Ladies First

When I ask my students, "Who wants to go first?" I sometimes get the response, "Ladies first!" and a hand gesture toward the female in the class with laughs all around.  (I have 4 classes.  Two of them have only one female in them.  One is only a man, and the other has 4 females and a man.)  This seems rather comical, until you realize that here, ladies really do go first.

Chile still has strong gender roles, and chivalry is far from dead.  It kind of reminds me of Mad Men... Only women hold the same positions as men, and those positions require university degrees*.  And there was slightly less (explicit) exploitation.

Let's talk about segregation of the sexes first.  At work, we have ridiculous amounts of paperwork to fill out.  It's Chile, and they really love their paperwork.  There is not getting around it.  But we actually have files that are separated by gender.  There is a folder that holds all of the papers I have to fill out for my classes on any given day.  (Once that day passes, the papers go to various other places, and I have to remember to go find them and fill them out or I get yelled at.)  These folders are separated by gender.  No joke.  The men occupy the first half of the system, and women occupy the second half.  It is kind of convenient for me because I start the second half (It goes by first name, not last name).  But really?  Even during our "training" we were told, "It's Chile."  That is why we are separated by gender... and then alphabetically.  Instead of just straight up alphabetized. 

The next place I most notice gender roles is in the "chivalry" when riding an elevator.  Chivalry is not dead, folks.  It is alive and well.  I no longer find it strange that I need to be one of the first people off the elevator because I am female.  Men hold the elevator for me all the time.  Even when I am at the back of the elevator.  There are men that step aside and motion for me to go first, and I no longer find this weird.  I just know that I am supposed to get off the elevator first.  Part of me is greatful because I don't have to wait behind slow people, and part of me is annoyed that men wait and hold the door for me to leave before them.

Finally, I hear more whistles and horn honking here than I know what to do about.  Men even whistle at me.  Yes, most of it is because I am a gringa, and they are just looking for some kind of response out of me.  But I also hear a lot of whistling and horn honking towards Chilenas.  I become more and more infuriated every time I get whistled at.  Especially when it is a man on his bike because it would be so easy for me to stick out my foot and watch him fall. 

*This is not true all around, but I am writing more specifically about the things I experience in the professional world.  I see these gender roles not just in the company I work for, but also in the companies I go teach at.  This means, I am essentially writing about the upper-middle class (and me and the other poor folks that teach them).   I am not speaking about super extremes.