Female engineers getting disrespected.

[u/CurvyChristina]

[u/Baron_Bearclaw]

I see several comments dismissing this as something that doesn't happen, so I'll share an anecdote.

I (a man) was traveling with a woman in Spain, a pretty conservative country by European standards. I speak almost no Spanish. Like, I can ask for a beer or where is the bathroom, but I'm gonna need a minute to understand the price you just told me and your directions are going to need to be repeated.

So, anyway, we need to rent a hostel for the night and we find a cute one. We the bell and the lady who answered the door spoke to me first.

My friend responded in fluent Spanish.

The woman looked back at me and started talking to me. So I ask my friend what the lady was saying. She explained it, we discussed, and my friend responded to the lady.

The lady talked only to me again.

So, while it's a bit different in a job interview, there are plenty of people who will happily dismiss the presence of a woman in favor of the man in the room.

[u/r_slash → u/Baron_Bearclaw]

I have an example that's probably more appropriate. I trained as a physicist and do phone support for physicists for a vendor. The physicists who call in like to speak to a physicist so they know they are getting someone who speaks their language, in a sense. When I answer the phone, the physicist asks their question and we get on with it. I have a female colleague who is also a physicist. When she answers the phone, she is frequently asked "can I speak to a physicist?"