Systems that could only have been designed by a non feminist?

[itshardthinkingofanickname]

Thinkng about the AIBU thread where the system got confused because the OP was a Mrs but had kept her surname - so it kept asking for her maiden name.

Which systems out there must have been designed by a non feminist? I was going to say male but I think that would have been a bit sexist?

Have you noticed that when you have a drop down menu - it's predominantly Mr that comes first. Then all the female titles?

Little things, I know. I'm sure you can find some bigger things where the system is just not designed to cope with women.

Agree completely with thedoctrine

Another is on things like school application forms for children,

Why is it always fathers details first, the odds are incredibly good (wrongly) that a women is filling the form out, will be the first point of contact for the school etc

I type (s)he when I can!

Public spaces generally - they must be designed by able-bodied men, because they are very difficult to navigate if you're pregnant, have small children, are disabled or elderly. So not enough public loos (massive issue IMO), not enough benches , and difficult to get a wheelchair or pushchair around.

I found it very difficult to get around when I was pregnant, and avoided going out because I knew that it was likely that I would become very faint or need the loo quickly. I look forward to being similarly stuck inside when I'm elderly.

"Dear Sir or Madam". Why not "Dear Madam or Sir"?

Insurance. I deal with every aspect of our dealings with our insurance company. I am the only one they deal with re our joint policies. But the mail comes in his name. When I queried this they said it is common insurance practice that the man's name comes first, and they only address postal correspondence to one person. My request that my name be first could not be accommodated. I asked what would happen if we were two women or, shock horror, I was single. In that case, their system apparently could cope with sending correspondence to a woman. But not if there is a man present in the household apparently.

HippieInASecondLocation - that's really short sighted of them. I have a joint account with dh at Nationwide and their paperwork comes though as 'Mrs A and Mr N Surname' (we share a surname) - I didn't have to ask for that, it is just as I was 'person 1' on the form my name comes first.

I make a point when sending Christmas cards of putting the person who is more closely related (for family) or who we knew first/best (for friends) first when writing names (if we've always known them as a couple I do either).

Banks seem to be fine - it's just insurance I've struck this with. Apparently (what I was told anyway, might not be true) it's an international protocol in insurance that person 1 = male, if there is a male.
I do the same as you with cards. The person I know best is first.

Happy to report that on the enquiry form I've just filled in for the Department of Education, the options for your title go:

Miss
Mr
Mrs
Ms

i.e. alphabetical order

Then on to the less common ones, also in alphabetical order, Ambassador, Archbishop etc.

Yes, toilets.

Men's and women's the same size, despite the fact that urinals take up less room and that all small children seem to end up going with the mother. Never enough space for the sani bin. Enormous queues because you actually need more women's toilets because it takes longer to use a cubicle than a urinal.

Shouldn't the person who knows the recipient best be writing the card anyway?

If I write the card, I put me first.

Science is for men, stuff that women do isn't science... like cooking, healing, repairing, sewing... all that is not science. It's only science if it's done by a man, but then it's cuisine, medicine etc.

Only a non-feminist would make sure that, on joint accounts and bills, the man's name always goes first. Very annoying.

bus design. Why is there only one space for a buggy/wheelchair resulting in the weird baby/disabled person faceoff? Or weird situation where second woman with a buggy wants to get on a bus and there already is a buggy on the bus and bus driver treats second woman as if she's asking for her own personal sedan chair. Why don't the wheelchairs or buggies have loads of space - created by lots of flipdown seats. So if a mum with a buggy and a wheelchair user get on at the same time, an able bodied man stands up to accommodate them. It's all designed as if able bodied people without children are the default and everyone else is an oddity.

I find this totally weird. This obviously is the same if viewed from the perspective of a disabled person - a disabled person and a mum with a buggy and a toddler and some shopping are not other - they are the core users just like everyone else. But the provision is secondary. The threads on this on MN make my heart sink as well - no one else is noticing this and worrying about this and getting annoyed about this because they are all provided for. This issue does not feature on men's boards. It's women with children and disabled people.

my surname is double barrelled - only without a hyphen (ie my "maiden" name followed by my married name with a gap)

Was on the Next website last night making an order and it would not allow me to put in my full two-part surname. it told me I needed a "valid surname" so I had to put in a hyphen...

Western Economy
the military
Economic Growth
Our political System
Our education system
the church
THe media

I'll see your public loos and raise you every mixed sex store I have ever been in where the mens dept is always on the upper floors at the back of the building. :-)

Hmmm, I am going to take some convincing that that is as inconvenient as toilets.

Not true all the time either. For example not true of my local House of Fraser or Debenhams. Marks and Next it is. Front downstairs is normally cosmetics and perfume in dept stores too.

Quangle that is an AMAZING idea! Why not make all the seats flip up, then a pushchair could fit in virtually any of the spaces down the bus, they're all manoeuvrable these days, even my massive P&T double can do a 180 in the aisle.

Bloody hell, at the rate they seem to redesign buses that remodel could be standard by summer.

Anyone know who designs buses?

Our local tk maxx have, in their genius, moved children and baby clothes upstairs with the highly breakable "fine art" and housewares.

And the one lift is tiny and right at the back of the store by the mens trainers. Its like an smelly obstacle course trying to get there.

QUangle that's such a good point. During the entire day bar rush hour it is almost always more likely to be used by a sahp (usually a woman) or an elderly or disabled person who could use the space. Why don't people care about that?

Tiny cubicles where it's impossinle to open the dour, get round the door ands sit down whilst holding something because no one could be arsed to design the Sani bin into the space and shoved it in afterwards.

God yes, my bum is always touching a manky clearly not been washed in weeks bin.

I want to know why midwives (who can only have female patients) carry around tubes for me to urinate in to. I have not got the equipment to piss in to a 1/2 inch in diameter fucking tube. Especially while unable to even see my feet let alone any other part of me below my giant belly. Which means that the midwife will clearly be handed back a damp tube that I have desperately tried to wipe down with a bit of toilet paper. Gross for her, humiliating for me.

Bras that fasten at the back.

DUE DATES.

They have no bearing on reality. The number of women who go over due implies that actually they arent over due and that 41 weeks is average. So let's just make women sad for the sake of it by telling them 40 weeks when they have very little chance of ever giving birth on the magic date.

Not bitter not bitter not bitter

Inheritance. My uncle (mother's brother) & his son's will be getting everything from my grandmother because they hold the 'family name' (or because they have willies!) Makes me sick...

Re: IT, lots of early programmers were women. It was a new field, no reason for women not to get involved. In the UK and US, computer science classes are male-dominated but this isn't the case in other parts of the world.

blog.fogcreek.com/girls-go-geek-again/