I am a summer employee at a very large museum/tourist attraction, and this is my first professional workplace. I’m 19, and most of my coworkers are legit adults- they are done school and range from ‘young professional’ twenty somethings to older people with kids looking for something a little more flexible. The sexism I witness is appalling. My department is very much the ‘face’ of the company, so most of that is what I put up with from guests on the floor. Customer service is a tough gig.
But the part I hate the most even though I kind of understand, is the hiring imbalance of more women in student (lower) positions, and men in the fulltime (upper) ones. It’s a cultural thing. I want it to be rectified, but right now people assume women are better at being social and making guests feel valued and making sure everyone’s visits go smoothly. And I hate to say it, but based on what I’m seeing, they are correct. I’m sure it’s just how we’ve been socialized, but all of my female coworkers are better than the men at being polite and accommodating and basically taking abuse and massaging the situation to make the customer happy. (Note: I don’t mean to say men cannot be good at communications or customer service, but when you take a group of students fresh out of high school without an special training, the female students are often socialized to know how to appease people and smooth things over.) The female core workers have stayed on from graduation, whereas the men have gotten into the job later in life. The full time workers don’t deal with people as often, and instead do shows and demonstrations, which put them in a position of respect rather than service. I wish our organization would fix this, but it is working for them so far, so I understand why they haven’t stopped.
There is also the classic tactic of hiring a bunch of young women for decorative purposes, but I’m choosing to believe we haven’t stooped that low yet.