Working in an all male environment - does it bother you?

Stheno

I currently work as a consultant in IT, and frequently find myself working in environments that are entirely male dominated and where I am the only woman often in teams/groups of 20 odd.

I've noticed two main things, in terms of communications, and behaviour.
In terms of communications it tends to be much more casual, with mails starting out going "hey guys", but behaviour wise, the men ten to be very "Oh there is a woman in our midst, we need to behave"

Anyone had a similiar experience?

Now to be honest it doesn't make any difference, but I do smile sometimes at the difference between communication and behaviour.

Rogueish

Nope it doesn't bother me at all. I think that if you are 'new' to the group that being the only female just adds an extra layer (or three) on them getting to know you and your personality.

I'm used to being the only female working with large groups of guys (20+) and once the initial newness has worn off you are assimilated into the group and usually treated as one of the guys/part of the furniture i.e. they forget that they 'have to behave' because there is a woman present. They rarely do or say anything off the wall anyway.

Stheno

Rogueish wrote: »

Nope it doesn't bother me at all. I think that if you are 'new' to the group that being the only female just adds an extra layer (or three) on them getting to know you and your personality.

I'm used to being the only female working with large groups of guys (20+) and once the initial newness has worn off you are assimilated into the group and usually treated as one of the guys/part of the furniture i.e. they forget that they 'have to behave' because there is a woman present. They rarely do or say anything off the wall anyway.

I find the same to be honest, given that I'm in there consulting, they are usually super polite for the first couple of days, then it reverts to normal behaviour, but nothing outlandish

Shelga

I work mainly with guys, in manufacturing, also the only woman on my team.

For the most part I like it, they're all nice guys on my usual team and we have a laugh, no nastiness at all. However at the moment I'm in a different country on assignment and feel like I'm on one long stag do. This type of secondment seems to attract men who like to cheat on their wives, hire prostitutes, and talk of nothing but getting wasted.

So I guess it depends on the atmosphere and the team.

Sometimes, if I'm in meetings with men I don't know, they apologise for swearing in front of me, ie they single me out to apologise to, which can be irritating. :rolleyes: They're just old school though and clearly mean no offence. Or when group emails begin "Hello gents"- I only dislike that though because it makes me think of male toilets. :P

There have also been one or two instances of blatant sexism while I've worked there, but overall it's been a very positive experience the last 5 years.

miamee

I work with mostly men (2 women on a team of 9) and it's not a big deal. I'm used to working with men more than women; in a previous job I worked on an all male sales team. When I started in that job I was about 22 or 23 and the sales manager initially used to apologise for using certain word in front of me and I remember one memorable occasion when a couple of the lads were in the office chatting and one of them farted really loudly and the manager literally frog-marched him out on my behalf. In fairness, that is a rank thing to do in the workplace whether it's in front of men or women (IMO).

I'm not treated differently in any way, at least I don't feel that I am except that the lads will still hold doors open for me or let me go in the lift first if we happen to be leaving/arriving at the same time.

meeeeh

No. I grew up surrounded by men and it stayed that way through out my life. You get on with some and not with others, casual conversations usually won't be about shoes or periods but that's about it.

intheclouds

Have worked in exclusively male environments all my working life.

Ive often found some of the guys display a protective attitude towards me and if an "outsider" tries to tease or slag me they would be defensive on my behalf.

Mostly I am seen as one of the lads, I doubt any of the guys have ever censored their own behaviour in front of me.

In fact a male colleague recently told a new colleague that I was his best pal in the office and he could say anything to me, no matter how politically incorrect!

fits

Studied engineering and have worked in a male dominated environment since.

I worked on a project with just women recently and it was brilliant! Its so different how women deal with each other. I wouldn't consider the men I deal with particularly brash but there was much more collaboration and less point scoring in the all female project.

Also I find a lot of people, not just men, don't take me seriously before they know my title and position. Whereas that respect would come automatically if I were male I think.

Das Kitty

I work with mostly men, up until about a year ago it was all men and me. And at the time I thought it was all fine. But the addition of two more women to the team has really lifted what was a grand place to work to a great place to work.

And I don't think it's just a gender-mix thing. I think it's diversity. We've added someone from a non-european country in the last few months, and someone fresh out of college, and that has also added a new dynamic to the group.

rainbow kirby

I'm a software developer - college was 90% male and most of my jobs have been majority male too. My current role is with a fairly big company, with the very odd situation where I'm on an all-female software development team! Both kinds of environment have been good for me at different times in my life, earlier on in my career working in a large startup with a team of young men who were on the competitive side forced me to hone my skills relatively quickly, right now working on a team with women who have children is very good for me - it means I get a lot of understanding from them around pregnancy-related issues at work and they set a very good example with regard to time management (getting things done in a tight 9-5 because kids need to be collected from creche etc) and getting flexible arrangements in place.

Lisacatlover

Get hit on more, get less comments on my hair.

kellyshell

Work with mostly men as I am based on a building site. There are a few women in head office that I deal with every now and again but I much prefer dealing with men. Its hard when you first start working with them as they don't know how you will take "man" jokes but once they know you can have a bit of a giggle it goes back to normal!

charlietheminxx

I work on an all male team. I've always had more male friends than female so it never bothered me, but I did find it a bit trickier to settle in to because in the beginning I was never invited to lunch with the lads and they apologised to me for use of bad language in the office sometimes. I think they were more wary about having a woman around than I was about working exclusively with men.

I like how there's no bitchiness in the office though, it's a high pressure workplace but I always know where I stand with everyone.

Milly33

Id be the only women in the office and I actually love it tis great... No whining or bitceyness... They are men though

I would think I have more of a man brian than a lady brian (I know that is spelt the wrong way by I do call my brain Brian )

The only thing I would notice is men tend to still be messy.. Who don't put their stuff in the dishwasher, don't put the loo roll thingy in the bin, they line them up on the windowsill behind the toilet.. Also I have to laugh there are three bathrooms and some of the men still use what I would think is the ladies for poop time for hours...

And the what do I do with this card board box will the magic fairy come and take it away, that's when I look at them blankly... All in all I wouldn't change it love the banter

I get on well with everyone, don't really think about the genders.

Ectoplasm

I worked in a male dominated industry for years and while it was mostly fine there were definitely some negatives.

I did come up against blatant sexism on quite a few occasions and usually it was in the form of male customers wanting to deal with "one of the lads who knows what they're talking about" (those exact words were used more than once). I understood the products far, far better than these male colleagues but male customers assumed I didn't because I'm a woman. It was unbelievably frustrating and I know that it also happened to the woman who replaced me when I was promoted.

I find it interesting that a couple of people above said they found there was no whining or bitchiness "because they are men" as my experience was the exact opposite...I found that the men whined and bitched just as much as women do and nearly always about other male colleagues. I think it's a result of gender imbalance more than anything else.