Here are some women who revealed how they were stereotyped even in the 21st century.

1. “I once called a hotel room service and placed an order. Only for the man on the line to go, “Papa ko phone dena beta.” I was 19 at the time and living by myself in another city, so his response sounded atrocious.”

2. “I went to a grocery store with my friend and as we stood in line, I told the woman at the cashier that we will be paying by card. So she turned around the card machine and put it in front of my male friend. Even though I was the one talking to her.”

3. “This happened when my sister, my father and I went to buy a car for her. This sales representative kept telling my father about the car even though he had told him multiple times that it’s for her. He even insisted my father to get his name on the official papers because ‘beti toh shaadi karke chali jaayegi’.”

4. “This one time I was at home and received a call from an unknown number. My entire family’s first reaction was to have my father call back. They came from a good place but I have been living on my own for a decade now, I wouldn’t have been able to do it if was incapable of handling situations myself.”

5. “I was invited to a weekend getaway with a supplier to launch their new range. My husband went with me and on the ‘order day’, the Financial Manager of the supplier came up to my husband and asked him what he thinks about the new range and what he is considering to buy. My husband replied very dryly that he is only the plus 1 and that he must speak to me seeing that I am the one with the chequebook.”

6. “I’m a female business owner with a male business partner. I’ve had a few customers born in the dark ages and reps that ask to “speak to my boss” but the worst was a guy who snapped his fingers and told me to “put the kettle on girly”. Needless to say, he didn’t get his cuppa and he certainly didn’t get the discount he asked for.”

7. “This happened with my cousin sister during a meeting that she, her brother and father were having with a possible investor. The investor straight up asked – how much would my sister be able to contribute to the project in the long term, considering she may get married. (The assumption being after marriage, she won’t work). And though she replied that her marriage, as and when it happens, won’t affect her contribution to the work, it wasn’t till her brother reiterated the same thing that the investor was satisfied.”

8. “We wanted a fence around our house. It doesn’t matter in life, but for this story it does: I make more money than my husband. We had already agreed on this company based on various factors. A man came over to give an estimate during a workday, which ended up being less than we expected to pay. I was ready to sign the papers and he said “I’d rather talk to your husband about the numbers and get his signature since he will be the one paying for it” I asked him to leave my property and never come back.”

9. “I caught some hunters trespassing on my property. I wasn’t rude to them at all, just waved from the other side of the field. The next day they show up at my house and one gestures towards the police car in the driveway and asks to speak to my husband about hunting in our woods. I was like “you can talk to him if you want, but that’s my cruiser and this is my land, not his.” They still insisted on getting permission from my husband.”

10. “At college, a guy commented on one of our discussions in a class that appeared sexist to me, so I immediately called him out. Before he could even explain, my own male friend shut me down midway, saying I was overreacting. However, kudos to the guy who made the original comment because he did take time out to hear my concerns and explain his point of view (he wasn’t being sexist but his phrasing was).”

11. “My husband and I took my daughter to urgent care for stitches. My husband is holding the kid, and I check her in at the front desk iPad. The front desk man looks at my husband and asks for the insurance card. We are on my insurance so I hand him the card. Next, he tells my husband the pay, looking at him, behind me, when I’m the one standing at the damn desk. I pull out my card with my name on it and pay. Asshole.”

12. “This August I bought a new truck and took my boyfriend with me. We arrived at the dealership and I asked about the explorer they had front and centre. The salesman comes over and is asking a bunch of questions to my bf. He told him it’s for me. I was ignored for the entire conversation. I got up and started looking at the truck.”

13. “There was this one time I went on a trip with a boyfriend and we’d split expenses. He paid for the bus tickets and I paid for the BnB. When it came time for us to pay the BnB host for our stay, he a) handed over the receipt of the stay to my boyfriend, and b) looked super uncomfortable taking cash from me. It was almost as if he would have been more comfortable if my boyfriend had taken the cash from hand and passed it to him.”

14. “I took my colleague out to lunch. He was at the same level, however, I was given a company card and he wasn’t, due to the nature of our jobs. When the bill came around, the waitress gave it to him because she assumed he would be paying. He graciously grabbed the bill and gave it to me and said “she’s the boss”. Smart move: made me feel validated, and he got a free lunch.”

15. “The admissions guy at my college opened by shaking my dad’s hand, constantly directed questions at my dad, and would look to him for confirmation whenever my mom said something. My mom is defacto the money person of our family unit. She manages the family finances and investments and was way more qualified to comment on things like student loans or expected contributions. When we left that meeting she was absolutely furious that she had to basically fight the admissions person to have a normal conversation.”

16. “Bought my wife flying lessons for her birthday. Turn up at the centre and the guy talks to me. I politely inform him that my better half will be the one flying. He continues to talk to me and gets to the point where she needs to sign a contract. He tells me that I need to get her to sign this. Fucking weird.”

17. “We were buying furniture at a home store. One male sales rep completely ignored me and only asked my husband questions about his preferences, budget, etc. Like I was non-existent. The furniture was shitty quality anyway so we ended up going to another store.”

18. “My landlord was extremely sexist and refused to talk to me about anything. We were discussing buying the house we were renting and he would only speak to my husband because “the men needed to sort things out”. My husband would tell him that my wife makes the decisions so I’ll have to talk to her about it. He still never called or talked to me even though I’m the one writing the check every month.”

19. “I was shifting houses amidst the lockdown and asked one of my male friends to accompany me. The movers and packers came in and started asking my friend questions about what to keep and what to throw. It was my house, the room we were emptying was mine, but nobody asked me anything. My friend politely asked them to directly talk to me since I was the one paying them. Good response.”

Ugh, how annoying!