On a daily basis I confronted customers with a friendly face and was happy to help in any way I could. Most of the time I got the typical response, "I'm just looking, thanks" that you often tell a salesperson. Well, it didn't take me long to see what was happening. I would see the same customers who rejected my help now buying hundreds of dollars worth of product from my middle-aged, male co-workers. They wanted help, just not mine, because there was no possible way, in their minds, that I would know anything.
When I could get people to trust my knowledge they would often ask me how it was possible that me, a little girl, could possibly know so much about plumbing. It seemed ridiculous and repetitive to have to defend myself to this stupid assumption that girls shouldn't or couldn't understand a typically male dominated area.
I will say it was pure bliss, when those customers who rejected me because of my assumed lack of knowledge looked at me with pleading eyes when they soon saw how some of my male co-workers were even more inept with the product then they were themselves. Ah, karma!
I don't find it surprising that men wouldn't trust you to know what you are doing. I find it frustrating when people don't take me seriously. I think that a willingness to learn is what makes young people such great assets and people don't appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great being a girl? You're either an object if you're pretty enough, or simply clueless and struggling through if you're working in a man's world, or a bitch if you're assertive. How is it that women can get anywhere in this world? As much as we teach anti-discrimination towards racial issues, we must also teach anti-discrimination against genders, ages, economic statuses, and so on and so forth.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! I never worry if people underestimate me-it makes a sneak attack easier! Being a woman is sometimes difficult in male dominated environments. You have to be assertive and know twice as much just to get half of the credit you deserve.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, men can have similar problems in female dominated environments like elementary schools when my husband used to take our children out in public alone as babies women would often interrogate him to see if he really was capable of actually caring for a child without the supervision of a woman--secretly I sort of enjoyed it!
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ReplyDeleteI think it may also be hard for the men to admit they needed help from a woman. I think it's the same as not wanting to ask for directions in some ways. I can see it hurting their ego to ask a woman for help in an area that they probably see closely connected to their masculinity.
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