When a Twitter user asked for experiences from women in male-dominated industries, their stories were heartbreaking.
Men, listen up. If you don't think male privilege is real, these 25 women will prove you wrong. It's bad enough to be around men with power in the workplace, but when you're in an industry dominated by men, this experience can be especially traumatizing. From sexual harassment to the blatant sexism, there are a lot of things that women go through while at work that they shouldn't have to. The saddest part of these tweets is how much women everywhere, no matter what phase of life or stage in their career they're at, can relate to each other. It's almost as if what truly unites women is the crappy experiences they have with men.
The thread began when Twitter user Lameravioli took to the website to ask women to share some of the terrifying or generally sucky incidents they've had to experience while at work in a male-dominated industry. She asked, "Alright ladies, what's your worst story about working in a male-dominated industry?" The user also shared her own story, posting, "Mine is probably when a subcontractor told me he wished my safety vest was shorter so he could see my butt and then grabbed my hand looking for a wedding ring." That, without a doubt, is unacceptable. Just like these other stories are.
A PASTOR came into the coffee shop I work in saw me wearing leggings and started complaining to my male coworker that it forces him to have unpure thoughts, so my coworker asked if he wanted to file a report and he said yeah but little did he know Im the manager
โ Crisptuna (@_Christina_4_) February 22, 2019
one summer i was interning for a major tech company, i was the only girl on the entire team. one of my coworkers incessantly messaged me and on my birthday, got me two $100 gift cards to red lobster (?????) then when he found out i had a boyfriend, he asked me to give them back
โ ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฅ (@emilymccutie) February 21, 2019
My Ops director told a joke and the punchline involved him reaching over, grabbing my breasts and jiggling them, and oh how ALL men I were with thought that was hilarious
โ Emma Causer (@scampish) February 23, 2019
I have two from working in the auto industry . 1. The time the local body shop guy asked me to go out for a drink and when i told him i was 17 he offered to take me out for a soda pop instead
โ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐๐ฆ (@elorathewitch) February 22, 2019
Brought up a simple solution during a team meeting and the lead looked at me with dead eyes and said โhmm.โ At the end of the meeting during recap, my apparently now โreally goodโ idea was credited to a man on the team, and he was told to run with it.
โ call me bishmael ๐ณ (@kissmekaitb) February 22, 2019
Wore baggy athletic shorts to paint outside in 95 degree heat while my male coworkers were inside and my boss told me I needed to wear pants because I was too distracting... also paid me $5 less an hour than the men and called me โgirlโ as if I didnโt have a name
โ Alex Robotham (@alexrobotham) February 22, 2019
oh yea and that time i got fired because my manager had a crush on me and i wouldnโt sleep with him lol ๐
โ ๐๐๐ค๐ค๐ ๐ฃโ๐๐๐๐ฅ (@jessirabbit) February 21, 2019
asked a faculty candidate for the Biology dept what impact they wanted their research to have & they crudely replied, โdid you get that off twitter?โ & all the men laughed
โ page (@page_pls) February 22, 2019
One of mine is one day where I introduced myself to a guy in the break room and I told him my job and he goes โa female mechanical engineer? Whatโs next?!?โ then later asked me who I knew to get the job
โ Mary Smith (@marysmith687) February 21, 2019
Deep, non-consensual tongue kiss at a company outing by one gross old male employee, and then non-consensual violent boob-grabbing by a DIFFERENT high-up male employee at another event. CEO refused to even hire an HR department to deal with repeated complaints.
โ Tome Raider (@Organic_Mooseli) February 22, 2019
I'm the publicist for a comic book company and a blogger called my office to ask for a review copy of a book. When I answered the phone he said, "Not you sweetheart, I called to talk to your boss Mr. MY LAST NAME." I've been working in comics for 16 years.
โ Jacq Cohen (@Jacq_Cohen) February 25, 2019
I was a judge on a 4x4 shootout. No one could tell me what kind of suspension one car had, so I got in under it.
โ Anzet du Plessis (@Zetsaid) February 25, 2019
Another judge shouted "Girlie, what do you see under there that you could POSSIBLY understand?"
15min later I overtook him on a dirt corner at 160km/h.
The stranger who came to fix my washing machine in Jan. It happens all the time. Men are disgusting pic.twitter.com/aiLPygGbM6
โ M B A L E N H L E (@Mbali_M) February 23, 2019
I worked in a suit store and I asked a man if he needed any help and he looked at me, then looked at my male manager and said โwhat is she doing here?โ And refused to even acknowledge me the rest of the time
โ WE GOING TO MIAMI (@taterbaterbug) February 22, 2019
Got an internship with a classmate (at that time) who sexually harassed me, told the company I didnโt want to be near him, they promoted him and I got fired.
โ Ar i a dna (@aridapic) February 21, 2019
I worked at a grocery store as a stocker when I was 17. I was bent down stocking a bottom shelf and my older male boss (60s) told me to โthink of him while Iโm down thereโ
โ bails ๐ฝ (@baileyfacee) February 21, 2019
The state senate minority leader told my boss to tell me that I shouldnโt wear my hair down at the office any more because it was too sexual.
โ Prudence (@Heydeycarousel) February 24, 2019
I was maybe 22 and in my first month on the job.
Working as a draftsman and quality control manager - was told I couldn't have maternity leave because there was no one else to do what I could. I wasn't covered under FMLA because of length of employment. I had to go into work four days after giving birth.
โ Lindsey Bogner (@Lindsey_Be) February 23, 2019
Working in aviation it's constantly assumed I'm a flight attendant. I have a B.S. in Aeronautics, my pilots license, my aircraft dispatch license, trained as an air traffic controller, and yet every time I tell someone I work in aviation they say "oh, you're a flight attendant".
โ Emilie Ann (@supered_10) February 24, 2019
I worked in a craft beer shop for 3 years and constantly had older men come in and ask if there was a male employee they could speak with "because i probably only drank that girly shit" little did he know i was the Asst. GM, and i ran the shop.
โ Willow Adams (@whereswillow13) February 24, 2019
VICE executive producer in 2013 to me: "we have tons of male shooter/producers, so we'd only send you to a conflict area for story we needed a woman to shoot, like a birthing clinic." I went on to cover warzones on my own. Yrs later, he was fired for sexual harassment
โ Lindsey Snell (@LindseySnell) February 24, 2019
my hours got cut down to the point of almost homelessness when I told my middle aged manager that I did not want to move in with him
โ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ฆ (@erodachar) February 22, 2019
Wore a skirt (with tights, in accordance with dress code) to a restaurant job and manager told me I couldnโt wear it because it was creating an unsafe working environment for the male kitchen staff
โ Amy Winemouth (@diva_prentiss) February 21, 2019
working in a gym in general is demonic but once in the middle of my workout i was on a bench doing a tricep exercise and the guy spotting me stared down at me and said โi know youโre not into men but in this position you look so fucking hotโ
โ rat emoji ๐ (@shadymandias) February 21, 2019
I worked as the manager of an electronics store & had a woman insist the manager had promised her a refund & why couldnโt I just call him to confirm? Have never seen someone go from red to white to purple so fast when I handed her my โstore managerโ business card.
โ S a r a h ! (@sazzledazzle9) February 23, 2019