Is this just normal working in a female-dominated office? (employees, job, career)

[Sophitia]

I am female, albeit I am considered autistic if that makes a difference. Anyway, I am 25 and never had much in the way of girlfriends and up till now most of my friends and people I have worked with have been men. But 4 months ago I got a new job and now everyone is female, and I feel like I am working with a bunch of mean girls. I have tried talking to them, being nice to them but they just ignore me and I have noticed there's lots of drama and stuff.

[fluffypoopoo]

Seems to be ubiquitous in most female dominated environments.

[stan4]

I am a woman and my work environment changes day to day depending who is on shift (sometimes mostly women, sometimes mostly guys, sometimes a mix, sometimes all women).

All environments boil down to leadership. When I am in charge of our crew (be it all female or not), we have a calm, pleasant day with little strife, bickering, 'mean,' or anything else.

When other people take charge on their shifts, mileage varies. I will tell you that the biggest problem person we have as a leader is a man who has anger management issues and makes everyone tense and unhappy. The second biggest problem child is also a guy.

This is not a gender thing; this is a who is setting the tone thing.

How you react in various environments is also key. I just joined a group of ladies for a particular athletic endeavor. We are a team and therefore spend a lot of time at the sports venue together. Because of scheduling and inevitable friendship, there is also socializing and A LOT groupme/texting. As in any group, gossip starts pretty quickly (and if you think this is just a girl thing, you are sadly mistaken). However, I find that if I show no interest or even put down the gossip by gently reminding people to be their better selves, the atmosphere changes.

Lead by example and remain above the unprofessional behavior you might encounter.

Finally, remember that not everyone has to like you. You are not ice cream.

[DorianRo]

Being a male I would prefer a more female based environment. If you’re a female, male based environments is probably optimal.

[janet bubby]

No, this is not my experience. I may just not notice though, I focus on doing my job at work.

[jade408]

It depends. While there are some people who are clique-ish at work, this isn't exclusive to women.

I work at a startup, startup culture is notoriously clique-y. It is mostly male.

[ocnjgirl]

I work in health care, a nursing home, and that is vastly majority female. I don't have the mean girl experience, and in 20 years of work in dozens of homes I've only experienced it once, and that was for racial reasons (I was one of 2 white people in a nursing home with dozens of employees in Houston, and in the beginning the nurses and nurses aides hated me and my blonde hair on sight) but even then, once they got to know my sparkling personality lol, they warmed up and I got a surprising number of hugs and "we wish you weren't leaving" when the assignment ended (5 month temp job).


If you are truly on the Spectrum, surely you know you are not adept at reading people or understanding many social cues. I am betting you are misinterpreting their behavior.


The way I handled it in the beginning helped. I responded to every snarky comment with kindness.

[Rowan123]

It's person specific, not gender specific. I had a female boss most of my career. There was no drama. In fact, she was a huge improvement over the previous boss I had who was male.

[veuvegirl]

I think it depends on the culture and quite frankly the age. When I was younger and worked in retail it was full of mean girls, I felt like I was in high school.

Now I work in healthcare and my company is very dominated by women. It is one of the best companies I have worked for in regards to people being up front and having your back. It is coming from the top down.

[nybklyn]

Welcome to women life.