long...

And all the people who tell me MrNC is 'so good' for changing nappies/cooking food/emptying the dishwasher etc. I thank them for being so impressed that I too can be a functioning adult. I can't believe how many dads I know with babies in 2010 who 'rarely' change their offspring's nappy!

My CRB check didn't arrive for ages, so I rang and queried if there was a problem. Oh yes there was. I had titled myself Ms, but in the 'previous names' bit had put n/a. I was therefore obviously lying and needed further investigation.

My doctors surgery refused to put me as Ms, and had me and Miss last time I visited. I asked for a change of name form, and just changed the title, so I am curious to see what there is when I next visit...

I once got a cheque for some benefits that had been messed up. We were utterly skint, so they paid us in a couple of giros that we could cash straight away. For some reason, I was Ms on the letter, and Miss on the cheque, and the post office woman argued about cashing it! She said that I couldn't possibly go by both names as Miss means you have never been married, and Ms is a divorced woman. I was heavily pregnant and penniless- she got very short shrift!

MY OWN MOTHER didn't prepare a speech for the wedding, even though I had specifically said that I would like her and my Dad to say something at such a point. I told her she didn't get out of it that easily :) Plus they insisted I make some kind of grand entrance, even though DP was already propping up the bar. I managed to be stood next to DH on the stage while people entered for the ceremony itself though. I'm not having people looking at me walking if DH gets to just...stand there.

When we moved to the area, the health visitor rang to introduce herself. DH answered and she asked for me. When he said I was busy she said she would ring back another time. Because obviously he knew nothing about his own child...

Plus the endless, endless comments about how my daughters will turn out weird if we "make" them play with cars and so on. Sigh.

I have had the same CRB issue as others have mentioned. They can't get their heads around the idea that you are married but have never been known by any other name.

When DS was little, he collapsed and was unconscious in front of a group of people. I took him to hospital and they sent me to paediatrics. The first question the doctor asked me, without asking anything about DS, was what my husband did for a living, and they refused to believe that DS had even been unconscious until DH turned up at the hospital. They said my friend (a female teacher) who had tried to bring DS round was probably just panicking and had misunderstood what she saw.