Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
I don't know if it's ideologues or maybe just people who find not creeping out women to be kind of easy. Maybe that's an oversight or a lack of empathy though. I'm not even saying I'm particularly good at approaching the opposite sex, but I do have a fairly good idea of what does and doesn't make people uncomfortable.
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I think it might be. I've heard other guys express similar sentiments to Matty. One of the issues that women in my office are currently trying to shed some light on is a failure by male colleagues to mentor female juniors - guys will ask other guys to go to lunch, or to grab a beer, where they'll talk shop, and some of our female colleagues never seem to get invited. You might call it a sort of "new boys' club" mentality. I've had conversations with some of my male colleagues who say that they simply don't want a woman they work with to misconstrue their intentions in asking them for drinks. When it's pointed out that that seems far-fetched, the response is that it's just not worth the risk. I've heard this on independent occasions in almost the same words, so it's not so easily dismissed as you seem to think.
And before anyone asks, no, I'm not among these anonymous sources, I don't really feel like taking a stance on this for reasons I won't get into. But the couple of guys who have stated their lack of sure-footedness in this thread clearly aren't some vanishingly small minority.