Client Won't Accept Female Electrician — "Can You Just Let Me Do My Job Please?"
Even though Lex assured the homeowner she'd done this job a million times, the woman responded, "I just don't feel comfortable."
Updated March 8 2024, 4:30 p.m. ET
A female electrician is opening up about why it is so hard to be a woman in a male-dominated industry.
Lex, an electrician, shared a story about how things are definitely not handed to her in her job.
The TikTok creator, who posts content using the handle @lexi_abreu, said she showed up at a customer's home, who was a woman herself, and learned she wouldn't be needed, simply due to her gender.
Read on for the full details of the truly tired tale of female bias.
A woman didn't believe a female electrician could do the job she was hired for.
As Lex explained in her TikTok, she arrived on the job to change a customer's panel that had rusted out after a flood, something she called "a standard" job, and noted was one of her specialties.
As Lex related, the woman demanded to know if someone else was coming. "It's just you?" the homeowner asked, according to the electrician, who confirmed that yes, it would be "just" her.
That's when the woman said, "No offense," but went on to say she wanted someone else — a male someone else. As the woman went on to explain, a "gentleman" had done the estimate and noted it was a complicated job.
Even though Lex assured the homeowner she'd done this job a million times, the woman wanted to give her office a call, saying, "I just don't feel comfortable."
At this point, the creator says she offered up that her brother is also an electrician and can do the work, although he's an apprentice.
"Great, when is he available?" the homeowner allegedly responded.
Baffling, right? But would you believe that the electrician "gets this all the time, especially from older women?"
Other women in male dominated jobs say they can empathize with the electrician.
As the creator vented at the end of her TikTok, "It's 2023." She urged older women, whom she understands didn't have the same opportunities she does, to get with the times!
"I literally do this for a living," she then asserts in the TikTok.
In this case, the customer preferred to go with her brother, and assured Lex, whose TikTok feed should have been enough to assure the homeowner how qualified she is to do the job, "No hard feelings." Yeah, right.
To end her TikTok, Lex said that she has to work harder to prove herself given that most electricians are men.
Meanwhile, commenters stepped in to build the electrician back up. As one woman said, she'd rather have a female contractor do work in her home than some "strange man."
And many women voiced their own frustrating experiences working in male dominated industries, such as a firefighter who vented, "I get asked all the time what I do for the fire department," as if she's on hand to cook and clean for the men.
A female welder expressed how her work is scrutinized more closely than her male counterparts.
A diesel tech said she gets rejected for jobs all the time, and a female dock worker fumed over being asked if there's a man around to help her do her job.
Sigh. All I can say in the end is that I applaud these women for sharing their experiences. If nothing else, it highlights how far we have to go to achieve gender equality.
