Places Hostile to Women

[NickAndNora]

Following on from the thread about women behaving differently in women-only company I'm wondering if there are still places that women, rightly or wrongly, see as no-go areas. I'm in my forties and I've never set foot inside a betting shop. I've also only once been to a pub entirely on my own, and it was a country pub in the daytime and I sat in the garden. I still got loads of stares though. Years ago I went into a specialist sci-fi/comic shop to buy a present for a friend who was into that kind of stuff - male customers, male staff (discussing loudly which female sci-fi actresses they'd most like to fuck - Gillian Anderson apparently having too much cellulite for them). It felt like I had transgressed by stepping through the door. When I was uni there were rooms with pool tables and dartboards attached to each bar. You never saw a female student in there.

Any more places designed to be off-putting to women?

I went in a Games Workshop once on my own on a Saturday. It was quite hilarious. The whole place went deathly silent and a whole gaggle of spotty nerd youth all stared at me. Proper made me chuckle but if I'd been a 15 year old it'd have felt a bit horrible and unwelcoming.

Games/comic/scifi places don't phase me (I'm not saying it phased you either).

I've been into that stuff since I was about 13, going to games clubs (met my ex husband at one) and I worked in a comic/sci fi shop for a year in my 20s. Most fun job I ever had. I think that some types of gaming have become a younger thing - especially the Games Workshop stuff, that's really aimed at young boys - and that maybe makes it more awkward now? I was always an exception, but never felt unwelcome or odd. Quite the opposite.

kent I am as baffled as you if midweek and full membership fees are the same, I've never known that to be the case - is it maybe the joining fee that is the same? Unlikely that the old ladies membership would have been a nine hole membership (do they have a separate none hole course, like Elie in Fife?), that would make it difficult to maintain a handicap.

Ladies committees usually oversee ladies competitions and handicaps, some clubs have mixed medal rounds but I think all have separate competitions and championships.

I feel more intimidated by certain places now than I did when I was in my 20's, however, I know that I am an aberration!

I find places where women are usually welcomed more intimidating. Hair dressers for example, I get tongue tied and lost, I have no clue what they're on about half the time, so I never get the haircut I want. I was given a 'pamper' thing at a swish beauticians once and felt like a complete tit.

I have no problem going into places on my own..bars, restaurants. Ditto heavy wrights section of gym.
And I've started going into betyo g shop on behalf of underage son, and have not experienced hostility..quite the opposite.
But then I'm a very gregarious person.

Betting shop that should be

I once went with a group of male friends to a snooker club. I was the only woman which wouldn't have been a problem but I was told off for laughing, at the same volume as my male friends.

I went from an all-girl's school to a mixed sixth form. Sexual innuendo from boys and teachers went unremarked and unchallenged.

Thesameboat Did your friend complain? Surely a teacher 'advising' a pupil in such a discriminatory way should be subjected to disciplinary action. Well done to your friends DD for studying it anyway. I feel so lucky that I had such good male science teachers, what chance do girls have when their teachers come out with such sexist drivel?

My friend's DD wanted to do A'level Maths and was told by one of the teachers that she would be a disruption to the all boy class!

I hope they complained. I'm angry enough just reading about it, and the teacher and head would have been in no doubt about why I think that's totally out of order. Probably with a reading list. I'm not one of the main STEM volunteers at work for nothing.

Decades ago at school I was the first girl to do technical subjects. A teacher asked my "what a pretty little thing like me was doing in his classroom". I am now in charge of a university engineering department's teaching. I hope things like this don't happen now, I know they don't happen here.

I find most male dominated environments easy to deal with but I am frightened of hairdressers, make-up counters, spas and any event for women only. People are comfortable with what they know, is what it boils down to.