I'm a 6'5 reasonably muscular male running two offices entirely staffed by women, except for two gay guys. There's no masculine competition, which is nice, and communication is much more personal. Due to my strict rule of not considering any of my coworkers potential partners, I make sure I'm as supportive as possible without being threatening to any of the girls or their respective partners. It's very interesting seeing how patients act towards me vs the other workers. They seem to treat me as an authority figure, and take what I say at face value, even if I'm just confirming what one of the women already told them. The girls have to convince patients they're professional and not jerking them around, where I can just state something and they'll believe me. I'm viewed as a scientist, and the women are viewed as salesmen or interns.
I mentioned my stature earlier, because it's led to me being the office protector. I will defuse situations, defend my workers, and even fire patients if they offend anyone else in the office. If a rep for a company talks down to any of the women, or only wants to speak to me, I won't do business with them.
Ive hired men before, but they never last. They either make the girls uncomfortable, try to start relationships, or try to butt heads with me as if they hold authority over anyone else. It's very easy to see how someone with less feministic views could easily take advantage of the situation I'm in.
Edit: they're always fucking cold though. 73 degrees is not fucking cold Donna. I'm wearing a suit. Put on a sweater.
I am male and have worked in both. Here are some trends I saw, which of course all have their exceptions.
Advantages of mostly male workplaces
- People are less likely to be offended
- Straight forward communication
- People are quicker to feeling comfortable with each other
- People are quick to forgive each other
Disadvantages of mostly male workplaces
- Can be rough
- Can result in hypermasculinity and competitiveness
- More aggressive toward each other
- Less compassionate of weaknesses or setbacks
- Solutions to problems can be intense and aggressive
Advantages of mostly female workplaces
- More understanding of individual differences
- Solutions tend to be less harmful/aggressive
- Individual weaknesses are accepted and accommodated
- Setbacks due to unexpected circumstances are more tolerated
Disadvantages of mostly female workplaces
- Gossip and drama
- People can hold grudges for a long time
- Shady and deceptive interpersonal interactions
- People form cliques
- Indirect communication with double meaning
- Intentional misunderstanding to play power games
In my experience, predominantly male environments are fairly disdainful of anything non-technical and include a lot of unexamined biased views toward women. Workplaces with more women, or a balance of both, don’t have the same issue, in my experience.
I’ve worked predominantly in two fields - engineering and environmental policy. I find the culture of engineering to be pretty toxic - too many conservative men. Environmental policy suffers from too much being demanded of workers, I think mostly because of the expectation that you’re motivated by your passion, rather than being paid for your time. I don’t know if that is directly tied to the gender balance in the workplace, but certainly women historically and presently are not compensated fairly for their work.
It’s a shame that I’m better at doing engineering, because I vastly prefer to not work in a place where I can hear my boss listen to Hannity every day through the wall.
my dumb-ass thought you meant an environment that was mostly male AND female
Main advantage I've found in unmixed workgroups is less (no) fighting over the thermostat
