When I'd tell my friends "my mom works at the hospital", the reply was always "oh is she a nurse?" I was in my 20s before someone said "oh is she a doctor?"
I think this was the big eye-opener for me; the first of many events that showed me the subtle sexism rampant in the world.
I was chatting with friends while my mom was in the kitchen when the "where does she work?" question came up. When I responded and the followup was "is she a doctor?", I distinctly remember my mom setting down what she was working on, looking my friend directly in the eye, and saying "thank you" to her in an utterly serious and sincere tone. I was confused as to why until I asked her about it that evening. It had never occurred to me that time and time again, people just assumed that she wasn't a doctor.
For reference, she wasn't a nurse or a doctor, but the lead tech in the blood lab. Obviously we'd never expect someone to randomly guess that, but the fact that it took over 20 years for someone to guess doctor instead of nurse was, in hindsight, tremendously depressing.
I've unfortunately lost contact with the friend who asked this, but if you happen to be reading this...thank you. That one simple question had an impact more profound on me than you intended, I'm sure, and it certainly made my mom's day.
(And I want to be very clear here: I have tremendous respect for nurses. I could never do their job, and in the times I've needed their services in emergency situations I have been beyond grateful for their skills and talents. My point is simply that doctors have [generally] spent more time in formal education and are placed on a pedestal in terms of medical jobs, and no one had ever made the assumption that my mom might be a doctor instead of a nurse.)
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